WA minors: 14-15 at 85% of state minimum, strict hour limits.
Washington's child labor law (RCW 49.12.121, WAC 296-125) sets distinctive rules for working minors. Workers 14-15 earn 85% of the state minimum wage = $14.56/hr in 2026. Workers 16-17 earn the full state minimum. Strict hour limits apply: 14-15 cannot work during school hours and are limited to 16 hours/week during school weeks (3 hours/day on school days, 8 hours/day on non-school days). All minors get a 30-minute meal break after 5 hours. Minor work permits are required and parent permission must be on file.
Minor Employment Configuration
Enforces age-tier hour caps, time-of-day windows, meal break rules, work permit requirement, and 85% wage rate for 14-15 year-olds.
What those rules do as minors are scheduled.
The hero card configuration: Block on illegal time, Critical on missing work permit, Avoid on cap approach.
When a manager attempts to schedule a 14-15 year-old before 7 AM or after 7 PM (or 9 PM in summer recess), or during school hours on a school day, the publish blocks. 16-17 year-olds have less restrictive but still bounded windows.
Before any minor (under 18) can be scheduled, the work permit must be on file. Without it, schedule save fails. The permit must be updated annually and on each new job assignment.
When scheduled hours would push past the age-tier weekly limit (16 school week / 40 non-school week for 14-15; 20 school week / 48 non-school week for 16-17), the manager sees an Avoid indicator.
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Two age tiers, distinct caps and windows.
Washington's minor employment rules are detailed but predictable — every restriction has a specific number, every exception has a specific carve-out.
Age tiers and wages
Workers under 14 generally cannot work (with narrow exceptions for newspaper delivery, theatrical productions, agriculture). Workers 14-15 earn 85% of state minimum = $14.56/hr in 2026. Workers 16-17 earn the full state minimum ($17.13/hr in 2026). City minimum wages also apply at full rate to 16-17 year-olds in those jurisdictions.
14-15 hour limits
School week: max 16 hours, max 3 hours on school day, max 8 hours on non-school day. Non-school week: max 40 hours, max 8 hours/day. Time of day: 7 AM to 7 PM during school year (extended to 9 PM during summer recess June 1-Labor Day). Cannot work during school hours on school days. Mandatory 30-minute meal break after 5 hours of continuous work.
Teambridge gates publish for under-18 workers at every check.
WA's minor employment framework has the most rules of any worker tier. Per-worker, per-shift logic catches violations at the source.
14-15, 16-17, or adult.
Workers under 18 are tagged at hire with their age tier. The tag drives all downstream child-labor logic — different hour caps, different time windows, different break rules, different wage rate.
Required before scheduling.
Before any minor can be scheduled, the L&I Minor Work Permit and parent permission must be on file. Without them, schedule save fails. Permit expiration triggers re-verification.
All rules at every shift creation.
Every shift created for a minor validates against the applicable age-tier rules: hour caps, day-type, time window, summer-vs-school-year detection. The mandatory meal break (after 5 hours) auto-inserts.
Hazardous occupation tags.
Roles tagged as Federal Hazardous Occupations (operating power-driven machinery, construction at heights, etc.) cannot be assigned to under-18 workers regardless of WA's age-tier rules.
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