Back-to-School Child Labor Hour Rules Employers Must Know

Back-to-school season isn’t just a scheduling headache for parents — it’s a compliance deadline for employers.

The moment school starts, the hour limits for 14- and 15-year-old employees drop sharply under the FLSA: from up to 8 hours/day in summer to just 3 hours on a school day, with work capped between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.

I see this trip up employers every year — not from bad intent, but because nobody updated the scheduling system when summer ended. If you have any workers under 16 on staff, now’s the time to check:

→ Does your scheduling tool auto-adjust for school-year hour limits?
→ Do location managers know the cutoff isn’t tied to your internal calendar, but the actual local school calendar?
→ Does your state layer on stricter rules than the federal floor?

A five-minute audit this week beats a back-pay conversation in October.

#WageAndHour #ComplianceTip #FLSA #HRCompliance

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