Happy Friday in Financial Literacy Month! First, apologies for no QofD yesterday; I was out sick from work and couldn’t muster much more than binge watching The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Netflix, if you haven’t already.

Second, my recent QotD about the number of teens who file taxes each year has me thinking a lot about teen employment. Today I was wondering…

Do all teens need “working papers” to work?

You may already know the answer to this one, but in case you don’t, all it took was some quick searching on the US Department of Labor website to find out that there is no federal law mandating working papers for teens. But, as you may know, many states do require them. Which ones? DOL provides all that info in one convenient chart.

• Looks as though Arizona, Idaho, Oregon, South Dakota, and Wyoming let their youngins work without any extra documentation.
• Guam, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi (to work in a mill, cannery, workshop, or factory), and New Hampshire are only worried about those under 16, and Nevada only requires them for teens under 14!
• New York and California both have different requirements for teens working in the entertainment industry than for teens in other industries.
• When required, the majority of states have schools, rather than the state labor department, issue the working papers. As if guidance counselors don’t already have enough on their plates!

I’ve got at least one other teen employment QOTD in the works, but I’m going to save that one ’til Monday. I hope you have a great weekend!

About the Author

Jessica Endlich

When I started working at Next Gen Personal Finance, it's as though my undergraduate degree in finance, followed by ten years as an educator in an NYC public high school, suddenly all made sense.