Hiring minors at a restaurant in South Carolina (2026)

South Carolina writes its child labor rules to match federal law: its statute bars the labor department from making them any more restrictive than the federal ones (S.C. Code ch. 41-13), and the department calls the two identical (SC LLR, child labor). So hiring a teen here mostly means the federal rulebook, with no work permit, only proof of age, and no hours limits from 16. The differences are small but real: the later summer evening for 14- and 15-year-olds follows the local school district's calendar, not the federal dates, and putting a teen on a banned task can draw a fine from the first offense.

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

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

South Carolina at a glance

How young can you hire?

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

South Carolina's labor department sets the same minimum: a minor can begin work at 14 (SC LLR, wage FAQ). A teen working for their own parent is outside these rules, except for the jobs the state declares hazardous (S.C. Regs. 71-3106).

Hours for 14- and 15-year-olds

South Carolina's hours match the federal ones, with one difference in the evening: the later 9 p.m. finish follows the summer break of the school district where the teen lives, not the calendar (S.C. Regs. 71-3106; SC LLR, workplace poster). A restaurant the FLSA covers can use 9 p.m. only on days that fall in both: the district's summer break and June 1 through Labor Day. So a teen whose school lets out in late May still stops at 7 p.m. until June 1, and if school starts again before Labor Day, South Carolina's 7 p.m. comes back with the first day of school.

A home-schooled 14- or 15-year-old may work only outside the school hours of the district where they live, the same as a teen in class (SC LLR, wage FAQ).

Hours for 16- and 17-year-olds

South Carolina's labor department says teens of 16 and older are exempt from the hours and scheduling limits and may work as many hours a day and a week as the job needs or you ask (SC LLR, child labor summary). Federal law sets no hours at this age either. The hazardous jobs below still apply.

Work permits and age certificates

South Carolina doesn't issue work permits for minors (SC LLR, wage FAQ). What it asks for is proof of age: the teen gives you a copy of a legal document showing their birth date, such as a birth certificate or driver's license (SC LLR, wage FAQ). Keep it with their records: the department's inspectors may enter any place where minors work and see the records that help them enforce the child labor law (S.C. Code ch. 41-13).

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

South Carolina has no break rule of its own for minors (SC LLR, child labor).

The labor department's FAQ says the same for every employee: South Carolina law doesn't require breaks or a lunch period (SC LLR, wage FAQ).

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)

South Carolina's own rules

• South Carolina's own list for 14- and 15-year-olds follows the federal one: kitchen work and preparing and serving food and drinks are allowed, cooking only on a grill with no open flame or a fryer that lowers and raises its baskets automatically, and cleaning equipment or moving hot oil only at 100 °F or below (S.C. Regs. 71-3106). The department's summary page lists food preparation among the jobs barred at this age (SC LLR, child labor summary), but the regulation itself allows it (S.C. Regs. 71-3106).
• One difference in wording: the state list bars 14- and 15-year-olds from work in freezers and meat coolers with no exception for stepping in to fetch an item (S.C. Regs. 71-3106), which the federal rules allow when the teen enters only momentarily (29 CFR 570.33).
• At 16 and 17, South Carolina's hazardous list covers the same ground as the federal one: power-driven meat-processing machines, bakery machines such as dough mixers and sheeters, paper balers and box compactors, and driving (S.C. Regs. 71-3106).
• Alcohol: no one under 18 may serve or deliver liquor by the drink, and a bartender must be at least 21 (S.C. Code § 61-6-2200). Staff of 18 and older who serve or clear beer, wine or liquor at a licensed restaurant aren't in unlawful possession of it while they work, and that law too keeps the bartender's age at 21 (S.C. Code § 61-4-90). The state's alcohol server certificate doesn't cover anyone the law doesn't allow to serve (S.C. Code ch. 61-3).
• Fines: a violation of the hazardous list at 16–17 or of the jobs barred at 14–15 is classed as serious, and the proposed penalty for a first one is $500 at an employer with fewer than 100 workers and $1,000 at a larger one, rising to $5,000 for a large employer's third. Other violations, such as a shift that runs too long, start with a warning (S.C. Regs. 71-3106; S.C. Code ch. 41-13).

Pay: the minimum wage, youth rates and tips

South Carolina has no minimum wage law of its own (SC LLR, rights under state and federal law), so it has no youth or training rate either: a teen's pay follows federal law, including the federal youth wage below at a business the FLSA covers.

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 South Carolina 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).

South Carolina requires its labor department's notices to be posted where employees can see them, and the LLR Workplace Poster is one of them: it carries the Labor Law Abstract, with the child labor rules and the hours for 14- and 15-year-olds (SC LLR, posters; SC LLR, workplace poster).

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 (South Carolina, S.C. Regs. 71-3106).
• Longest day with no school: 6 hours; the limit is 8 (South Carolina, S.C. Regs. 71-3106).
• The week: 16.5 hours; the limit is 18 (South Carolina, S.C. Regs. 71-3106).
• Latest finish: 7 p.m.; not after 7 p.m. (South Carolina, S.C. Regs. 71-3106).
• Earliest start: 10 a.m.; not before 7 a.m. (South Carolina, S.C. Regs. 71-3106).

Leo, 17, in a school week

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

• No federal or South Carolina 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 South Carolina:

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

• South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 41, Chapter 13 (child labor), checked October 5, 2026
• South Carolina LLR, child labor, checked October 5, 2026
• 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
• South Carolina LLR, wage and hour FAQ, checked October 5, 2026
• South Carolina Code of Regulations, chapter 71 (Regulation 71-3106, minors), checked October 5, 2026
• 29 CFR 570.35 (hours for 14- and 15-year-olds), checked September 24, 2026
• South Carolina LLR, child labor regulations summary, checked October 5, 2026
• South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 61, Chapter 6 (alcoholic liquors; § 61-6-2200), checked October 5, 2026
• 29 CFR 570.2 (minimum age standards), checked September 24, 2026
• South Carolina LLR, Required Work Place Poster (Labor Law Abstract), 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
• South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 61, Chapter 4 (beer and wine; § 61-4-90), checked October 5, 2026
• South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 61, Chapter 3 (alcohol server training), checked October 5, 2026
• South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, employee and employer rights under S.C. and federal law, checked September 24, 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
• South Carolina LLR, state required posters, 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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