According to the U. S. Department of Labor, when an employee is 13 or younger they can perform the following jobs:
- Newspaper delivery.
- Baby-sitter.
- Actor or performer in motion pictures, television, theater or radio.
- In a business solely owned or operated by their parents.
- On a farm owned or operated by their parents.
However, parents are prohibited from employing their children in manufacturing, mining, or any other occupation declared hazardous (listed below) by the Secretary of Labor.
Employees who are 14 or 15 can work in an:
- Office,
- Grocery store,
- Retail store,
- Restaurant,
- Movie theater,
- Baseball park,
- Amusement park, or
- Gasoline service station.
But these employees may not work in:
- Communications or public utilities jobs,
- Construction or repair jobs,
- Driving a motor vehicle or helping a driver,
- Manufacturing and mining occupations,
- Power-driven machinery or hoisting apparatus other than typical office machines,
- Processing occupations,
- Public messenger jobs,
- Transporting of persons or property,
- Workrooms where products are manufactured, mined or processed, or
- Warehousing and storage.
If employees are 16 or 17, they may work in any job or occupation that has not been declared hazardous by the Secretary of Labor.
The following occupations are hazardous, and may not be performed by employees under 18 years of age:
- Manufacturing and storing of explosives,
- Driving a motor vehicle and being an outside helper on a motor vehicle;
- Coal mining,
- Logging and sawmilling,
- Power-driven woodworking machines,
- Exposure to radioactive substances,
- Power-driven hoisting apparatus,
- Power-driven metal-forming, punching, and shearing machines,
- Mining, other than coal mining,
- Meat packing or processing (including the use of power-driven meat slicing machines),
- Power-driven bakery machines,
- Power-driven paper-product machines,
- Manufacturing brick, tile, and related products,
- Power-driven circular saws, band saws, and guillotine shears,
- Wrecking, demolition, and shipbreaking operations,
- Roofing operations, or
- Excavation operations.