Can You Work at 15 in CT? Jobs, Hours, Pay, and Working Papers

Yes, you can work at 15 in CT, but the state limits you to certain workplaces, caps your hours tightly during the school year, and requires a Certificate of Age (working papers) issued by your school district before you start. The main jobs open to you are retail and grocery stores, non-municipal summer camps, and non-municipal lifeguarding, plus a handful of roles that sit outside the working papers system like farm work, yard work, and newspaper delivery.

Jobs a 15-Year-Old Can Take

Connecticut’s working papers law ties your Certificate of Age to specific types of workplaces. At fifteen, you qualify for a certificate to work in mercantile establishments, which covers retail stores, grocery stores, and department stores, and to work as non-municipal youth camp staff or as a non-municipal lifeguard.¹ Those are the primary paths for a paycheck through a traditional employer.

Connecticut’s employment statute leaves agricultural work, domestic service, street trades, and newspaper distribution out of its restricted-occupations list.² That opens the door to farm jobs, yard work or household help for a neighbor, and newspaper delivery routes without the same certificate requirements attached.

Federal law under the Fair Labor Standards Act adds a few more options: tutoring and computer programming, running errands on foot or by bicycle, hand car-washing, and limited food-prep tasks such as reheating food or washing dishes.³

Jobs That Are Off-Limits Until 16

Connecticut bars anyone under sixteen from working in manufacturing or mechanical establishments, laundries, and dry-cleaning facilities.² The working papers system also requires a certificate showing the minor is at least sixteen before they can work in restaurants, public dining rooms, bowling alleys, barber shops, or theatrical operations.¹ That last one catches many families off guard. Fast food and sit-down restaurants feel like natural first jobs, but Connecticut makes you wait a year.

Construction, roofing, demolition, and operating power-driven woodworking or hazardous machinery are also prohibited.² And under federal law, no one under seventeen may drive a motor vehicle on public roads as part of a job, so any delivery role that involves driving is out.⁴

How Many Hours You Can Work

Both federal and Connecticut rules apply, and the stricter one wins.⁵ For a fifteen-year-old, the federal FLSA caps are tighter than the state caps, so the federal numbers govern your schedule.

While school is in session:

Up to 3 hours on any school day
Up to 18 hours per week
Only between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.

When school is out for summer or vacation:

Up to 8 hours per day
Up to 40 hours per week
Evening cutoff extends to 9:00 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day

Those limits come from the FLSA’s rules for fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds.³ Federal law does not require meal breaks for young workers, but Connecticut requires a thirty-minute meal break after seven and a half consecutive hours of work, which matters on longer summer shifts.⁵

What You’ll Get Paid

Connecticut’s minimum wage is $16.94 per hour as of January 1, 2026.⁶ State law lets employers pay workers under eighteen no less than 85% of that rate, which works out to roughly $14.40 per hour.⁷ Many retail chains pay the full minimum regardless of age, but the sub-minimum floor is legal.

You’ll be a W-2 employee. Your employer withholds 6.2% for Social Security and 1.45% for Medicare from each paycheck, a combined 7.65%.⁸ Most fifteen-year-olds earn under the standard deduction and owe no income tax at year-end, but the payroll taxes come out either way.

Getting Your Working Papers

Connecticut requires a Certificate of Age (Form ED-301) before an employer can put you on the schedule. There is no fee. The process has three parts, and skipping any one of them stalls the whole thing.

Get a Promise of Employment From the Employer

Your future employer completes a Promise of Employment listing the specific job duties, the starting hourly rate, and the maximum weekly hours.⁹ Vague duties like “cleaning” or “associate” get rejected. The form is available on the Connecticut Department of Labor’s website, or the employer can put the same information on company letterhead.¹⁰

Bring Proof of Age

Connecticut lists acceptable proof-of-age documents in order of preference:¹

Birth certificate issued by a town official
Baptismal certificate showing date and place of birth
Hospital certificate imprinted with the hospital’s name
Physician’s certificate from the attending doctor
Notarized Affidavit of Parent supported by a U.S. Census record

A valid passport also works. If you don’t have any of these, call your school district before you go in.

Apply in Person at Your School District

You have to show up yourself at your local education agency or the administrative office of your nonpublic school with the completed Promise of Employment and your proof of age.¹ A parent cannot go alone. The issuing agent verifies your identity and completes the Certificate of Age in triplicate: one copy for you, one for the employer, and one for the school. You deliver the employer’s copy, and they must keep it on file and available for inspection during business hours.²

The I-9 on Your First Day

Every new hire in the U.S. must also complete a federal Form I-9 to verify identity and work authorization. Adults usually hand over a driver’s license, which most fifteen-year-olds don’t have yet. Federal rules let minors under eighteen substitute a school record, a clinic or hospital record, or a day-care or nursery school record for identity.¹¹ Bring one on your first day so the employer can complete the I-9 without a return trip.

Why the Rules Have Teeth

Working papers are not paperwork for the sake of paperwork. Federal child labor violations carry civil penalties up to $16,035 per minor affected, rising to as much as $72,876 when a violation causes death or serious injury to a worker under eighteen, with those figures doubling for repeat or willful violations.¹² Connecticut adds its own fines under Chapters 557 and 558. If your hours or duties don’t match what’s on your certificate, or if the employer never got one, state and federal inspectors can audit and act.² It’s worth checking the Promise of Employment against what you actually end up doing on the schedule.

1
CT.gov. Connecticut’s Working Papers Manual Guidelines and Procedures for the Employment of Minors in Connecticut – Section: General Requirements for Issuance
2
Justia Law. Connecticut Code Title 31 – Section 31-23 – Employment of Minors Prohibited in Certain Occupations
3
U.S. Department of Labor. Non-Agricultural Jobs – 14-15
4
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 34 – Hazardous Occupations Order No. 2 – Youth Employment Provision and Driving Automobiles and Trucks under the FLSA
5
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 43 – Child Labor Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act for Nonagricultural Occupations
6
CT Department of Labor. Governor Lamont Announces Minimum Wage Will Increase
7
CT.gov. Connecticut’s Working Papers Manual Guidelines and Procedures for the Employment of Minors in Connecticut
8
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 926 (2026), Household Employer’s Tax Guide
9
State of Connecticut Department of Labor. Promise of Employment
10
CT Department of Labor. Employment of Minors
11
USCIS. List B Documents That Establish Identity
12
eCFR. Part 579 Child Labor Violations – Civil Money Penalties