Workers under 16 have strict weekly hour limits — and they're age-tiered.
Colorado layers age-tiered hour restrictions on top of federal child labor laws. Workers 14-15 cannot work more than 18 hours per school week or 40 per non-school week. Workers 12-13 have even tighter limits, and some industries (mining, hazardous occupations) prohibit minor workers entirely.
Minor Weekly Hour Limit
Enforces age-tiered weekly hour caps for workers under 18, including school-week vs. non-school-week distinctions. Blocks scheduling that would exceed the cap.
What the rule does when a minor approaches the weekly cap.
The hero card configuration: Block on shift accept past cap, Avoid warning the manager. Worker app surfaces.
When a 15-year-old has 16 hours scheduled this school week and tries to accept a 4-hour shift (would push to 20, over the 18-hour cap), the worker app blocks acceptance. "Cannot accept: this shift would exceed your weekly hour limit." The shift remains available for other workers.
When a manager tries to schedule a minor for hours that would approach or exceed the cap, a yellow indicator surfaces. The schedule can save with non-violating hours; offered hours surface to other eligible workers.
Deploy minor scheduling rules in your Teambridge.
Tell us about your workforce. We'll spin up age-tiered scheduling — alongside the other 17 Colorado policies — in a sandbox tenant.
Three age tiers, two week types.
Colorado follows federal child labor law and adds state-level restrictions. The cap depends on age and on whether it's a school week or non-school week.
Ages 14-15 caps
School week: 18 hours total / 3 hours per school day / 8 hours per non-school day in the week. Non-school week (typically summer): 40 hours total / 8 hours per day. Cannot work between 7pm-7am during school year (9pm in summer).
Ages 12-13 restrictions
Limited employment, primarily in agriculture or specific occupations. Hour limits are stricter than for 14-15.
Teambridge tracks age tier, school calendar, and shift acceptance against the cap.
Three independent dimensions: how old the worker is, what kind of week it is, and how many hours have already been scheduled or accepted.
Worker tagged at hire and on each birthday.
On hire, the worker's age is captured. On each birthday, the system updates the age tier (under 12, 12-13, 14-15, 16-17, 18+). Each tier has its own rules.
Auto-detected from school calendar.
Teambridge knows the worker's school district calendar. Each week is automatically tagged as 'school' or 'non-school' based on whether classes are in session. Holidays and breaks shift the cap.
Worker app prevents over-cap acceptance.
When a minor tries to accept a shift, the worker app calculates: existing hours this week + this shift = ? If over the cap for the age tier and week type, acceptance is blocked. Manager doesn't have to police it.
Role-based restriction.
Roles are tagged as containing or not containing hazardous occupation elements (per federal regs). Workers under 18 cannot accept shifts for tagged roles regardless of hours.
Still evaluating? Get a free Colorado compliance audit.
Send us your existing Colorado scheduling and pay configuration. Our compliance team returns a written audit within 5 business days — every Colorado-specific exposure ranked by risk and back-pay liability.