Working as a teen in Georgia: the under-16 permit, hours, and the $7.25 question

In Georgia the official name is an Employment Certificate, but everyone calls it a work permit. You need one for any paid job if you have not yet turned 16. The Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) says this applies to 14 and 15 year olds regardless of marital status. Once you turn 16, no permit is needed at all.

The process runs through your school, not the employer. You start the work permit data sheet on GDOL's online work permit system, your employer fills in their part, and an authorized issuing officer at your school issues the certificate. If your school does not keep the forms, or you are not enrolled, the county school superintendent's office can issue one. Bring a certified copy of your birth certificate.

Two details trip people up. A permit from another state does not count; a teen visiting Georgia for the summer needs a Georgia certificate from the school board where they are staying. And unpaid work, like volunteering or community service hours, needs no permit.

For 14 and 15 year olds, Georgia's own law allows 4 hours on a school day, 8 hours on a non-school day, and 40 hours in a week. But most employers are covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the national wage and hour law, and its limits are tighter: 3 hours on a school day, 8 on a non-school day, 18 in a school week, 40 in a non-school week. Federal law also sets the clock: no work before 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m., stretched to 9 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day. GDOL's own FAQ tells a teen who works a Friday when school was in session that the state says 4 hours but the FLSA says 3. When the two rules differ, the stricter one wins.

No one under 16 may work during the hours the local school system is in session, even if they are homeschooled or excused from attendance.

At 16 and 17, Georgia removes the limits. GDOL states plainly that there is no cutoff hour and no maximum hours per day for minors 16 and older, and that a 16-year-old can legally close a restaurant at 1 a.m. Neither state nor federal law requires a meal break at any age. That surprises a lot of families in Columbus and Augusta, and it is worth knowing before you agree to a schedule.

Why does federal law get to set these limits at all? In Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918), the Supreme Court struck down a federal child-labor law, ruling that Congress could not use its power over interstate commerce to control child labor inside a state. That decision was overruled decades later, and the FLSA that came out of the change is the reason the 7 p.m. rule reaches a Georgia teen today.

Georgia's state minimum wage is $5.15 an hour. That number is real, but GDOL says the federal minimum of $7.25 applies with only limited exceptions, because an employer covered by the FLSA must follow the higher federal rate. If a paycheck from a grocery store in Athens works out to less than $7.25 an hour, something is wrong.

Georgia does not add a state youth wage on top of federal law. If an employer mentions a lower training rate, ask which law allows it and check the U.S. Department of Labor's YouthRules site before you accept it.