Child Labor Laws in Arizona: Hours, Restrictions & Penalties

Child labor laws in Arizona come from two places at once: state statutes in Title 23 and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. When the two disagree, the rule that gives the minor more protection wins.¹ For most non-farm jobs the minimum working age is 14, hours are capped tightly for anyone under 16, sixteen categories of hazardous work are closed to anyone under 18, and employers who break the rules face civil penalties that reach into six figures under federal law. Arizona does not issue work permits, but employers are responsible for verifying a minor’s age and following every rule that applies.

Minimum Age to Work

Fourteen is the general floor for non-agricultural employment. A handful of jobs are available earlier: newspaper delivery to consumers is one of the few federally recognized options for children under 14,² and child performers in film, television, radio, and theater are exempt from the minimum-age rule entirely.³ A business owned entirely by a minor’s parents can employ that minor at any age too, but only for work that is not on the hazardous list.⁴

Hours and Evening Limits for Workers Under 16

Arizona Revised Statutes 23-233 caps the schedule for 14- and 15-year-olds based on whether school is in session.⁵

On school days: no more than 3 hours per day and 18 hours per week.
On non-school days or when the minor is not enrolled in school: up to 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week.

The state also sets evening curfews. On a night before a school day, workers under 16 cannot be on the clock between 9:30 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. On a night before a non-school day the window is 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Door-to-door sales and deliveries end earlier: 7:00 p.m. on any night, extended to 9:30 p.m. only when the next day is not a school day.⁵

Federal law is tighter on evenings for this age group. Under the FLSA, 14- and 15-year-olds cannot work past 7:00 p.m. during the school year, with the cutoff moving to 9:00 p.m. only from June 1 through Labor Day.⁶ Because the stricter rule controls, that 7:00 p.m. federal limit is the practical cutoff for most of the year, not Arizona’s later curfew.

Rules for 16- and 17-Year-Olds

Once a worker turns 16, the hour caps and curfews drop away. Arizona sets no daily or weekly hour limit for this age group, and federal law imposes none either.⁴ The real limits are that a minor cannot work during hours they are required to be in school, and the hazardous-occupation list still closes off entire categories of work until age 18.

Neither Arizona nor federal law requires an employer to provide meal or rest breaks at any age. If a short break of 5 to 20 minutes is given, federal rules treat it as paid time, but nothing forces the employer to offer one.

Jobs Banned for Anyone Under 18

Arizona Revised Statutes 23-231 identifies 16 categories of hazardous work closed to every worker under 18. The list overlaps with the federal hazardous occupation orders and includes:⁷

Any establishment that manufactures or stores explosives, with a narrow exception for retail stores selling prepackaged small-arms ammunition
Mining and quarrying
Logging
Operating, adjusting, cleaning, or repairing power-driven woodworking, metal-forming, meat-processing, bakery, or paper-products machinery, and power-driven saws
Operating a power-driven hoist over one-ton capacity or a non-automatic elevator
Roofing work of any kind, including operating equipment placed on roofs
Demolition and wrecking
Excavation and tunneling, other than manual digging in trenches no deeper than two feet
Any occupation exposing the worker to radiation over 0.5 rem per year
Clay and silica manufacturing
Slaughtering and meat packing

The Industrial Commission of Arizona can add to this list by regulation, so the statutory categories are a floor rather than a ceiling.⁷

Additional Industries Closed to Workers Under 16

Workers under 16 face a second layer of restrictions that bar them from whole industries. Under Arizona Revised Statutes 23-232, this age group cannot be employed in:⁸

Manufacturing or processing
Construction
Commercial laundries or dry-cleaning operations
Warehousing
Boiler, furnace, or engine rooms

Federal law adds more, including a ban on any job requiring ladders, scaffolds, or similar equipment for 14- and 15-year-olds.⁹

Driving on the Job

Driving as part of a job is generally closed to workers under 18. Arizona allows incidental driving under ARS 23-231 if a licensed minor stays within either of these limits: no more than 2 hours of driving per day (or no more than 25 percent of the daily work period), and fewer than 50 miles of total driving per day.⁷

The federal exception for 17-year-olds under Hazardous Occupation Order No. 2 is tighter: the vehicle must weigh 6,000 pounds or less, driving must occur in daylight, it is capped at one-third of the workday and 20 percent of weekly work time, and it cannot go beyond a 30-mile radius of the workplace.¹⁰ The stricter set of limits applies in any given situation, so employers need to check both.

What Minors Must Be Paid

Minors are entitled to Arizona’s minimum wage, which is $15.15 per hour as of January 1, 2026.¹¹ The FLSA permits a youth wage of $4.25 per hour for workers under 20 during their first 90 consecutive calendar days with an employer, provided it does not displace other workers,¹² but Arizona’s higher state floor overrides it. The practical wage floor in Arizona is $15.15 for workers of any age.

Exceptions

Arizona Revised Statutes 23-235 and federal law together carve out a few situations that fall outside the standard rules.

A minor working in a business owned entirely by their parents is exempt from the hour and age restrictions, but the hazardous-occupation ban still applies. A parent cannot put a child under 18 to work in any of the jobs listed in ARS 23-231.⁴

Child performers in film, television, radio, and theater are exempt from both the hour caps and the minimum-age rules. Arizona adds a reporting requirement: before filming begins, the production company must give the Industrial Commission the minor’s name, address, work location, hours of employment, and the length of the production.¹³

Newspaper delivery to consumers is exempt from the hour restrictions in ARS 23-233, so young carriers are not bound by the curfews or daily caps that apply to other under-16 workers.⁵

Agricultural work follows a separate and generally more permissive federal scheme. Children as young as 12 can work on a farm outside school hours with parental consent for non-hazardous tasks, and there is no minimum age on a farm owned or operated by the child’s parents. Farm workers under 16 are barred from 11 categories of hazardous agricultural work, including operating a tractor over 20 PTO horsepower, handling certain high-toxicity chemicals or anhydrous ammonia, and working inside grain storage structures or manure pits.

Penalties for Violations

State enforcement runs through the Industrial Commission of Arizona. When the Commission finds a youth employment violation, it issues a cease-and-desist order and a civil penalty of up to $1,000.¹⁴ That cap applies per violation, and a single investigation can turn up multiple violations across different employees or different rules.

Federal penalties are much larger and adjust annually for inflation. As of January 2025:¹⁵

A general child labor violation: up to $16,035 per employee involved.
A violation that causes serious injury or death: up to $72,876 per violation.
A willful or repeated violation causing serious injury or death: up to $145,752 per violation.

Criminal penalties are also available. A willful violation can bring a fine of up to $10,000, and a second offense after a prior conviction can carry up to six months in prison.¹⁶ The Department of Labor can also invoke the FLSA’s “hot goods” provision to block interstate shipment of goods produced at a facility where a child labor violation occurred within the previous 30 days.¹⁷

How to Report a Violation

Federal complaints go to the Wage and Hour Division at 1-866-487-9243. The agency keeps complaints confidential and will not disclose the complainant’s name, the nature of the complaint, or whether a complaint exists. Retaliation against anyone who files or cooperates with an investigation is prohibited.¹⁸

State-level complaints go to the Industrial Commission of Arizona, which enforces the state’s youth employment rules. You do not have to be the affected minor to file; parents, coworkers, and other third parties can all report suspected violations.¹⁹

1
U.S. Department of Labor. Selected State Child Labor Standards Affecting Minors Under 18 in Non-farm Employment
2
U.S. Department of Labor. Non-Agricultural Jobs – Under 14
3
U.S. Department of Labor. FLSA Child Labor Rules Advisor
4
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 43 – Child Labor Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act for Nonagricultural Occupations
5
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 23 – Section 23-233
6
U.S. Department of Labor. Non-Agricultural Jobs – 14-15
7
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 23-231 – Prohibited Employments of Persons Under the Age of Eighteen
8
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 23-232 – Prohibited Employments of Persons Under the Age of Sixteen
9
U.S. Department of Labor. Fair Labor Standards Act Advisor – Prohibited Occupations for Non-Agricultural Employees
10
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 34 – Hazardous Occupations Order No. 2
11
The Industrial Commission of Arizona. New 2026 Minimum Wage
12
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 32 – Youth Minimum Wage
13
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 23-235 – Exemptions
14
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 23 – Section 23-236 – Cease and Desist Order
15
U.S. Department of Labor. Civil Money Penalty Inflation Adjustments
16
U.S. Department of Labor. FLSA – Child Labor Rules Advisor
17
U.S. Department of Labor. The Prohibition against Shipment of Hot Goods Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
18
U.S. Department of Labor. How to File a Complaint
19
Industrial Commission of Arizona. Labor – Youth Employment – Frequently Asked Questions