Your first job in Utah: age certificates, hours, and pay

Utah's limits for workers under 16 are the same as the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the national law on wages and child labor. You can work up to 3 hours on a school day and up to 18 hours in a school week. On a day with no school, the limit is 8 hours, and in a week with no school it is 40 hours.

You cannot work before 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m. From June 1 through Labor Day, the evening limit moves to 9 p.m. You also cannot work during school hours unless your school allows it.

At 14, Utah law lists jobs like retail food service, janitorial work, and lawn care. Work at a gas station is allowed, but not driving cars or using hoists.

Neither federal law nor Utah's chapter on minors sets a daily or weekly hours cap for 16- and 17-year-olds. The limit that stays is the type of work. No one under 18 may work in a job the U.S. Department of Labor calls hazardous, such as running certain power-driven bakery machines.

Utah also lets some 16- and 17-year-olds step outside the chapter completely. That covers a teen who has a high school diploma or a school release certificate, is married, or is head of a household, as long as the job would not endanger their health or safety.

The U.S. Department of Labor lists Utah's basic minimum wage as $7.25 an hour, the same as the federal rate. Utah law allows the Labor Commission to set a lower minimum wage for minors. We could not confirm whether a current youth rate is in effect, so ask your employer in writing or check with the Labor Commission.

Federal child labor rules rest on a 1941 case. In United States v. Darby (1941), the U.S. Supreme Court held that Congress can set wage and hour rules for work tied to interstate commerce, and it overruled Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918), which had struck down an earlier federal child labor law.