Legalities

Legal information

No minor under sixteen years of age shall be employed or permitted to work in, about, or in connection with, any establishment or in any occupation before seven o'clock in the morning or after seven o'clock in the evening of any day except during school vacation period from June to Labor Day when such minor may work between the hours of seven o'clock in the morning and ten o'clock in the evening nor shall such minor who is enrolled in school and working outside school hours be employed or permitted to work in, about, or in connection with, any establishment or in any occupation more than four hours on a school day, or more than eight hours on any other day, or more than eighteen hours during a school week: Provided, That, students fourteen years of age and over whose employment is part of a recognized school-work program, supervised by a recognized school authority, may be employed for hours which, combined with the hours spent in school, do not exceed eight a day: And further provided, That minors over the age of fourteen may be employed in the distribution, sale, exposing or offering for sale, of any newspaper, magazine, periodical or other publication for not more than fifty-one hours in any one week, or more than nine hours in any one day, and after six o'clock in the morning and before eight o'clock in the evening: And further provided, That a minor under sixteen years of age employed on a farm by a person other than the farmer in the hatching, raising or harvesting of poultry may be employed or permitted to work until 10 o'clock in the evening as long as the minor is not working in an agricultural occupation declared hazardous by the United States Secretary of Labor.

No minor under eighteen years of age shall be employed or permitted to work in, about, or in connection with, any establishment between the hours of twelve in the evening and six in the morning if such minor is enrolled in regular day school: Provided, That, minors sixteen and seventeen years of age may be employed until, but not after, one o'clock in the morning on Fridays and Saturdays, and on days preceding a school vacation occurring during the school year, excepting the last day of such vacation period

Section 7.2. Any minor of the age of seventeen years who is a high school graduate or who is declared to have attained his academic potential by the chief administrator of the school district wherein he resides shall, for the purposes of this act, be deemed to be a minor of the age of eighteen years.

Section 7.3. Minor Volunteer Fire Company, Volunteer Ambulance Corps, Volunteer Rescue Squads and Volunteer Forest Fire Crew Member Activities.

(a) Minors who are members of a volunteer fire company and volunteer forest fire crew may participate in training and fire-fighting activities as follows:
(1) Drivers of trucks, ambulances or other official fire vehicles must be eighteen years of age.

(2) Minors sixteen and seventeen years of age who have successfully completed a course of training equal to the standards for basic fire-fighting established by the Department of Education and the Department of Environmental Resources, may engage in fire-fighting activities provided that such minors are under the direct supervision and control of the fire chief, an experienced line officer or a designated forest fire warden.

(3) No person under eighteen years of age shall be permitted to
(i) operate an aerial ladder, aerial platform or hydraulic jack,
(ii) use rubber electrical gloves, insulated wire gloves, insulated wire cutters, life nets or acetylene cutting units,
(iii) operate the pumps of any fire vehicle while at the scene of a fire, or
(iv) enter a burning structure.

(b) The activities of minors under sixteen years of age shall be limited to:
(1) Training.

(2) First aid.

(3) Clean-up service at the scene of a fire, outside the structure, after the fire has been declared by the fire official in charge to be under control.

(4) Coffee wagon and food services.

(c) In no case, however, shall minors under sixteen years of age be permitted to:
(1) Operate high pressure hose lines, except during training activities;

(2) Ascend ladders, except during training activities; or

(3) Enter a burning structure.

(d) All other activities by minors who are members of a volunteer fire company or a volunteer forest fire crewman shall be permissible unless specifically prohibited by this act.

(e) No rule or regulation of any State agency concerning minor volunteer firemen shall be adopted or promulgated except by amendment to this act.

(f) All other existing provisions of this act and the regulations promulgated there under affecting the employment of minors shall be applicable in all cases, including the requirements for employment certificates and the limitations on hours of employment: Provided, That a minor sixteen or seventeen years of age who is a member of a volunteer fire company who answers a fire call while lawfully employed and continues in such service until excused by the one acting as chief of that fire company shall not be considered in violation of this act for any part of the period so occupied: And further provided, That a minor who is fourteen or fifteen years of age, who is a member of a volunteer fire company and who performs the training or fire-fighting activities permitted for such minor under the provisions of this act between the hours of seven o'clock in the evening and ten o'clock in the evening before a day of school with written parental consent shall not be considered in violation of this act.

(g) Any minor who is a member of a volunteer ambulance corps or rescue squad may participate in training and any other activity as provided by regulations adopted by the Department of Labor and Industry but in any case, drivers of all ambulances or other official ambulance corps or rescue squad vehicles must be eighteen years of age.

Section 17. (a) All employers shall require the minor to have a valid employment certificate or transferable work permit prior to the commencement of employment. A transferable work permit shall remain in the custody of the minor.
(b) It shall be the duty of every person who shall employ any minor possessing a general or vacation employment certificate to acknowledge, in writing, to the official issuing the same, the receipt of the employment certificate of said minor, within five days after the beginning of such employment. On termination of the employment of any such minor the general employment certificate or vacation employment certificate issued for such minor shall be returned by mail, by the employer, to the official issuing the same, immediately upon demand of the minor for whom the certificate was issued, or otherwise, within five days after termination of said employment. The official to whom said certificate is so returned shall file said certificate and preserve the same. Any minor whose employment certificate has been returned, as above provided, shall be entitled to a new employment certificate upon presentation of a statement from the prospective employer, as hereinabove provided.

(17 amended Dec. 21, 1988, P.L. 1908, No. 192)

Section 17.1. (a) Any employer employing a minor having a transferable work permit shall, within five days of commencement of such employment, provide the school district issuing that permit with the following information in writing:
(1) The permit number.

(2) The name and age of the minor employee hired.
(3) The number of hours per day and week such minor employee will be employed.
(4) The character of the employment.
(b) An employer employing minors having transferable work permits shall maintain a record of minors at the work site which contains, for each minor, the name of school district issuing the permit, the minor's birthday, the date of issue of the permit, the permit number, and the occupation in which the minor is engaged. A photocopy of the transferable work permit may be used as a record for the information contained on that permit: Provided, however, That the employer record the occupation in which the minor is engaged on such photocopy.
(c) In addition, upon termination of the employment of such minor, the employer shall, within five days, notify in writing the issuing school district of the fact employment has been terminated.
(d) The school district shall maintain for two years the records required to be filed by employers under subsection (a).

(17.1 amended Dec. 2, 1988, P.L. 1908, No. 192)

You must have working permits on file for all minors