Hiring minors at a restaurant in New Jersey (2026)

New Jersey's Child Labor Law reaches every worker under 18: each needs working papers, now issued online by the state, each gets a 30-minute meal break after 6 hours in a row, and 16- and 17-year-olds have daily and weekly caps that federal law doesn't. A restaurant that serves alcohol has one more rule to check first: it can't hire anyone under 16.

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

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

New Jersey's law even borrows the federal cap: a teen under 16 may not work more hours in a school week than the FLSA allows (NJ Child Labor Law).

New Jersey at a glance

How young can you hire?

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

New Jersey sets the same minimum: below 16, only 14- and 15-year-olds may work, outside school hours and in school vacations (NJ Child Labor Law), and the labor department lists restaurant jobs from 14 (NJDOL, employers of minors). A restaurant that serves alcohol on the premises is different: it can't employ anyone under 16 (see the jobs section below).

Hours for 14- and 15-year-olds

New Jersey's numbers at this age match the federal ones, with two differences: no more than 6 days in a row, and the later summer evening starts on the last day of the teen's school year rather than on June 1. A restaurant the FLSA covers can use the later evening only once both have started.

Hours for 16- and 17-year-olds

On a night not followed by a school day, and in school vacations, a restaurant may keep a 16- or 17-year-old past 11 p.m. when the shift began before then, but never past 3 a.m. (NJ Child Labor Law). The labor department's own summary is more cautious in school weeks: midnight on Fridays, Saturdays and other nights not followed by a school day, and 3 a.m. in a restaurant only in weeks without school (NJDOL, workers under 18).

Work permits and age certificates

Every worker under 18 needs working papers, and they're now applied for online through the state Department of Labor (P.L.2022, c.63). You create an employer account and get an 8-digit code to give every minor you hire; the teen applies with it, you check and approve their application, and then a parent or guardian approves it and uploads proof of age. The teen starts once the application is approved, and needs a new one for every new job (NJDOL, working papers steps).

When you register, you list your locations and the minors you employ, and certify that you put minors only in jobs the law allows (P.L.2022, c.63). If a parent takes no action within 14 days, the application is provisionally approved and the teen may start, but must stop if the parent later rejects it (NJDOL, working papers steps).

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

New Jersey: Under 18: a 30-minute meal break after no more than 6 hours in a row; a shorter break doesn't interrupt the 6 hours. Employers must post minors' schedules, including the daily meal period (NJ Child Labor Law).

Some older New Jersey handouts and posters still show a five-hour limit; the law has said 6 hours since it was amended on July 5, 2022 (P.L.2022, c.63; NJDOL, employers of minors).

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):

• Meat or deli slicer, meat grinder, patty former (29 CFR 570.61)
• Dough or batter mixer, dough sheeter or brake (29 CFR 570.62)
• Cardboard baler or trash compactor (29 CFR 570.63)
• Delivery driving (29 CFR 570.52)

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)

New Jersey's own rules

• Alcohol: a restaurant that sells alcohol for drinking on the premises may not employ anyone under 16. From 16, teens may work there, but may not prepare, sell or serve alcoholic drinks, and must be closely supervised when they clear them (NJ Child Labor Law). No one under 18 may serve any drink from a bar service area, pool and outdoor bars included (NJ Child Labor Law).
• Under 16: no power-driven machinery other than standard office machines and standard household-type appliances, and no work on or around conveyors (NJ Child Labor Law). The labor department's own example: a 15-year-old at a sandwich shop may run the toaster, milkshake blender and coffee grinder, but not the meat slicer or the grill (NJDOL, employers of minors).
• Under 18: no running, feeding, setting up or cleaning slicing machines for any food, not only meat (bacon slicers excepted), and no running dough brakes or mixing machines in a bakery (NJ Child Labor Law).

Pay: the minimum wage, youth rates and tips

Teens in restaurant jobs earn the full New Jersey minimum wage: the wage order for food service covers employees under 18 too, and there is no youth rate (NJ wage and hour laws). The one lower rate is a training wage for new hires of any age: 90 percent of the minimum wage for the first 120 hours, only in an established training program that meets the state's standards and in work the employee has no experience in (NJ wage and hour laws). Because the state minimum makes no exception for restaurant workers under 20, the federal youth wage below doesn't apply in New Jersey.

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 New Jersey 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).

Where minors work, post the state's abstract of the Child Labor Law and its list of jobs minors can't do, and a schedule of hours on the state's form with each minor's name, the most hours each day, the weekly total, start and stop times and meal periods. A minor may start later or stop earlier than the schedule shows, but not otherwise work outside it (NJ Child Labor Law).

Keep a record for every worker under 19 with their date of birth and address, their hours each day with start, stop and meal times, and their wages, for at least 1 year (NJ Child Labor Law).

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

That's 16.5 hours over 4 days. How the week measures up:

• Longest school day: 3 hours; the limit is 3 (federal, 29 CFR 570.35).
• The week: 16.5 hours; the limit is 18 (federal, 29 CFR 570.35).
• Earliest start: 10 a.m.; not before 7 a.m. (federal, 29 CFR 570.35).
• Latest finish: 7 p.m.; not after 7 p.m. (federal, 29 CFR 570.35).
• Longest school day: 3 hours; the limit is 3 (New Jersey, NJ Child Labor Law).
• Longest day with no school: 6 hours; the limit is 8 (New Jersey, NJ Child Labor Law).
• The week: 16.5 hours; the limit is 18 (New Jersey, NJ Child Labor Law).
• Days worked: 4; the limit is 6 (New Jersey, NJ Child Labor Law).
• Latest finish: 7 p.m.; not after 7 p.m. (New Jersey, NJ Child Labor Law).
• Earliest start: 10 a.m.; not before 7 a.m. (New Jersey, NJ Child Labor Law).
• Longest stretch without a break: 4.5 hours; the limit is 6 (New Jersey, NJ Child Labor Law).

Leo, 17, in a school week

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

• Longest day: 8 hours; the limit is 8 (New Jersey, NJ Child Labor Law).
• The week: 20 hours; the limit is 40 (New Jersey, NJ Child Labor Law).
• Days worked: 4; the limit is 6 (New Jersey, NJ Child Labor Law).
• Latest finish on a night before school: 9 p.m.; not after 11 p.m. (New Jersey, NJ Child Labor Law).
• Earliest start: 10 a.m.; not before 6 a.m. (New Jersey, NJ Child Labor Law).
• Longest stretch without a break: 4 hours; the limit is 6 (New Jersey, NJ Child Labor Law).

How Mays handles this

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

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

• US Department of Labor, state child labor standards, checked October 5, 2026
• US Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #14: coverage under the FLSA, checked October 5, 2026
• New Jersey Department of Labor, Child Labor Law and rules (N.J.S.A. 34:2-21.1 et seq., N.J.A.C. 12:58), checked October 5, 2026
• New Jersey Department of Labor, Working Papers process, step by step, checked October 5, 2026
• 29 CFR 570.2 (minimum age standards), checked September 24, 2026
• New Jersey Department of Labor, for employers of workers under 18, checked October 5, 2026
• 29 CFR 570.35 (hours for 14- and 15-year-olds), checked September 24, 2026
• New Jersey Department of Labor, workers under 18: rights and protections, checked October 5, 2026
• New Jersey P.L.2022, c.63 (working papers, lunch period and summer hours for minors), checked October 5, 2026
• US Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #43: child labor provisions for nonagricultural occupations, checked October 5, 2026
• 29 CFR 570.5 (certificates of age), checked October 5, 2026
• US Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #2A: child labor rules for restaurants, checked October 5, 2026
• 29 CFR 570.61 (Hazardous Occupations Order 10: meat slicers and processing machines), checked October 5, 2026
• 29 CFR 570.62 (Hazardous Occupations Order 11: bakery machines), checked October 5, 2026
• 29 CFR 570.63 (Hazardous Occupations Order 12: balers and compactors), checked October 5, 2026
• 29 CFR 570.52 (Hazardous Occupations Order 2: driving), checked October 5, 2026
• 29 CFR 570.33 (jobs barred at 14 and 15), checked October 5, 2026
• 29 CFR 570.34 (jobs allowed at 14 and 15), checked October 5, 2026
• New Jersey Department of Labor, wage and hour laws and regulations (N.J.S.A. 34:11-56a et seq., 34:11D, N.J.A.C. 12:56), checked October 5, 2026
• US Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #32: youth minimum wage, checked October 5, 2026
• US Department of Labor, the FLSA minimum wage poster, checked October 5, 2026

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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