Teens at Work
HRS 390-2 — below age sixteen, no more than three hours on a school day or eighteen in a school week, and done by 7:00 p.m.
A minor sixteen or seventeen may work outside the hours they are legally required to attend school, where the employer records the number of a valid certificate of age from the department of labor.
Who handles this in Hawaii: Wage Standards Division, Department of Labor and Industrial Relations; and legal aid programs, lawyer referral and the state offices, listed in the Hawaii directory.
- A minor fourteen or fifteen works only with a certificate of employment kept on file, and outside required school hours.
- No more than three hours on a school day, eight hours on a nonschool day, eighteen hours in a school week, and forty hours in a week without school.
- Between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., or 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. during a school break.
- No more than five hours without a break of at least thirty consecutive minutes, and no more than six consecutive days.
No minor may work in adult entertainment or in an occupation declared hazardous. Under fourteen, work is limited to theatrical employment and, in some conditions, harvesting coffee.
Sources for this section (1)
- HRS 390-2 — Employment of minors under eighteen years of age
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of October 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Hawaii attorney.