Child employment laws in the UK: ages, hours, pay and history

If a shift runs too late, too long or feels unsafe, check the rules before agreeing to the next one. Today, write down your age, school-leaving date, start and finish times, breaks and actual duties. Then check your council’s child-employment rules. A birthday alone does not decide which limits apply.

School-leaving age changes the rules

For employment law, a child is someone who is not yet over compulsory school age. A young worker is above that age but under 18. You can still count as a child after your 16th birthday. Some pupils reach school-leaving age before they turn 16.

In England and Wales, you can leave school on the last Friday in June if you will be 16 by the end of the summer holidays. Scotland has two leaving dates. Northern Ireland uses 30 June, but summer birthdays can mean another school year. We give those dates below, following GOV.UK’s school-leaving guidance.

The main ordinary child-employment rules in England and Wales are in section 18 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 and council byelaws. Above school-leaving age, the working-time rules for young workers apply instead.

Child labour is not entirely illegal in the UK. Children can do permitted light work, but full-time employment must wait until school-leaving age. In England, you must also continue education or training until 18. One permitted route is working or volunteering for at least 20 hours a week alongside part-time education or training. That participation duty does not apply in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

Minimum ages to work

In England and Wales, the general minimum for ordinary employment is 14. Byelaws can allow specified light work at 13, including occasional light agricultural or horticultural work for parents. Check the byelaws before assuming either exception applies.

Performance work is a separate system, not permission to give an under-13 an ordinary job. In Great Britain, section 37 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1963 governs licences for covered performances, paid modelling and paid sport. A licence can set conditions for work, supervision and schooling, including authorised school absence. Some unpaid performances qualify for statutory exemptions. Ask the licensing authority which route applies before rehearsals or work begin.

Scotland’s ordinary child-employment framework is in the Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act 1937 and local byelaws. Northern Ireland allows light work from 13 and uses Education Authority permits. Do not apply the England and Wales table without checking the rules where the child will work.

Hours and days: the rules that catch employers out

Check the daily cap, the weekly cap and the time of day. A shift can pass one test and fail another. The following limits cover ordinary child employment in England and Wales, not separately licensed performance or approved school work experience.

No work before 7am, after 7pm or during school hours. On a school day, the maximum is 2 hours in total. Local byelaws can allow up to 1 hour before school, but that hour counts towards the daily maximum.

A child cannot work more than 4 hours without a break of at least 1 hour. Each calendar year must also include at least 2 consecutive weeks without employment during a school holiday. These are the limits in GOV.UK’s child-employment guidance. Byelaws may impose further restrictions.

Count work across jobs. A 1-hour morning paper round leaves only 1 more hour available that school day. Sunday stays at 2 hours even during the holidays.

Jobs children cannot do

“Light work” means work unlikely to harm a child’s safety, health or development, school attendance or ability to benefit from education. A parent agreeing to a job does not make dangerous work lawful.

Children cannot ordinarily work in factories or on industrial sites. Approved school work experience is a separate exception. Council byelaws can prohibit other jobs or tasks, so check the actual duties rather than a label such as “shop assistant” or “kitchen help”.

Street trading is generally prohibited for children. Under section 20 of the 1933 Act, byelaws can allow children aged 14 and above to trade while employed by their parents, subject to local licensing conditions. It is not a general exemption for a market stall or door-to-door selling.

Farm work must also be light work. Byelaws can permit occasional light agricultural or horticultural work for parents at 13. That provision does not authorise heavy work or remove the hours and safety restrictions.

Permits and paperwork for a school-age job

In England, Wales and Scotland, check whether the local byelaws require an employment permit. The employer normally applies to the council’s education department or education welfare service. An employment permit is different from a performance licence. GOV.UK explains local permit requirements.

1. Check the local rules. Confirm the child’s school-leaving date, permitted jobs, minimum age and any pre-school restriction.
2. Agree lawful duties and hours. Check other jobs too. Fit the proposed work within every daily and weekly limit.
3. Complete the permit process. Follow the council’s application rules and any conditions on when work may start. In Northern Ireland, apply to the Education Authority.
4. Assess the risks before work starts. Consider inexperience, immaturity and lack of awareness. Tell the parents or guardians of a school-age child about significant risks and the controls. The HSE explains employers’ duties to young people.
5. Plan rest and keep records. Record shifts and breaks, and reserve the 2 consecutive work-free weeks in a school holiday.

Pay, contracts and status for young workers

There is no statutory minimum wage while you are below school-leaving age, though an employer must honour agreed pay. Above that age, eligible workers get the National Minimum Wage. Turning 16 is not the test. Your school-leaving date is.

Employers may need to operate PAYE once a child turns 16. If they provide accommodation, special minimum-wage rules apply. The accommodation offset from 1 April 2026 is £11.10 a day, or £77.70 a week. It is not a general deduction employers can make for meals or other benefits.

The comparison below covers employees and workers above school-leaving age in Great Britain. Employees also have the basic worker rights. Do not assume a part-time or zero-hours job makes you only a worker.

Casual and agency arrangements need a status check, not a guess from the job title. An agency paying a teenager must comply with minimum-wage rules, and the hirer has workplace safety duties. Genuinely self-employed people generally do not have minimum-wage or working-time rights, but a self-employment label does not remove school-age child-employment restrictions.

For detail on wording and particulars, see What must be in an employment contract? and Apprenticeship contracts and apprentice rights. For the boundary between employee, worker and self-employed, see Am I an employee, worker or self-employed?

Young workers above school-leaving age

For ordinary employment above school-leaving age but under 18, the child-work tables no longer apply. The normal maximum is 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week. You cannot opt out or average a long week against a shorter one. Count work for all employers.

You are entitled to a 30-minute break if the working day exceeds 4.5 hours and 12 hours’ daily rest. If you finish at 9pm, a 7am start the next day leaves only 10 hours and does not meet the normal daily-rest requirement.

Weekly rest is normally 48 hours together. Acas explains the limited exception where a good business reason prevents this. Rest can be reduced to 36 hours, with the remaining 12 hours taken as soon as possible afterwards. Do not treat that exception as permission to routinely schedule a teenager seven days a week.

Night work is normally prohibited between 10pm and 6am, or 11pm and 7am if the contract allows work after 10pm. Limited exceptions include agriculture, bakeries, catering, hospitals, hotels and restaurants, retail, advertising and newspaper or post delivery. These require the statutory conditions to be met, including no adult being available and no harm to education or training. Supervision and compensatory rest may be required.

The ordinary sector exceptions described by Acas allow work only until midnight or from 4am, not between midnight and 4am. Special rules can apply to other work, including cultural or sporting activities, so check the applicable exception before agreeing an overnight shift. Ships and the armed forces have separate working-time arrangements.

Employers must keep records proving compliance with young-worker hours and restricted night work, and relevant night-work health assessments, for 2 years. A rota that ignores your other job is not enough.

Full-time work is allowed only past school-leaving age. For background on adult limits and breaks, see Working Time Regulations: Hours, Rest Breaks and Leave and Rest breaks at work.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

Scotland

Scotland uses the Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act 1937 and council byelaws. Its light-work and hours restrictions broadly follow the England and Wales pattern, but you must check the local permitted jobs and permit requirements. The Scottish Government’s employment of children guide directs families and employers to their council.

If you turn 16 between 1 March and 30 September, you can leave school after 31 May that year. If you turn 16 between 1 October and the end of February, you can leave at the start of the Christmas holidays in that school year. Do not wait for a birthday or use an English June date to decide when the young-worker rules begin.

Northern Ireland

School-age employment requires a permit from the Education Authority, not the district council. Ordinary light work can begin at 13. Under-13 work is allowed only in special circumstances, such as performance under the separate licensing rules.

Nidirect’s official guidance gives 14-year-olds up to 2 hours on term-time weekdays and Sundays, and 5 hours on Saturdays. During holidays it gives up to 5 hours on weekdays and Saturdays, with Sunday still limited to 2 hours. The daily window is 7am to 7pm.

For 15 and 16-year-olds still of compulsory school age, that guidance gives up to 7 hours on Saturdays or school-holiday weekdays. This differs from the 8-hour England and Wales limit. Ask the Education Authority to confirm the permitted weekly total and conditions for the proposed job; do not import the England and Wales table into a Northern Ireland permit application.

If you turn 16 between 1 September and 1 July, you can leave school after 30 June. If your birthday falls between 2 July and 31 August, you must wait until 30 June the following year. Once above compulsory school age, Northern Ireland’s equivalent young-worker regulations normally cap work at 8 hours a day and 40 a week. See nidirect’s young-worker guidance.

For the wider devolution picture, see Employment law in Northern Ireland: what differs?

How child labour law developed

There was no single year when child labour ended. Parliament first restricted work in particular industries, then strengthened enforcement and schooling. Today’s limited Saturday jobs and performance rules are a different system from the long mill shifts those early Acts addressed.

1. 1802Health and Morals of Apprentices Act

   The first factory legislation barred night work and work beyond 12 hours a day for apprentices. Parliament’s historical account identifies its weakness. It lacked an effective means of enforcement.

2. 1833Factory Act and inspectors

   The Act restricted children’s hours in textile factories, required schooling for younger children and established a factory inspectorate. Parliament records that four inspectors initially had to cover thousands of mills. Employers widely evaded the rules.

3. 1842Mines and Collieries Act

   The Act prohibited underground work for women and girls, and for boys under 10. Parliament’s account of mining reform links it to a Royal Commission’s report on working conditions.

4. 1880Compulsory schooling in England and Wales

   Compulsory attendance added a constraint on children’s working lives. Later education laws extended the time children spent in school.

5. 1933Children and Young Persons Act

   The Act supplied the England and Wales framework that, as amended, still governs ordinary child employment. It includes employment restrictions, local byelaw powers and a separate street-trading prohibition. Later regulations added the light-work test and the 12-hour term-time weekly cap.

6. 1944Education Act

   The Act introduced free secondary education in England and Wales. The school-leaving age rose to 15 in 1947 and to 16 in 1972. Compulsory education did not begin in 1944.

7. 1998 onwardsWorking time and workplace safety

   The Working Time Regulations 1998 and subsequent amendments set young-worker hours and rest protections. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require employers to account for young people’s inexperience and other specific risks.

8. 29 April 2026Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act

   The Act received Royal Assent. Its child-employment provisions came into force for regulation-making purposes, but the new day-to-day permit framework has not yet replaced the byelaw system.

Current law and changes still to come

Section 78 governs commencement. The Secretary of State sets the remaining commencement dates for England, Welsh Ministers for Wales, and Scottish Ministers for Scotland. Having regulation-making powers in force is different from having new employer duties in force.

Other reforms affect teenage employees and workers in Great Britain. The government’s Employment Rights Act timetable records the Fair Work Agency’s establishment on 7 April 2026 and the general extension of Employment Tribunal claim time limits from 3 to 6 months on 1 October 2026. The Scottish breach-of-employment-contract change is scheduled for 9 November 2026. These are not Northern Ireland tribunal rules.

The ordinary unfair-dismissal qualifying period is still generally 2 years on 1 October 2026. The government timetable schedules a reduction to 6 months for dismissals from 1 January 2027, alongside removal of the compensatory award cap. That does not reduce the separate qualifying period for statutory redundancy pay. Some unfair-dismissal protections already have no qualifying period.

Guaranteed-hours rights, reasonable shift notice and short-notice payments are scheduled for 2027, with detailed timing still to be settled. Future dates remain subject to parliamentary processes. Follow our Employment Rights Act guide for the wider timetable.

For an unlawful school-age shift in Great Britain, contact the council’s child-employment or education welfare team; in Northern Ireland, contact the Education Authority. Give them the child’s age, school status, actual duties, hours and employer details. Keep rotas, messages and payslips. A care worker can log travel between visits; a warehouse or delivery worker can save app records of hours; a hospital worker can keep rota and clock-in records. For young-worker rights, contact Acas in Great Britain or the Labour Relations Agency in Northern Ireland. If you may bring a tribunal claim in Great Britain, the usual deadline is now 6 months less a day for claims from 1 October 2026 (Northern Ireland rules differ). Start Acas early conciliation before it runs out. Do not wait for an employer’s promise to fix the payslip.

Safety breaches may fall to the Health and Safety Executive or the relevant local authority. For minimum-wage underpayment, complain to HMRC. Suspected labour exploitation in a GLAA-regulated sector can be reported to the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority. Discrimination can be reported to the Equality and Human Rights Commission. The Fair Work Agency is now part of minimum-wage enforcement; it does not replace local child-employment permission.

If you work in care, join UNISON or GMB; in retail, USDAW; in hospitality, Unite. A union can help keep records and challenge a rota or missing pay. For independent advice, contact Citizens Advice or a local law centre. In England and Wales, an employer’s breach of section 18 can lead to a fine up to level 3 on the standard scale, currently £1,000, under section 21 of the 1933 Act. The Act provides a due-diligence defence for the annual work-free-break offence. A child’s or parent’s agreement does not waive the hours limits.

Questions people ask

What is the legal minimum age to work in the UK?

For ordinary jobs in England and Wales it is generally 14, or 13 for light work local byelaws permit. Scotland has its own byelaw framework; Northern Ireland permits light work from 13. Performance, paid modelling and paid sport have separate rules and can involve younger children. Full-time employment must wait until school-leaving age.

How many hours can a 13, 14 or 15-year-old work?

For ordinary work in England and Wales, up to 12 hours a term-time week and 2 hours a school day. In a holiday week the maximum is 25 hours if under 15, or 35 hours at 15 and above while still of compulsory school age. The non-school-day caps are 5 and 8 hours respectively. Sundays stay at 2 hours. Work must fit between 7am and 7pm and meet local rules. Northern Ireland guidance gives older school-age children a 7-hour Saturday or holiday-weekday limit.

Does a child need a work permit?

Check the local byelaws in England, Wales and Scotland. Where a permit is required, the employer normally applies to the council. In Northern Ireland, school-age employment requires an Education Authority permit. A performance licence is a different permission, with statutory exemptions for some performances.

Can a child work before school or during school hours?

Ordinary employment cannot take place during school hours. In England and Wales, byelaws may allow up to 1 hour before school, after 7am and within the 2-hour school-day total. Licensed performance and approved school work experience follow separate rules.

Is there a minimum wage for someone under 16?

Not while they are below school-leaving age. Some pupils reach that threshold before their 16th birthday, so check the date rather than age alone. From 1 April 2026, eligible workers above school-leaving age but under 18 must receive at least £8.00 an hour. The apprentice rate is also £8.00, subject to its age and first-year conditions.

Sources

1. Child employment: minimum ages children can work, GOV.UK
2. School-leaving age, GOV.UK
3. Restrictions on child employment, GOV.UK
4. Local rules for child-employment permits, GOV.UK
5. Children and Young Persons Act 1933, section 18, legislation.gov.uk
6. Children and Young Persons Act 1933, section 20, legislation.gov.uk
7. Children and Young Persons Act 1933, section 21, legislation.gov.uk
8. Children and Young Persons Act 1933, section 30, legislation.gov.uk
9. Children and Young Persons Act 1963, section 37, legislation.gov.uk
10. Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, section 28, legislation.gov.uk
11. Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, section 29, legislation.gov.uk
12. Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, commencement, legislation.gov.uk
13. National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates, GOV.UK
14. Minimum wage and accommodation, GOV.UK
15. Pay and hours for young workers, Acas
16. Employment rights for young people, nidirect
17. Working hours and young workers, nidirect
18. Child-employment permits, Education Authority
19. Young people at work: the law, HSE
20. Employment of children: guide, Scottish Government
21. Employment Rights Act implementation timetable, GOV.UK, updated 25 September 2026
22. Early factory legislation, UK Parliament
23. The 1833 Factory Act, UK Parliament
24. Coal mines and legislative reform, UK Parliament
25. Compliance and enforcement of the National Minimum Wage in 2024, Low Pay Commission
26. Hundreds of employers handed penalties for illegally underpaying workers, Department for Business and Trade