From Denise Witmer,
Your Guide to Parenting of Adolescents.
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Every year about 70 teens die from work injuries in the United States. Another 70,000 get hurt badly enough that they go to a hospital emergency room. Why do injuries like these occur? Teens are often injured on the job due to unsafe equipment, stressful conditions, and speed-up or teens may not receive adequate safety training and supervision.

Most teens work in retail fast food restaurants, supermarkets and stores. But they also work in nursing homes, schools, amusement parks and summer camps. Some work on farms. Most injuries and deaths result from driving cars or using heavy equipment and power tools, all prohibited by child labor protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Know the Federal Laws

No worker under 18 may:

• Drive a motor vehicle as a regular part of the job or operate a forklift at any time.
• Operate many types of powered equipment like a circular saw, box crusher, meat slicer, or bakery machine.
• Work in wrecking, demolition, excavation, or roofing.
• Work in mining, logging, or a sawmill.
• Work in meat-packing or slaughtering.
• Work where there is exposure to radiation.
• Work where explosives are manufactured or stored.

No one 14 or 15 years old may:

• Bake or cook on the job (except at a serving counter).
• Operate power-driven machinery, except certain types which pose little hazard such as those used in offices.
• Work on a ladder or scaffold.
• Work in warehouses.
• Work in construction, building, or manufacturing.
• Load or unload a truck, railroad car, or conveyor.

Hours limitations

• Youths 18 or older may perform any job, whether hazardous or not, for unlimited hours, in accordance with minimum wage and overtime requirements.
• Youths 16 and 17 years old may perform any nonhazardous job, for unlimited hours.
• Youths 14 and 15 years old may work outside school hours in various nonmanufacturing, nonmining, nonhazardous jobs up to
  • 3 hours on a school day
  • 18 hours in a school week
  • 8 hours on a non-school day
  • 40 hours on a non-school week

Work must be performed between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., except from June 1 through Labor Day, when evening hours are extended to 9 p.m.

For answers to your questions about child labor, call your local Wage and Hour Division, U.S. Department of Labor.