14 and 15 Year Olds

Arizona child labor laws have provisions specifically directed to 14 and 15 year olds, including restrictions on what times during a day 14 and 15 year olds may work, how many hours in a week they many work, and what jobs or occupations they may perform. The restrictions on the employment of 14 and 15 year olds under Arizona’s child labor laws are discussed below.

Prohibited occupations

Arizona child labor laws prohibit employers from employing youth who are 15 years old and younger in the occupations listed for 16 and 17 year olds as well as the following additional occupations, unless a variance is granted:

  • manufacturing, which includes designing, assembling, fabricating, producing, constructing, or preparing a product or part of a product before sale or use
  • processing, which includes activities involving an addition to, subtraction from, change in, or cleaning of any food or foodstuff including filleting fish, dressing poultry, or cracking nuts
  • laundering or dry cleaning in a commercial laundry
  • warehousing, which includes loading, unloading, storing, or otherwise moving any item or items to and from trucks, railroad cars, conveyors, and buildings
  • construction
    • construction includes building, altering, repairing, adding to, subtracting from, improving, moving, wrecking, or demolishing a building, highway, road, railroad, excavation or other structure, project, development or improvement, including the erection and use of scaffolding or a similar structure and providing mechanical or structural service for a structure, project, development, or improvement
  • boiler, furnace, or engine rooms
  • working from ladders, scaffolds, window sills, or similar structure or place more than five feet in height, including window washing
  • the following activities in retail food or gasoline service establishments:
    • maintaining or repairing machines or equipment, except work in connection with cars and trucks if confined to dispensing gasoline and oil, courtesy service, car cleaning, washing and polishing, but not including work involving the inflation of any tire mounted on a rim equipped with a removable retaining ring
    • cooking and baking, except at soda fountains, lunch counters, snack bars, or cafeteria serving counters
    • setting up, adjusting, cleaning, oiling, or repairing power-driven food slicers, grinders, choppers, and cutters
    • preparing of meats for sale, except wrapping, sealing, labeling, weighing, pricing, and stocking
  • the following agricultural activities:
    • operating a tractor over twenty power take off horsepower that is not equipped with a rollover protective structure and seatbelts
    • connecting or disconnecting an implement or any of its parts to or from a tractor over twenty power take off horsepower
    • operating, including starting, stopping, adjusting, feeding, or any other activity regarding physical conduct associated with the machines, a:
      • corn picker
      • cotton picker
      • grain combine
      • hay mower
      • forage harvester
      • hay baler
      • potato harvester
      • mobile pea viner
      • feed grinder
      • crop dryer
      • forage blower
      • auger conveyor or self-unloading wagon
      • power post hole digger
      • power-driven nonwalking rotary type tiller
      • trencher or earthmoving equipment or potato combine
    • working in a pen occupied by:
      • a bull, boar, or stud horse maintained for breeding purposes
      • a sow with young pigs
      • a cow with a newborn calf
    • felling, bucking, skidding, or unloading timber with butt more than six inches in diameter
    • picking or pruning from a ladder over eight (8) feet in height
    • riding on a tractor as a helper
    • driving a bus, truck, or automobile
    • working inside:
      • a fruit storage area or grain storage area designed to retain an oxygen deficient or toxic atmosphere
      • an upright silo within two weeks after silage has been added
      • a manure pit
    • operating a tractor for packing purposes in a horizontal silo
    • handling hazardous agricultural chemicals
      • hazardous agricultural chemicals include any substance that has a toxicity level that requires manufacturer or distributor labeling as category I, category II and category III toxicity in accordance with the regulations adopted by the administrator pursuant to the federal environmental pesticide control act of 1972
    • handling explosives
    • transporting, transferring, or applying anhydrous ammonia

AZ Statute 23-230; 23-232

These restrictions do not prohibit youth 14 years old and older from operating power-driven lawn and yard care equipment not connected with retail, food service, and gasoline service establishments. Additionally, youth 14 years and older may work in the offices performing clerical work where prohibit work is performed so long as the youth is not exposed to the hazardous conditions of the prohibited work. AZ Statute 23-235


Hours of work

Arizona child labor laws restrict the hours an employer may employ 14 and 15 year old minors during a workday and workweek. The restrictions are as follows:

  • while school is in session:
    • no more than 18 hours in one week
    • no more than 3 hours in one day
    • no later than 9:30 p.m. on the day before and not earlier than 6:00 a.m. on any day school will be in session
    • solicitation sales or door-to-door deliveries may not be performed after 7:00 p.m. on the day before any day school will be in session
  • while school is out of session:
    • no more than 40 hours in one week
    • no more than 8 hours in one day
    • no later than 11:00 p.m. on the day before and not earlier than 6:00 a.m. on any day school will not be in session
    • solicitation sales or door-to-door deliveries may not be performed after 7:00 p.m. on the day before any day school will not be in session

AZ Statute 23-230; 23-233

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