Guides

Hiring minors at a restaurant in Missouri (2026)

Mays TeamOctober 30, 2026
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Missouri's child labor law covers only teens under 16, and in the kitchen it is stricter than federal law: a 14- or 15-year-old may not cook on a grill, handle hot oil or run most power-driven machines, and may work no more than 6 days a week. From 16, Missouri sets no hours limits, and serving alcohol starts at 18.

This page is about hiring teenagers in Missouri: 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 Missouri 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 Missouri law: follow the stricter one

Two sets of child labor rules can apply to a restaurant in Missouri: the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Missouri'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.

Missouri's labor department says the same: some Missouri rules are less restrictive than federal law, and an employer the FLSA covers that follows only the looser Missouri rule breaks federal law (Missouri DOLIR, youth employment).

Missouri at a glance

Rule

Missouri

Youngest age for restaurant work

14 (RSMo § 294.021)

Work certificate

Required at 14–15, from the school (Missouri DOLIR, work certificates)

14–15, school week

3 hours a school day, 18 a week under federal law, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., no more than 6 days

16–17

No Missouri hours limits: the state's child labor law covers under-16s only (Missouri DOLIR, youth employment)

Cooking at 14–15

Only fryers that raise and lower the baskets automatically; no grills (Missouri DOLIR, for employers)

Breaks

None required at any age (Missouri DOLIR, youth hours)

Serving alcohol

From 18, as a server where food is at least 50% of sales (RSMo § 311.300)

How young can you hire?

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

Missouri sets the same minimum: no child under 14 may work at any occupation (RSMo § 294.021), apart from a few jobs outside restaurants, such as newspaper delivery and babysitting (RSMo § 294.011).

Hours for 14- and 15-year-olds

Limit

Federal

Missouri

Hours on a school day

3 (29 CFR 570.35)

3, Fridays included (RSMo § 294.030; Missouri DOLIR, for employers)

Hours in a school week

18 (29 CFR 570.35)

40, in any week (RSMo § 294.030)

Hours on a day with no school

8 (29 CFR 570.35)

8 (RSMo § 294.030)

Hours in a week with no school

40 (29 CFR 570.35)

40 (RSMo § 294.030)

Days a week

No federal limit

6 (RSMo § 294.030)

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 7 p.m.; 9 p.m. from June 1 to Labor Day (RSMo § 294.030; Missouri DOLIR, for employers)

During school hours

Not allowed (29 CFR 570.35)

Not allowed (Missouri DOLIR, for employers)

Missouri caps the week at 40 hours whether or not school is in session, so a restaurant the FLSA covers stops at the federal 18 in a school week. Missouri is stricter than federal law on days: no more than 6 a week. Its 7 p.m. evening holds from the day after Labor Day through May, Friday and Saturday nights and spring break included, and the 3-hour school day covers Fridays even with no school the next day (Missouri DOLIR, for employers). School days and school hours are those of the local public school (Missouri DOLIR, for employers; RSMo § 294.045).

Hours for 16- and 17-year-olds

Missouri's child labor law covers only workers under 16 (Missouri DOLIR, youth employment; RSMo § 294.011), and federal law sets no hours at 16 and 17, so neither limits their hours or the time of day. The jobs list below still applies, and so do Missouri's alcohol rules.

Work permits and age certificates

Every 14- or 15-year-old needs a work certificate before they start. The law requires one during the school term (RSMo § 294.024), and the labor department has a school-year form and a summer form (Missouri DOLIR, work certificates). The parent and the teen fill in the first part; you fill in yours, certifying that you understand Missouri's limits on the hours and jobs at this age; and the school's issuing officer completes it (Missouri DOLIR, work certificates; RSMo § 294.045).

Your part is a signed statement of intention to employ: the job, the exact hours of the day, the hours a day and the days a week the teen will work (RSMo § 294.051). The issuing officer sends you the certificate, which is free (RSMo § 294.070); keep it on file, and when the teen leaves, send it straight back to the officer who issued it (RSMo § 294.060).

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

Missouri has no break rule of its own for minors (Missouri DOLIR, youth hours).

Breaks are left to you, an agreement with the teen or company policy; only the entertainment industry has break rules for minors (Missouri DOLIR, youth hours).

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)

Missouri's own rules

  • Under 16: no cooking except with deep fryers that raise and lower the baskets automatically, so no grill work, which federal law allows, and no handling hot oil or grease (Missouri DOLIR, for employers).
  • Under 16: no running, oiling, cleaning or washing power-driven machinery (RSMo § 294.040). The labor department allows machines used to prepare and serve food and drinks, such as dishwashers, toasters, milkshake blenders and coffee grinders, but not food slicers, bread and bagel slicers included (Missouri DOLIR, for employers).
  • Under 16: no work where alcohol is sold unless at least 50 percent of gross sales are other goods (RSMo § 294.040).
  • Alcohol: a server 18 or older may take payment for and serve alcoholic drinks where at least 50 percent of all sales are food, and no one under 21 may mix drinks or serve across the bar (RSMo § 311.300). So a 16- or 17-year-old may not serve alcohol.

Pay: the minimum wage, youth rates and tips

Missouri's minimum wage, $15.00 an hour, covers teenagers too, with no youth rate (Missouri DOLIR, minimum wage). The one lower rate the law allows is for learners and apprentices under 20 who haven't finished the training for a job: the state labor director may set it by regulation, no more than 90 cents below the minimum wage (RSMo § 290.500; RSMo § 290.517). Apart from that, a business the state law covers owes the state minimum whatever the teen's age, so the federal youth wage below doesn't lower it.

A retail or service business with annual gross income under $500,000 doesn't have to pay the state minimum (Missouri DOLIR, youth hours); where federal law covers such a business, the federal rules, youth wage included, set a teen's pay.

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 Missouri 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).

Post a list of every worker under 16 you employ in a conspicuous place at your business (RSMo § 294.060); the labor department's youth employment list form is on its page of required posters (Missouri DOLIR, posters). At each location where a teen under 16 works, keep their certificate and a record of their name, address and age and the times and hours they work each day, for at least 2 years (RSMo § 294.090).

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 4:30 p.m.

None

4.5

No

That's 16.5 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 p.m. to 9 p.m.

None

4

Yes

Wednesday

Off



Yes

Thursday

5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

None

4

Yes

Friday

5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

None

4

Yes

Saturday

10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

30 minutes at 2 p.m.

8

No

Sunday

Off



No

That's 20 hours over 4 days. How the week measures up:

  • No federal or Missouri hours limit applies at 17; only the jobs list above does.

How Mays handles this

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

  • 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 Missouri marked "Not checked yet". Mays checks the federal limits everywhere. Missouri's own limits aren't built into Mays yet: the location's card lists Missouri as Not checked yet, so check the Missouri 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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