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A 15-year-old in Eau Claire gets hired to bag groceries after school. A 17-year-old in Green Bay picks up closing shifts at a fast-food place. Wisconsin treats these two teens very differently. The younger one needs a work permit and has strict hour limits. The older one needs no permit, and the state no longer limits how many hours 16- and 17-year-olds can work.
The work permit: required at 14 and 15
The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD) says a parent or guardian of a 14- or 15-year-old must apply and pay for a work permit before the child can work in any job except farm work or domestic service (household work in a private home). The application is online and uses a MyWisconsin ID account. The fee is $10, and it must be paid before the teen is legally allowed to start.
The employer has to pay that $10 back to the family no later than the teen's first paycheck. The permit is tied to one employer. If you change jobs, or the business gets a new owner, you need a new permit.
The permit also does not make a dangerous job legal. DWD keeps a list of prohibited work for minors, and an employer who breaks it is not protected by the permit.
Hours: strict until 16, then mostly open
For 14- and 15-year-olds, DWD sets these limits: 3 hours on a school day, 8 hours on a non-school day, 18 hours in a school week, and 40 hours in a non-school week. Work must fall between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. from the day after Labor Day through May 31, and between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day. Most jobs are limited to 6 days a week. The limits count all your jobs together, so two part-time jobs cannot add up to more.
At 16 and 17, neither Wisconsin nor federal law limits total hours. A few rules still apply. You cannot work during the hours you are required to be in school. Between 12:30 a.m. and 5 a.m., an adult must directly supervise you. If you work after 11 p.m., you must get 8 hours of rest before your next shift.
Every worker under 18 gets a 30-minute, duty-free meal break after 6 hours in a row. When state and federal rules both apply, DWD says the stricter one wins.
Pay, and who to call
Wisconsin's minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, the same as the federal one. Wisconsin also has an 'opportunity wage' (a lower starting rate) of $5.90 for workers under 20 during their first 90 days with an employer. That beats the federal rate of $4.25, so the Wisconsin rate is the one that counts. On day 91, your pay must go up to at least $7.25.
If your hours, breaks, or pay break these rules, call the DWD Equal Rights Division: (608) 266-6860 in Madison or (414) 227-4384 in Milwaukee. You can also file a complaint through DWD's website. An employer who schedules a minor outside the legal hours can owe twice the regular pay for those hours.
The federal government got this power in United States v. Darby (1941). The Supreme Court ruled that Congress can set labor standards, including child labor rules, and overruled Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918), which had said it could not.
À retenir
- At 14 and 15, a parent applies online for a DWD work permit and pays $10, which the employer pays back by the first paycheck.
- Under 16, the limits are 3 hours on school days and 18 hours in school weeks, between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. (9 p.m. in summer).
- At 16 and 17 there is no hours cap, but you cannot work during required school hours and you need an adult supervisor from 12:30 to 5 a.m.
- The $5.90 opportunity wage ends on day 91. For problems, call the Equal Rights Division at (608) 266-6860 or (414) 227-4384.
Sources
- Wisconsin DWD: Work Permits (s'ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)
- Wisconsin DWD: Employment of Minors (s'ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)
- Wisconsin DWD: Guide to Wisconsin's Employment of Minors Laws (s'ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)
- Cornell LII: United States v. Darby, 312 U.S. 100 (1941) (s'ouvre dans un nouvel onglet)
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