How many hours can a minor work In NJ?

The age difference between your teenage hires affects nearly every scheduling decision you'll make. Most critically, 14–15 year-olds face a 7 PM curfew during the school year, while 16–17 year-olds can work until 11 PM on school nights.

The key distinction: 14–15-year-olds face dramatically stricter limits. During school days, they can only work 3 hours and 18 hours total per week. Your 16–17-year-olds get 8 hours daily and 40 hours weekly during school sessions.

Summer opens up more flexibility. Your 14–15-year-old bussers can work 8 hours daily and 40 hours weekly from the Labor Day period. Meanwhile, 16–17-year-olds can work up to 10 hours a day, 50 hours weekly, and as late as 3am in restaurants and seasonal amusements.

Both age groups share one critical restriction: 6 consecutive days of work per week maximum. Build that mandatory day off into your shift schedule from the start and keep it consistent with scheduling tools.

Curfew violations catch a lot of restaurant and retail owners off guard—and they're one of the most common mistakes when scheduling teenage team members.

For 14–15-year-olds during the school year, the work curfew is 7 PM. This means your teenage host cannot work the dinner rush on school nights. During summer vacation, the curfew extends to 9 PM with written parental permission.

For 16–17-year-olds, standard curfew is 11 PM on school nights and midnight on non-school nights. Restaurant owners get an advantage here: NJ child labor law allows 16–17 year-olds to work until 3 AM in restaurants on non-school nights only, with written parental permission.

All minors under 18 are prohibited from operating hazardous equipment. According to DOL Fact Sheet 43, critical prohibitions include deli slicers, commercial mixers, meat equipment, forklifts, cardboard balers, and motor vehicles on public roads. 

In New Jersey, detailed lists of prohibited machines, prohibited products, prohibited establishments, and prohibited activities can be referenced to ensure you don’t assign minors to prohibited duties. 

Short answer: yes—and this isn't optional. Every minor under 18 needs an employment certificate before their first shift. New Jersey has no exceptions, even for family businesses.

The process happens through My Working Papers. You'll register as an employer first, provide your business information and working hours, then receive your unique 8-digit code to give to the minor. The minor uses your code to create their account while their caregiver verifies their age with proof of identity documentation such as a birth certificate, driver's license, or passport.

Don't let a teenager start work while "waiting for paperwork." Employing minors without a valid employment certificate can result in steep administrative fines per violation. Under recent enforcement updates, willfully ignoring child labor rules can elevate violations to a criminal offense and lead the state to suspend your registration to hire minors entirely. 

You must verify and secure their certificate through the state portal before their first shift, keeping records on file for at least one year.

Tracking curfews, daily limits, weekly maximums, and consecutive-day restrictions for multiple teenage team members gets complicated fast. One scheduling mistake can result in multiple violations under New Jersey's child labor laws.

Homebase scheduling helps you build compliant schedules with automatic alerts that flag potential violations before you post shifts. Our time clock captures accurate hours worked so you can avoid curfew breaches and excessive hour limits. Sign up for Homebase today for scheduling peace of mind.