Your first job in Kentucky: hours, pay, and proof of age

The Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet's rules for employers list no work-permit step for teens. What they do require is that the employer keep proof of age on file for every worker under 18. A copy of a birth certificate, a driver's license, or a school ID is accepted.

The employer also has to record each minor's name, age, and address, the start and end of every shift, and every meal break. Kentucky requires a 30-minute lunch break for each five hours of continuous work if you are under 18, and a shorter break does not count.

If you are 14 or 15, Kentucky's limits are the same as the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA, the national wage and child-labor law): 3 hours on a school day, 8 hours on a non-school day, and 18 hours in a school week. In a week with no school, you can work 8 hours a day and 40 a week. Work must fall between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., stretched to 9 p.m. from June 1 to Labor Day, and never during school hours.

At 16 and 17 the two laws split. The U.S. Department of Labor says federal law allows unlimited hours at this age in jobs that are not hazardous. Kentucky does not. During a school week you can work up to 6 hours on a school day, 8 on a non-school day, and 30 in total. You can work from 6 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. before a school day, and until 1 a.m. before a non-school day.

To go past 30 hours, the Labor Cabinet points to two forms: a Parent/Guardian Statement of Consent and a Certificate of Satisfactory Academic Standing from your school. In weeks when school is out, Kentucky sets no hours limit for 16- and 17-year-olds. The Labor Cabinet says these hours rules stop applying once you have graduated.

Kentucky's minimum wage law, KRS 337.275, sets $7.25 an hour, the same as the federal minimum. The statute says that if the federal minimum goes up, Kentucky's rises to match. Tipped workers can be paid a lower cash wage, but tips plus wages must reach the minimum.

Federal child-labor rules exist because of United States v. Darby (1941). In that case the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Congress can set wage and labor rules for goods sold across state lines, and it overruled Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918), which had said Congress could not block products made with child labor.