Getting Age/Employment Certificates

Employers who hire children will be fully protected against any unwitting violation of the federal child labor laws if they have on file an unexpired age certificate for any employees who are minors.

Certificates issued by a vast majority of the states are accepted under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) as proof of age, but they are a defense to FLSA child-labor violations only if they show the child to be above the minimum age fixed by federal law for the job in which the child is employed. If a lower age is permitted by state law, a certificate showing that the child is of the required age for state purposes is no protection to the employer under the FLSA.

Grandslam Supermarket hires Ricky, age 15, to work in a job that state law permits an employee of his age to do. Grandslam has a properly obtained, unexpired employment certificate that proves that Ricky is 15, so the market is in compliance with the state's child labor laws. However, the federal law (FLSA) says that only children 16 and older can perform the work that Ricky is doing. The fact that Grandslam has complied with state laws and has an employment certificate will not save it from being in violation of the FLSA.

State employment or age certificates are accepted under the FLSA as proof of age in 45 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Federal certificates of age are obtainable in four other states: Idaho, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas. Application for a federal certificate of age is made on Form WH-14, available from area Wage and Hour Division offices. In Alaska and Guam, birth certificates and baptismal and census records have the status of federal certificates of age.

State law. Since each state has its own restrictions on child labor, each state has its own requirements about age/employment certificates. Click on your state on the map below to see what your state requires regarding employment certificates. Some states will also specify where you can get an employment certificate. The states that are blue are those where no employment certificate requirement is specified.