Guides

Hiring minors at a restaurant in Minnesota (2026)

Mays TeamNovember 5, 2026
Mays cover card: Hiring minors at a restaurant in Minnesota (2026) — Under 16: not in rooms where liquor is served

In a Minnesota restaurant, where a teen may work matters as much as when. No one under 18 may work in a room where liquor is served or drunk; from 16, a teen may bus tables, wash dishes or host there when the liquor is incidental to the food. So in a restaurant that serves liquor, a 15-year-old works only where no one is drinking, such as the kitchen, and a 17-year-old can seat guests but not wait on tables. On the clock, Minnesota adds a school-night curfew that federal law doesn't have: high school students finish by 11 p.m. before a school day.

This page is about hiring teenagers in Minnesota: the youngest age you can hire, how long and how late 14- to 17-year-olds may work, work permits, breaks, the kitchen jobs they can't do, posters, two example weeks checked against every limit, and what Mays checks for you. Wages, tips and overtime are on Minnesota restaurant pay rules (2026); they apply to teenagers too, and this page adds only what is different for them.

Checked October 5, 2026: every figure on this page was read on its official source; the Sources list at the end gives the date of each check.

This is general information, not legal advice. Whether a rule applies can depend on your business's size and your own facts; the note at the end says more.

Federal and Minnesota law: follow the stricter one

Two sets of child labor rules can apply to a restaurant in Minnesota: the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Minnesota's own law. Where the state law is less strict, the federal law applies, and where the state law is stricter, the state law applies (US DOL, state child labor). The FLSA covers a business with at least two employees and annual sales of at least $500,000 (DOL Fact Sheet #14), and it can cover workers at a smaller one individually, when their work regularly involves trade between states.

Minnesota's Department of Labor and Industry says the same: some Minnesota child labor laws are more protective than federal law and some less, and an employer both laws cover must follow the most protective provisions that apply to their employees (MN DLI, age and hours).

Minnesota at a glance

Rule

Minnesota

Youngest age for restaurant work

14 (Minn. Stat. § 181A.04)

Work permit

None; proof of age on file for every minor (Minn. Stat. § 181A.06)

14–15

Minnesota: 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., 8 hours a day, 40 a week (Minn. Stat. § 181A.04); the federal school-week limits are stricter

16–17 in high school

Not after 11 p.m. before a school day or before 5 a.m. on one (Minn. Stat. § 181A.04)

Breaks

The adult rest and meal breaks; no separate rule for minors

Rooms where liquor is served

Off limits under 16; from 16, busing, dishwashing and hosting where the liquor is incidental to food (Minn. Stat. § 181A.115)

Training wage

$9.31 an hour, under 20, for the first 90 days (MN DLI, minimum wage)

How young can you hire?

Under federal law, 14 is the youngest age for restaurant work (29 CFR 570.2).

Minnesota sets the same minimum: no one under 14, apart from a few jobs such as newspaper carriers, actors and models, and youth sports referees (Minn. Stat. § 181A.04; MN DLI, age and hours).

Hours for 14- and 15-year-olds

Limit

Federal

Minnesota

Hours on a school day

3 (29 CFR 570.35)

8 in any 24-hour period, school day or not (Minn. Stat. § 181A.04)

Hours in a school week

18 (29 CFR 570.35)

40, any week (Minn. Stat. § 181A.04)

Hours on a day with no school

8 (29 CFR 570.35)

8 in any 24-hour period (Minn. Stat. § 181A.04)

Hours in a week with no school

40 (29 CFR 570.35)

40 (Minn. Stat. § 181A.04)

Days a week

No federal limit

No state limit

Time of day

7 a.m. to 7 p.m.; 9 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day (29 CFR 570.35)

7 a.m. to 9 p.m., all year (Minn. Stat. § 181A.04)

During school hours

Not allowed (29 CFR 570.35)

Not allowed without an employment certificate from the school district (Minn. Stat. § 181A.04; Minn. Stat. § 181A.05)

Minnesota's numbers at this age hold all year, school or not, so on a school day they are looser than the federal ones. A restaurant the FLSA covers keeps a 14- or 15-year-old to 3 hours on a school day and 18 in a school week, and done by 7 p.m. from the day after Labor Day through May; the state labor department points this out next to its own limits (MN DLI, age and hours). Minnesota's limits still bind on their own: the day limit counts any 24-hour period, not just the calendar day, and they apply even to an employer the FLSA doesn't cover.

Hours for 16- and 17-year-olds

Limit

Federal

Minnesota

Time of day

No federal limit

High school students: not after 11 p.m. on an evening before a school day or before 5 a.m. on a school day; until 11:30 p.m. and from 4:30 a.m. with a note signed by a parent (Minn. Stat. § 181A.04)

Minnesota sets no other hours limit at this age (MN DLI, age and hours), and federal law sets none, so the curfew is the one to schedule by. It follows school, not age: a 17-year-old who has graduated from high school has no hours restriction (MN DLI, age and hours), a student in an approved alternative education program or an area learning center isn't covered, and a student who is 18 or older is covered only if they ask you for it in writing at least 2 weeks ahead (Minn. Stat. § 181A.04).

The fine for working a high school student past the curfew is up to $1,000 per student, against up to $500 for working a 14- or 15-year-old too early, too late or too long (MN DLI, child labor penalties).

Work permits and age certificates

Minnesota has no general work permit. Its one certificate is an employment certificate, which a 14- or 15-year-old needs only to work on a school day during school hours: the school district superintendent issues it for one job with one employer, with a parent's consent and a signed statement from you, and when the job ends you send it back to the issuing officer with the date it ended (Minn. Stat. § 181A.05). The state labor department adds that the teen must also be allowed to work during school hours under federal law (MN DLI, age and hours), and at a restaurant the FLSA covers they aren't.

What every minor needs is proof of age. Ask for one of these: an age certificate, which the teen's school district issues on request, a copy of their birth record or driver's license, or a Form I-9 (Minn. Stat. § 181A.06). Keep it on file for as long as they work for you, where the state's labor standards investigators can examine it (Minn. Stat. § 181A.06), as part of your payroll records (MN DLI, proof of age). Employing a minor without proof of age can bring a fine of up to $250 for each one (MN DLI, child labor penalties).

Federal law itself doesn't require work permits (DOL Fact Sheet #43). An age certificate on file protects you from unknowingly hiring someone too young, and the federal rules suggest getting one whenever a teen says they are only a year or two over the minimum age for the job (29 CFR 570.5).

Breaks for minors

Minnesota has no break rule of its own for minors (Minn. Stat. § 181A.04).

Teens get the adult breaks, which Minnesota updated on January 1, 2026: a rest break of at least 15 minutes within each 4 consecutive hours of work (Minn. Stat. § 177.253), and a meal break of at least 30 minutes when working 6 or more consecutive hours (Minn. Stat. § 177.254). A break shorter than 20 minutes counts as hours worked and is paid; a longer one can be unpaid only if the teen is completely relieved of work duties (MN DLI, breaks).

Federal law doesn't require meal or rest breaks at any age (DOL Fact Sheet #43).

Jobs minors can't do in your restaurant

Some jobs are off limits whatever the hours. Under federal law, no one under 18 may do these (DOL Fact Sheet #2A):

And 14- and 15-year-olds also may not do these:

  • Baking (29 CFR 570.33)
  • Cooking other than on an electric or gas grill with no open flame, or a fryer that lowers and raises its baskets automatically (29 CFR 570.33)
  • Power-driven food slicers, grinders, choppers, processors, cutters or mixers (29 CFR 570.33)
  • Work in freezers or meat coolers (more than stepping in to fetch an item) (29 CFR 570.33)
  • Ladders or scaffolds (29 CFR 570.33)
  • Filtering, pouring or carrying hot oil or grease above 100 °F (29 CFR 570.34)
  • Loading or unloading trucks (29 CFR 570.33)

Minnesota's own rules

  • Rooms where liquor is served: no one under 18 may work in a room where liquor or 3.2 percent malt liquor is served or drunk, or serve, pour or handle drinks for the premises (Minn. Stat. § 181A.115). From 16, a teen may bus tables, wash dishes or host in a restaurant room where the liquor is incidental to the food, and may wait tables where the only alcohol is 3.2 percent malt liquor (Minn. Stat. § 181A.115). Under 16, none of these exceptions applies, though any minor may do allowed work in the parts of the restaurant where no liquor is served or drunk, such as the kitchen (Minn. Stat. § 181A.115).
  • Alcohol: no one under 18 may serve or sell liquor in a retail liquor establishment (Minn. Stat. § 340A.412).
  • Under 16: no running or helping to run meat slicers or bakery machinery, no oiling, cleaning or maintaining power-driven machinery, running or not, and no work in walk-in meat freezers or coolers beyond stepping in now and then as the job requires (Minn. R. 5200.0920).
  • Every minor: no running or helping to run power-driven machinery, which the rule illustrates with meat saws and meat grinders among others, and no building maintenance, window washing or painting higher than 12 feet on ladders or scaffolding (Minn. R. 5200.0910). A 17-year-old high school graduate is exempt from both, and neither stops a minor from doing tasks away from the hazardous machine or area (Minn. R. 5200.0930).
  • A minor in a hazardous job can cost a fine of up to $1,000 for each one, and $5,000 if the minor is injured (MN DLI, child labor penalties).

Pay: the minimum wage, youth rates and tips

Minnesota has had no youth rate since January 1, 2025, when it dropped its lower minimum wage for workers under 18 (MN DLI, 2025 minimum wage report). What remains is the training wage: for the first 90 consecutive days of a job, a worker under 20 may be paid $9.31 an hour in 2026, against the full $11.41 (MN DLI, minimum wage; Minn. Stat. § 177.24), rising to $9.68 on January 1, 2027 (MN DLI, minimum wage). You may not let anyone go or cut another employee's hours, wages or benefits to hire at the training wage (Minn. Stat. § 177.24). Even the training wage is far above the federal youth wage below, so in Minnesota the federal one never sets the pay.

Saint Paul has a youth rate of its own: employees aged 14 to 17 get at least 85% of the city's small-employer minimum for 90 days after they're hired, $13.95 an hour since July 1, 2026, then the city rate for your size, and the full city rate from the day they turn 18 (Saint Paul). Minneapolis's minimum wage is the same whatever the employee's age (Minneapolis).

Federal law lets an employer pay $4.25 an hour to a worker under 20 during their first 90 consecutive calendar days on the job, but not to push out other workers, and not where a state or local law requires more and makes no exception for workers under 20 (DOL Fact Sheet #32).

Everything else about pay, from the tipped cash wage to tip pools and overtime, is on Minnesota restaurant pay rules (2026).

Posters and records

Every employer the federal minimum wage law covers must display the federal poster, Employee Rights Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, where employees can readily read it; it includes a section on child labor (US DOL, FLSA poster).

Minnesota has no poster about minors: none of the posters its Department of Labor and Industry lists as required is about them (MN DLI, posters). Keep each minor's proof of age with your payroll records (MN DLI, proof of age), and be ready to show age certificates, employment certificates and a list of the minors you employ when an investigator or a truant officer asks (Minn. Stat. § 181A.08).

Two example weeks

Two made-up schedules for a week in October, when school is in session Monday to Friday: Maya, 15, and Leo, 17. Each line under a schedule is a limit from this page, and the week stays inside every one of them.

Maya, 15, in a school week

Day

Shift

Unpaid break

Hours

School day?

Monday

Off



Yes

Tuesday

4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

None

3

Yes

Wednesday

Off



Yes

Thursday

4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

None

3

Yes

Friday

Off



Yes

Saturday

10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

30 minutes at 1 p.m.

6

No

Sunday

Noon to 3:30 p.m.

None

3.5

No

That's 15.5 hours over 4 days. How the week measures up:

Leo, 17, in a school week

Day

Shift

Unpaid break

Hours

School day?

Monday

Off



Yes

Tuesday

5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

None

3.5

Yes

Wednesday

Off



Yes

Thursday

5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

None

3.5

Yes

Friday

6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

None

3.5

Yes

Saturday

10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

30 minutes at 1:30 p.m.

7

No

Sunday

Off



No

That's 17.5 hours over 4 days. How the week measures up:

Both weeks keep every stretch of work under 4 hours on purpose. Minnesota's rest break falls within each 4 consecutive hours of work, and at 15 minutes it is paid, so a table of unpaid breaks can't show it (Minn. Stat. § 177.253). Longer stretches are fine when you schedule that break inside them. The half-hour break on Saturday is the unpaid meal break, and it stays unpaid only while the teen is completely relieved of duties (MN DLI, breaks).

How Mays handles this

Mays builds the schedule, runs the time clock and keeps each person's details for every location. For teenagers in Minnesota:

  • Turn on minors' rules per location. Work rules for minors are part of Labor law compliance: switch on Minors (under 18) on the location's Labor & compliance card. Mays then works out each person's age on every shift date from their date of birth.
  • The federal limits, and Minnesota marked "Not checked yet". Mays checks the federal limits everywhere. Minnesota's own limits aren't built into Mays yet: the location's card lists Minnesota as Not checked yet, so check the Minnesota rules on this page yourself, above all the ones stricter than federal law.
  • Warnings on the schedule, never a block. A shift that breaks a limit is outlined with Minor rule, each minor's row shows their age band and the week's hours against their limit, and the warnings before publishing name the law. You can still publish.
  • The auto-scheduler stays inside the limits. It never puts a minor on a shift that would break one of their limits: it gives the shift to someone else or leaves it open, and tells you why.
  • Tasks by position. Give a position a minimum age and tick the federal tasks it involves, such as a meat slicer or delivery driving. A minor scheduled in it gets a warning, and the auto-scheduler won't put them there.
  • School days from a calendar. By default Mays counts Monday to Friday as school days from the day after Labor Day through May, with school from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. You can add your school district's own calendar, breaks included.
  • Hours across every location. A teen who works at two of your locations is held to one weekly limit, because the limits apply per employer.
  • What Mays doesn't check yet: minors' meal breaks, work permits and clock-ins. Keep the permits on file yourself, and schedule the breaks above.

How to set it up: Scheduling minors.

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from these official pages, as they read on the date shown.

This page is general information, not legal advice. Laws change, and coverage rules (your business's size, whether federal law covers you, a teen's schooling) decide which of them apply. Check the pages above, and ask an employment lawyer about your situation.

Schedule teenagers without the guesswork

Add each teen's date of birth, turn on minors' rules for the location, and Mays warns you before a shift runs too long or too late.

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