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A 15-year-old in Twin Falls gets hired to bus tables at a diner on Blue Lakes Boulevard. The manager never asks for a work permit, and that is normal here: Idaho has no permit system. The manager still has to follow two layers of law. Idaho's child labor law, first written in 1907 and still on the books in Title 44 of the Idaho Code, sets one set of limits. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the national wage-and-hour law, sets a stricter set. When two rules disagree, the stricter one wins.
No work permit, but a record on file
Idaho's child labor chapter never mentions a work permit or an age certificate, so there is no form to fill out before a first shift. Instead, the law puts the duty on the employer: any business that hires workers who are 14 or 15 must keep a record of each one's name, age, and home address. If a manager asks for proof of age, that is why.
The same chapter sets a floor of 14 for most jobs, including stores, restaurants, hotels, laundries, and factories. A 12- or 13-year-old may work in those places only during a school vacation of two weeks or more. Nobody under 14 may work during school hours in their district, before 6 a.m., or after 9 p.m.
Hours: the Idaho number and the federal number
Idaho Code section 44-1304 says a worker under 16 may not work more than 9 hours in a day or 54 hours in a week, and never before 6 a.m. or after 9 p.m.
The federal FLSA is much tighter for 14- and 15-year-olds, and because it is stricter, it is the rule that actually applies at that Twin Falls diner. Under U.S. Department of Labor Fact Sheet 43, a 14- or 15-year-old may work no more than 3 hours on a school day, 18 hours in a school week, 8 hours on a non-school day, and 40 hours in a non-school week. Work must fall between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., extended to 9 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day.
For 16- and 17-year-olds, neither Idaho's chapter nor the FLSA sets daily or weekly hour caps.
Pay: $7.25, and a lower training wage for the first 90 days
Idaho's minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, and Idaho Code section 44-1502 ties it to the federal minimum, so it moves only when Congress moves. The same section lets an employer pay a worker under 20 as little as $4.25 an hour for the first 90 consecutive calendar days of a new job. On day 91 the full $7.25 applies. A tipped worker, such as a server in Coeur d'Alene, must get at least $3.35 an hour in direct wages, and if tips do not bring the total up to $7.25, the employer pays the difference.
That same section bars Idaho cities and counties from setting a higher local minimum wage.
Congress has had the power to set these rules since United States v. Darby (1941), where the Supreme Court upheld the Fair Labor Standards Act and overruled Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918), an earlier decision that had blocked a federal child labor law.
Where to check and who to call
For hours and hazardous-job questions, the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division takes complaints for free at 1-866-487-9243, and it keeps the caller's name confidential. An employer may not punish a worker for calling. For unpaid wages, the Idaho Department of Labor runs a wage claim process on its website, labor.idaho.gov.
We could not confirm from an official page which Idaho office enforces the 1907 state chapter itself, so if a problem is about state hours rather than federal ones, start with the Idaho Department of Labor and ask. The statute text is free to read on the Idaho Legislature's website under Title 44, Chapter 13.
À retenir
- Idaho has no work permit; employers must keep a record of the name, age, and address of each 14- or 15-year-old they hire.
- For 14- and 15-year-olds the federal limits apply because they are stricter: 3 hours on a school day, 18 in a school week, and nothing after 7 p.m. during the school year.
- Idaho's minimum wage is $7.25; a worker under 20 can be paid $4.25 only for the first 90 days of a job.
- Hours complaints go to the federal Wage and Hour Division at 1-866-487-9243; wage claims go to the Idaho Department of Labor.
Sources
- Idaho Legislature: Idaho Code 44-1304, Working hours for children under sixteen (s'ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)
- Idaho Legislature: Idaho Code 44-1502, Minimum wages (s'ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)
- U.S. Dept. of Labor: Fact Sheet 43, Child labor provisions for nonagricultural occupations (s'ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)
- Legal Information Institute (Cornell): United States v. Darby, 312 U.S. 100 (1941) (s'ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)
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