Child labor - Colorado

Work age

Youths must be:

• None specified for youth delivering newspapers or working for parents
• 9 for shining shoes, delivering advertisements or samples, manual lawn care and snow removal, and caddying
• 12 for babysitting, door-to-door sales, non-hazardous farm work, lawn care, and snow removal with machinery
• 14 for most non-hazardous jobs
• 16 for most jobs involving motor vehicles
• 18 for all other employment

Work hours

Youths under 16:

• Nights/mornings: No work from 7:00 pm (or 9:00 pm from June 1 to Labor Day) to 7:00 am (with some exceptions. If state but not federal law applies, minors may not work from 9:30 pm to 5:00 am before school days, except for babysitting.
• School days:
  • During school hours, no work, except with approval.
  • Outside school hours but on school days, 3 hours maximum (including Friday. If state but not federal law applies, the Colorado Youth Employment Opportunity Act (CYEOA) limit is at most 6 hours per day, unless the next day isn’t a school day. )
• School weeks: 18 hours maximum in weeks with any school day.

Exceptions for seasonal agricultural-related jobs:

• 12 hours/day
• 30 hours in 3 days, as of age 14,
• Not more than 8 hours/day for more than 10 days in a 30-day period at ages 14-15.

• 8 hours/day
• 40 hours/week

Permits

To confirm that a minor is old enough for a specific job, an employer may, but doesn’t need to, ask the minor for an age certificate, issued by the school or county where they live.

No work permit is required, but school-hours work isn’t permitted before age 14, and at ages 14–15, with some exceptions. If, for example, federal law is inapplicable or allows the work, Colorado requires a school release permit that a school can issue.

Postings

Poster that includes the child labor law abstract.