Does Indiana Require a Work Permit for Teens?

Indiana does not require a work permit for teens. The state eliminated work permits on July 1, 2021, and moved the tracking of teen workers off school desks and onto employers, who register minor employees through the Indiana Department of Labor’s Youth Employment System.¹ If your teen is looking for a job, there’s no permit form to pick up from the guidance office and nothing to file with the school. What still matters, and matters a lot, are the age-based rules on hours and the kinds of work a minor can legally do.

What Replaced the Permit

Before 2021, an Indiana teen needed a physical work permit issued by the school before starting a job. That paperwork is gone. In its place, any employer with five or more workers between 14 and 17 must register those employees in the Youth Employment System (YES), an online portal run by the Indiana Department of Labor.² The employer enters the teen’s name, age, and hire date, keeps that information current, and removes the teen from the active roster when employment ends.

Employers with four or fewer minor employees don’t have to use YES, though they can register voluntarily.² Either way, every Indiana employer still has to follow the state’s rules on hours, ages, and prohibited jobs.

What Teens and Parents Actually Have to Do

Almost nothing, on the compliance side. Your teen applies, gets hired, and the employer takes care of any state registration. No school signature is needed, and Indiana does not require written parental consent for the employment of 16- and 17-year-olds.³ The minimum working age is 14 for most jobs.

One thing to be aware of before your teen takes a long shift: Indiana does not require employers to give minors a meal break or a rest break, no matter how many hours they work.³ Many employers offer breaks anyway. It just isn’t required by law.

Hour Rules for 14 and 15-Year-Olds

The tightest restrictions apply to the youngest workers. Indiana’s limits for 14- and 15-year-olds track the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, and when the two differ, the stricter rule controls.⁴ In practice they line up:

School days: up to 3 hours
School weeks: up to 18 hours total
Non-school days: up to 8 hours
Non-school weeks: up to 40 hours
No work before 7:00 a.m.
No work after 7:00 p.m., extended to 9:00 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day

These limits apply year-round. School-day rules kick in whenever school is in session, so once classes start back in August, the 9:00 p.m. summer extension ends even though the calendar still says summer.³

Rules for 16 and 17-Year-Olds

This is where things changed significantly. Effective January 1, 2025, Indiana removed all hour and time-of-day restrictions for 16- and 17-year-olds. Teens in this age group can work the same hours as adults, and no parental permission is required for late-night or extended shifts.⁵

Before that change, this age group was capped at 9 hours a day, 40 hours during school weeks, and 48 hours during non-school weeks, with a 10:00 p.m. cutoff on school nights that could be extended to 11:00 p.m. with written parental permission.⁶ Those limits no longer exist. In practical terms, a 16-year-old can work a closing shift at a restaurant on a school night without any special paperwork.

What didn’t change: federal hazardous-occupation rules still apply to everyone under 18. Removing state hour caps didn’t expand the kinds of jobs a 16- or 17-year-old can take.

Jobs That Stay Off-Limits Until 18

Federal law identifies 17 categories of hazardous occupations that no one under 18 may perform, and those apply in Indiana regardless of the state’s own rules.⁴ The list includes coal mining, operating power-driven woodworking machines, working with explosives, operating forklifts and other hoisting equipment, meat-processing machine operation, and roofing work, along with other jobs across manufacturing, mining, and construction.⁷

Extra Restrictions for 14 and 15-Year-Olds

Younger teens face a much narrower range of allowed work. Federal rules let 14- and 15-year-olds work in most retail jobs, office and clerical roles, food service with limits, and some outdoor maintenance tasks.⁸ The kitchen rules trip up a lot of families. A 14- or 15-year-old at a fast food restaurant can reheat food and wash dishes but cannot cook over open flames, use commercial fryers without an automatic basket-lowering device, or operate power-driven slicers, grinders, or mixers.⁹

Baking is entirely off-limits for this age group, including assembling items on trays, operating any oven other than a microwave used only for warming, and removing items from ovens.⁹ They also can’t work in a freezer or meat cooler, though quick trips in to grab something are allowed.

Exemptions from the Hour Rules

Indiana carves out specific situations where the standard hour and time-of-day limits for 14- and 15-year-olds don’t apply. A minor in this age group is exempt when working in farm labor, domestic service, as a golf caddie, or providing sports-attending services at professional sporting events.¹⁰

Indiana also lets children as young as 12 work as referees, umpires, or officials for youth athletic programs without being subject to the standard hour restrictions.¹⁰

A separate set of exemptions covers 14- and 15-year-olds who have already graduated from high school, been expelled without an alternative school requirement, or are subject to a court order prohibiting school attendance. Certain hour and posting restrictions don’t apply to them. Where the minor has completed eighth grade or has a child to support and has been excused from compulsory attendance, a parent must give the employer a signed statement with supporting proof.¹⁰

1
Indiana Department of Labor. New Youth-Employment Law Goes Fully Into Effect
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Indiana Department of Labor. Youth Employment System (YES)
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Indiana Department of Labor. Youth Employment Home
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U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 43 – Child Labor Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act for Nonagricultural Occupations
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Indiana Department of Labor. Changes to Youth Employment Laws
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Indiana Department of Labor. Teen Work Hour Restrictions
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eCFR. 29 CFR Part 570 – Child Labor Regulations, Orders and Statements of Interpretation
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U.S. Department of Labor. Non-Agricultural Jobs – 14-15
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U.S. Department of Labor. Cooking and Baking under the Federal Child Labor Provisions of Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
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Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 22-2-18.1-16 – Employment of Minors Less Than 16