Hiring minors at a restaurant in Texas (2026)

Texas's own child labor law is short: no one under 14, and for 14- and 15-year-olds a day of up to 8 hours and a week of up to 48. Most restaurants can't use those numbers, though: the federal rules are tighter, and when both apply the tighter one wins.

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

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

The Texas Workforce Commission says the same: every business is subject to the state law, only businesses the FLSA covers are subject to the federal one, and when both apply you follow the stricter guidelines (TWC, child labor).

Texas at a glance

How young can you hire?

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

Texas sets the same minimum: employing a child under 14 is an offense (Texas Labor Code ch. 51).

Hours for 14- and 15-year-olds

Every Texas limit at this age is looser than the federal one, so a restaurant the FLSA covers schedules by the federal column: 3 hours on a school day, not 8, and done by 7 p.m. outside the summer. Texas's limits alone apply only to an employer the FLSA doesn't cover (TWC, child labor).

Hours for 16- and 17-year-olds

Neither Texas nor federal law limits the hours or the time of day at 16 and 17 (TWC, child labor). The jobs list below still applies.

Work permits and age certificates

Texas doesn't require a work permit. A teen aged 14 to 17 can ask the Texas Workforce Commission for a certificate of age, and the rules say neither you nor the teen has to get one (TWC, 2024 rule adoption). It still helps: if you relied in good faith on an apparently valid certificate, that is a defense should the teen turn out to be under age (Texas Labor Code ch. 51).

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

Texas has no break rule of its own for minors (US DOL, state meal periods).

Texas law requires no breaks for workers of any age either, minors included (TWC, 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):

• 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)

Texas's own rules

• Texas adopts the federal lists above as its own rules, both the jobs barred at 14–15 and the hazardous jobs at 16–17, so they bind even a restaurant the FLSA doesn't cover (40 TAC ch. 817).
• Alcohol: a restaurant with an on-premises permit may employ someone under 18 in any job except actually selling, preparing or serving alcoholic drinks (Alco. Bev. Code ch. 106; TABC, FAQs).

Pay: the minimum wage, youth rates and tips

The Texas minimum wage is the federal $7.25, and the Texas law covers only work the FLSA doesn't (TWC, minimum wage). Even there it exempts minors who haven't graduated from high school and students under 20 (Texas Labor Code ch. 62). So for most restaurants the federal rules set teen pay, youth wage included.

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 Texas 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).

Texas has no required poster about minors: the Texas Workforce Commission lists its child labor poster as optional (TWC, workplace posters).

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 day: 6 hours; the limit is 8 (Texas, Texas Labor Code ch. 51).
• The week: 16.5 hours; the limit is 48 (Texas, Texas Labor Code ch. 51).
• Latest finish on a night before school: 7 p.m.; not after 10 p.m. (Texas, Texas Labor Code ch. 51).

Leo, 17, in a school week

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

• No federal or Texas 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 Texas:

• 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.
• Federal and Texas limits, each checked on its own. Mays checks the federal limits and Texas's own (Texas Labor Code ch. 51), and when two limit the same thing, the stricter one is the warning you see.
• 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
• Texas Workforce Commission, Texas Child Labor Law, checked October 5, 2026
• Texas Workforce Commission, chapter 817 child labor rules adopted December 2024, checked October 5, 2026
• Texas Workforce Commission, Texas Guidebook for Employers: breaks, checked October 5, 2026
• Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code, chapter 106, checked October 5, 2026
• 29 CFR 570.2 (minimum age standards), checked September 24, 2026
• Texas Labor Code, chapter 51 (child labor), checked October 5, 2026
• 29 CFR 570.35 (hours for 14- and 15-year-olds), checked September 24, 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, state meal period requirements, checked September 24, 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
• Texas Administrative Code, 40 TAC chapter 817 (child labor), checked October 5, 2026
• Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, FAQs, checked October 5, 2026
• Texas Workforce Commission, Texas Minimum Wage Law, checked September 24, 2026
• Texas Labor Code, chapter 62 (minimum wage), 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
• Texas Workforce Commission, posters in the workplace, 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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