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1 . People under 18

If someone is 15, 16 or 17 years old, they might be legally classed as a 'young worker'. A young worker is someone who has reached school leaving age but is under 18.

School leaving age is different in England, Scotland and Wales. Check school leaving ages on GOV.UK.

The Working Time Regulations 1998 sets the legal working time limits for young workers.

Whether they're legally classed as an employee or worker can also affect their rights.

If you think an employer is not following the law, it's best to raise the issue with the employer first.

Find out more about raising a problem at work

When young people can start work

A young person can start full-time work once they've reached school leaving age. Before school leaving age, the work they can do is restricted and depends on their local authority.

Between their school leaving age and 18, a young person in England must do one of the following:

full-time education or training, such as school or college
work-based learning, such as an apprenticeship
working or volunteering (for 20 hours or more a week) while in part-time education or training

If someone is concerned that a young person is not doing one of these, they can ask their local authority to investigate.

In Scotland and Wales this law does not apply. Once a young person has reached the minimum school leaving age, they can go into full-time employment.

Working hours and rest breaks for young workers

By law, young workers must not work more than:

8 hours a day
40 hours a week

They must also have, as a minimum:

a 30-minute break if their working day is longer than 4.5 hours
12 hours' rest in any 24-hour period in which they work (for example, between one working day and the next)
48 hours' (2 days) rest taken together, each week or – if there is a good business reason why this is not possible – at least 36 hours' rest, with the remaining 12 hours taken as soon as possible afterwards

Find out more about making up for missed rest breaks

If a worker is below school leaving age

Working hours for children under school leaving age are restricted.

Employers of children normally need to have a permit from the local council's education department or education welfare service.

Find more on rules for child employment on GOV.UK

Night working

Young workers must not work during the 'restricted period'. The restricted period is:

between 10pm and 6am if their contract does not say
between 11pm and 7am if their contract allows for them to work after 10pm

They can work until midnight or from 4am onwards if it's necessary in the following types of work:

advertising
agriculture
a bakery
catering
a hospital or similar
a hotel, pub or restaurant
post or newspaper delivery
retail

But this is only if:

there are no adult workers available to do the work
working those hours will not have a negative effect on the young person's education or training

If they do need to work after 10pm or before 7am, the employer must make sure the young worker:

is supervised by one or more adult workers where necessary for their protection
has enough rest at another time if they need to work during their normal rest breaks or rest periods

It's against the law for anyone aged under 18 to work between midnight and 4am, even if they do one of the jobs above.

Pay for young workers

Anyone employed and above school leaving age must get paid at least the National Minimum Wage.

Keeping records of young workers' hours

Employers do not need to keep records of all daily working hours.

However, they must keep records to prove that young workers:

do not work more than 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week
do not work during restricted hours, for example between midnight and 4am
are offered health assessments before starting any night work and throughout their employment

These records must be kept for 2 years from the date they were made.

Discrimination

Age is a protected characteristic by law under the Equality Act 2010. This means it's against the law to treat someone less favourably because of either:

their age
the age they appear to be

Find out more about age discrimination

2. Work experience

Someone doing work experience or an 'internship' might have the rights of either an employee or worker. This depends on what terms they have agreed with their employer.

This means they have the same rights as an employee or worker for working hours and rest breaks.

Pay

Someone doing work experience has the right to be paid at least the National Minimum Wage.

This is unless they're a student on a placement as part of a further or higher education course in the UK and:

they have to do the work experience as part of their course
they do the work experience before their course ends
the work experience does not last more than one year

Some students might choose to work to get experience relevant to their course. In this case, they have the right to be paid the National Minimum Wage.

Someone below school leaving age does not have the right to be paid the National Minimum Wage.

Internships

Someone doing an internship has the right to be paid at least the National Minimum Wage. This is unless they are only observing someone else at work and not doing any work themselves. This is sometimes called 'job shadowing'.