Child labor — Texas

Texas and federal law regulate the employment of minors under the age of 18 by restricting the occupations in which they can work and the number of hours they can work each day.

The definition of a child

Except as specifically authorized by Texas law, it is illegal to employ a child in Texas who is under 14 years of age. One of the principal exemptions in the statute allows the Texas Workforce Commission (Commission) to adopt rules that authorize the employment of children under 14 years of age as performers in a motion picture or a theatrical, radio or television production. Texas’s child labor laws do not apply to employment of a child:

• employed in a:
  • non-hazardous occupation
  • under the direct supervision of the child’s parent or an adult having custody of the child
  • in a business or enterprise owned or operated by the parent or custodian

• 11 years or older engaged in delivery of newspapers to the consumer

• participating in a school-supervised and school-administered work-study program approved...
  
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