Minnesota Child Labor Law: Why Following Chapter 181A Is Not Enough

A Minnesota employer who reads Minn. Stat. ch. 181A carefully, follows it to the letter, and keeps a 14-year-old on the clock — after school, never during it — until 9:00 p.m. on a Tuesday in October has just violated federal law.

That is not a trick. Minnesota’s Child Labor Standards Act permits a minor under 16 to work up to eight hours in a 24-hour period, up to 40 hours a week, until 9:00 p.m. any day of the year. The federal child labor regulations cap the same 14- or 15-year-old at three hours on a school day, 18 hours in a school week, and 7:00 p.m. from the day after Labor Day through May. Both bodies of law apply to the same employee at the same time, and both the Fair Labor Standards Act and its regulations say expressly that the stricter one governs.

That gap is the single most common compliance failure in this area, and it exists because the Minnesota statute reads like a complete code and is not one. What follows is what ch. 181A actually says, what it actually costs to violate, what changed in 2024 (less than was reported), and the obligation that took effect July 1, 2025 for a category of employer most people would not recognize as one.

What is the minimum working age in Minnesota?

Fourteen — with six statutory exceptions that go lower or disappear entirely.

No minors under the age of 14 shall be permitted employment in this state except as authorized by section 181A.07.

Minn. Stat. § 181A.04, subd. 1. Section 181A.07 then supplies the exceptions, and they are broader than most employers assume:

• Agricultural operations. Minors employed in corn detasseling and other agricultural operations, with parental permission, are exempt from § 181A.04, subd. 4 — that is, from both the eight-hour day and the 40-hour week. Those minors 12 or older are also exempt from the age floor. § 181A.07, subd. 1.
• Actors, models, and performers. Any minor employed as an actor, model, or performer is exempt from the minimum age provision. § 181A.07, subd. 2. There is no floor at all.
• Newspaper carriers. Exempt from the minimum age and from the 7 a.m./9 p.m. window, but “[s]uch carriers shall be at least 11 years of age.” § 181A.07, subd. 3.
• Youth athletic referees. A minor at least 11 and under 14 may officiate for an age bracket younger than the minor’s own, if an adult program representative is on the premises and the program holds a written parental consent. § 181A.07, subd. 4a.
• Home chores, babysitting, and work for a parent. These are exempt from the entire Act — every provision, not just the age floor. § 181A.07, subd. 4.
• Commissioner exemptions and approved training programs. § 181A.07, subds. 5 and 7.

The home-chore exemption is narrower than it sounds. The rule defines it:

“Home chore” is work usual to the home of the employer. Work performed in connection with or as part of the business, trade, or profession of the employer is not a home chore.

Minn. R. 5200.0900. A neighbor who pays a 13-year-old to mow the lawn is inside the exemption. A landscaping company that pays the same 13-year-old to mow a customer’s lawn is not, and is employing a minor two years under the floor.

What hours can a Minnesota minor work?

Three separate rules, keyed to three different age bands.

Under 16, during school. “On school days, during school hours, no minor under the age of 16 years shall be permitted employment except as provided in section 181A.05.” § 181A.04, subd. 2. Section 181A.05 is the employment-certificate route, discussed below.

Under 16, time of day and volume. “No minor under the age of 16 shall be permitted to work any day before 7:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m.” § 181A.04, subd. 3. And: “No employer shall be permitted to work a minor under the age of 16 more than 40 hours a week or more than eight hours in any 24-hour period.” § 181A.04, subd. 4.

High school students under 18. This is the newer and more frequently missed rule:

A high school student must not be permitted to work after 11:00 p.m. on an evening before a school day or before 5:00 a.m. on a school day, except:

§ 181A.04, subd. 6. The exceptions matter. The rule does not apply to a high school student age 18 or older “unless the student provides a written request for the hours restrictions to the employer at least two weeks before any restricted hours begin.” And if a student under 18 supplies a note signed by a parent or guardian, the window extends — the student “may be permitted to work until 11:30 p.m. on the evening before a school day and beginning at 4:30 a.m. on a school day.” The subdivision also carves out students enrolled in an approved alternative education program or an area learning center.

Note what subdivision 6 does not do: it does not restrict a 16- or 17-year-old’s total hours. Minnesota imposes no daily or weekly hour cap on 16- and 17-year-olds at all. The eight-hour and 40-hour limits in subdivision 4 stop at 16.

Where does federal law override the Minnesota schedule?

For 14- and 15-year-olds, on school days, most of the year.

The FLSA’s child labor rules apply to employees engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce, or employed in an enterprise so engaged. 29 U.S.C. § 212(c). “Oppressive child labor” is defined at 29 U.S.C. § 203(l), and the Secretary’s regulation permitting employment of 14- and 15-year-olds sets the following limits:

(2) Not more than 40 hours in any 1 week when school is not in session; (3) Not more than 18 hours in any 1 week when school is in session; (4) Not more than 8 hours in any 1 day when school is not in session; (5) Not more than 3 hours in any 1 day when school is in session, including Fridays; (6) Between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. in any 1 day, except during the summer (June 1 through Labor Day) when the evening hour will be 9 p.m.

29 C.F.R. § 570.35(a). Employment must also be confined to hours “[o]utside of school hours.” § 570.35(a)(1).

Set the two regimes side by side for a 15-year-old on a Wednesday in November:

The tie-breaker is not ambiguous. The FLSA provides that “no provision of this chapter relating to the employment of child labor shall justify noncompliance with any Federal or State law or municipal ordinance establishing a higher standard than the standard established under this chapter.” 29 U.S.C. § 218(a). The regulation says the same thing in the other direction:

No provision of this subpart shall under any circumstances justify or be construed to permit noncompliance with the wage and hour provisions of the act or with the provisions of any other Federal law or of any State law or municipal ordinance establishing higher standards than those established under this subpart.

29 C.F.R. § 570.39. The higher standard wins, whichever sovereign wrote it. For a 14- or 15-year-old on a school day at an FLSA-covered employer, that is the federal three-hour rule — and the Minnesota employment certificate under § 181A.05, which authorizes work during school hours, does not cure a federal violation.

One place the traffic runs the other way: § 181A.04, subd. 6’s 11:00 p.m. limit for high school students under 18 has no federal analogue, because federal hours restrictions stop at 16. There, Minnesota is the higher standard.

Does Minnesota require a work permit?

No — and the certificates that do exist are narrower than the phrase “work permit” suggests.

Employment certificate. Required only for “[a]ny minor 14 or 15 years of age who wishes to work on school days during school hours.” § 181A.05, subd. 1. It is issued by the school district superintendent (or a designee), is good only for a specific position with a designated employer, and requires an employer’s signed statement, parental consent, and the issuing officer’s judgment that the minor is physically capable and that the work serves the minor’s best interests. On termination “for any reason,” the employer must return the certificate to the issuing officer with the termination date noted. § 181A.05, subd. 4. The issuing officer may cancel it at any time in the minor’s best interest. Subd. 5.

Age certificate. This is a proof-of-age document, not a permit, and it is one of four accepted options:

Every employer shall require proof of the age of any minor employee or prospective employee by requiring the minor to submit an age certificate, a copy of the minor’s birth record, a copy of the minor’s driver’s license, or a United States Department of Homeland Security Citizenship and Immigration Services Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9.

§ 181A.06, subd. 1. The employer must keep it for the duration of the minor’s employment and keep all such records available for inspection by a Division of Labor Standards agent. § 181A.06, subd. 4.

A trap for anyone researching this from the rules rather than the statute: Minn. R. 5200.0010, subp. 2, purports to quote § 181A.06, subd. 1 and § 181A.12 — and both quotations are stale. The rule’s version of § 181A.06 omits the I-9 option (added by later amendment), and its version of § 181A.12 describes a violation as a gross misdemeanor “upon conviction therefor,” which is not what the statute says today. The rule was never conformed. Read the statute; the rule’s block quotes are a historical artifact.

What the rule does still supply is a consequence worth knowing:

Failure to provide proof of the ages of minors employed makes the employer liable for the adult minimum wage and other penalties imposed for failure to keep and maintain records related to the employment of minors.

Minn. R. 5200.0010, subp. 1. That matters because Minn. Stat. § 177.24, subd. 1(b) allows a lower “youth wage” during the first 90 consecutive days of employment for an employee under 20 — a rate indexed annually under § 177.24, subd. 1(c). An employer who cannot prove the employee’s age cannot defend the lower rate. The same paragraph forbids using the youth wage to displace anyone: “No employer may take any action to displace an employee, including a partial displacement through a reduction in hours, wages, or employment benefits, in order to hire an employee at the wage authorized in this paragraph.” For the broader wage framework, see our Minnesota wage and hour guide and meal breaks, rest breaks, and overtime.

Which jobs are off-limits to minors?

The statute delegates the list. Section 181A.04, subd. 5 bars anyone under 18 from any occupation the commissioner finds “particularly hazardous for the employment of children under 18 years of age or detrimental to their well-being,” with the list to be established by rule under § 181A.09. The rules are Minn. R. 5200.0910 (under 18) and 5200.0920 (additional prohibitions for under 16).

Part 5200.0910 runs from item A through item S. The categories that generate the most exposure in practice:

• Power-driven machinery — item I bars operating or assisting in the operation of “industrial trucks (forklifts); meat saws and meat grinders; milling machines; punch presses, press brakes, and shears; and woodworking machinery such as circular saws, radial saws, jointers, and shaping machines,” and the list is expressly non-exhaustive.
• Construction or building projects — item F, flatly.
• Driving — item K bars driving motor vehicles except within stated license-class limits, and no one under 18 may drive a passenger-carrying vehicle as a hired driver.
• Building maintenance above 12 feet — item Q.
• Chemicals, explosives, logging, sawmills, mines and gravel pits, ice harvesting, commercial vessels, non-automatic hoists, railroad work, lifeguarding without certification, aerial acts, amusement ride operation, liquor service, and welding — items A through E, G, H, J, L through P, and R.
• A catch-all — item S: “In any occupation or activity, or on any site, which is hazardous or dangerous to life, limb, or health.”

For minors under 16, part 5200.0920 adds thirteen more: airport aprons, driving, skeet and trap loading, lifting or personally caring for patients, welding of any kind, a further machinery list (farm tractors, laundry and dry cleaning equipment, sidewalk snow blowers and power lawn and garden equipment, drill presses and lathes and portable power tools, meat slicers, textile machinery, bakery machinery), oiling or cleaning power machinery in motion or at rest, service-station pits and racks and tire mounting, processing-plant killing and cutting operations, walk-in meat freezers, hazardous agricultural occupations declared by the U.S. Secretary of Labor, warehouse packaging and stock-clerking, and car-wash conveyor work.

Four exceptions cut across both lists, in Minn. R. 5200.0930: state-approved apprenticeship or approved training programs (subp. 1); tasks that do not require entering the immediate area of the hazard (subp. 2); a minor who has reached 17 and graduated from high school, who is excluded from part 5200.0910 entirely (subp. 3); and minors working for a corporation wholly owned by one or both parents where a parent supervises the daily business (subp. 4).

Three statutory carve-outs sit outside the rules:

• Amusement rides. Minors 16 or 17 may operate rides or load and unload passengers if every condition in § 181A.04, subd. 7 is met — fixed-site park only, one ride at a time, a trained supervisor at least 18 on premises operating under a written supervision policy, compliance with ch. 184B, and the incident-log requirement of § 184B.045. “Operation” excludes maintenance, testing, repair, erection, and dismantling.
• Lawn care equipment. Section 181A.116 permits 16- and 17-year-olds to operate defined lawn care equipment, but only in four narrow settings — direct employment by a golf course, resort, or municipality doing lawn care on those grounds, or direct employment by a rental property owner doing lawn care on that owner’s rental property — and only with type-specific safety training and required personal protective equipment.
• Liquor. Section 181A.115 bars anyone under 18 from rooms where liquor is served or consumed, with four exceptions: 16-and-over busing, dishwashing, or hosting where the presence of intoxicating liquor is incidental to food service; the same 16-and-over roles plus waiter or waitress service where 3.2 percent malt liquor is incidental to food service; 16-and-over musical entertainment where liquor is incidental to food service; and, separately, work at tasks not otherwise prohibited by law in rooms or areas of the establishment where no liquor is consumed or served.

Note also that § 181A.04, subd. 5 itself now says the hazardous-occupations bar “does not apply to minors employed in retail stores that are nonseasonal and are of a nontransient nature and which sell or offer for sale explosives or pyrotechnics.”

What does a violation of the Minnesota child labor law actually cost?

Less than the federal penalty for the same conduct — sharply so where a minor is actually hurt: Minnesota’s fine schedule tops out at $5,000, against a federal ceiling of $72,876 (more, if the federal violation was repeated or willful).

Section 181A.12, subd. 1(a) sets the state fine schedule. As amended in 2024, the operative sentence now reads: “Fines are up to the amounts as follows for each violation.” The amounts themselves, each stated per employee:

• Employing a minor under 14 — $500
• Employing a minor under 16 during school hours while school is in session — $500
• Employing a minor under 16 before 7:00 a.m. — $500
• Employing a minor under 16 after 9:00 p.m. — $500
• Employing a high school student under 18 in violation of § 181A.04, subd. 6 — $1,000
• Employing a minor under 16 more than eight hours a day — $500
• Employing a minor under 16 more than 40 hours a week — $500
• Employing a minor under 18 in an occupation hazardous or detrimental to well-being as defined by rule — $1,000
• Employing a minor under 16 in such an occupation — $1,000
• A minor under 18 injured in hazardous employment — $5,000
• A minor employed without proof of age — $250

Refusing to make certificates or lists available draws a separate $500 fine. § 181A.12, subd. 1(b). Fines are recovered by the department in a civil action in district court and deposited in the general fund.

Now the federal side. A violation of 29 U.S.C. § 212 or § 213(c) exposes the employer to a civil money penalty, inflation-adjusted annually, currently:

(A) $16,035 for each employee who was the subject of such a violation; or (B) $72,876 with regard to each such violation that causes the death or serious injury of any employee under the age of 18 years, which penalty may be doubled where the violation is a repeated or willful violation.

29 C.F.R. § 579.1(a)(1)(i) (amounts as published in the eCFR text current August 2026; they adjust each year). Minnesota’s ceiling for a minor injured in hazardous employment is $5,000. The federal ceiling for the same injury is $72,876, and $145,752 if the violation was repeated or willful.

Criminal exposure exists but is thin. An employer or other person who violates the Act — “excluding section 181A.04, subdivision 6” — is guilty of a misdemeanor. § 181A.12, subd. 2. Repeated violations, or a single violation causing the minor’s death or substantial bodily harm as defined in § 609.02, subd. 7a, are a gross misdemeanor. Subd. 3. A misdemeanor carries up to 90 days or a $1,000 fine; a gross misdemeanor, up to 364 days or $3,000. Minn. Stat. §§ 609.02, subds. 3–4; 609.03. Note the drafting: the late-night high school rule carries the second-highest fine on the schedule and no criminal penalty at all, because subdivisions 2 and 3 both expressly exclude it.

Did the 2024 amendments increase Minnesota’s child labor penalties?

No. That premise, widely repeated, does not survive the session law.

The dollar amounts in § 181A.12, subd. 1 were set by Laws 2000, ch. 488, art. 2, § 10 and have not been touched since. What Laws 2024, ch. 110, art. 2, § 14 did was convert “Fines are in the amounts as follows” to “Fines are up to the amounts as follows for each violation” — that is, it turned a fixed schedule into a schedule of discretionary maximums, while clarifying that the maximum attaches per violation rather than only per employee. It also added subdivision 1(c), which relieves the commissioner of the general penalty-factor analysis:

Notwithstanding the factors in section 14.045, subdivision 3, the commissioner need only consider the size of the business of the employer, the gravity of the violation, and the history of previous violations when determining the total amount of fines to issue under this subdivision.

The 2024 act did three other things to ch. 181A that matter more than the fine schedule:

1. Compliance orders became self-executing. The window to object to a commissioner’s compliance order moved from ten days to 15 calendar days — and, new, “[i]f, within 15 calendar days after being served with the order, the employer fails to file a written notice of objection with the commissioner, the order becomes a final order of the commissioner.” § 181A.08, subd. 2. Miss the window and there is nothing left to contest.
2. Cost-shifting. New subdivision 2a directs the commissioner, on finding a violation, to order the employer to cease and desist and take affirmative steps, and permits an order that the employer reimburse the department and the attorney general for litigation and hearing costs — attorney general services, private attorneys, ALJs, court reporters, expert witnesses, transcripts — unless the employer establishes extreme financial hardship. Interest accrues from the date the order is signed at the § 549.09, subd. 1(c) rate.
3. A private liquidated-damages remedy and an anti-retaliation provision — the subject of the next section.

Absent an effective-date clause, and with no appropriation items in the act, these took effect August 1, 2024 under Minn. Stat. § 645.02. Laws 2024, ch. 110 was signed May 17, 2024.

Can a minor sue an employer for a child labor violation?

Sometimes — and the answer changed in 2024.

Start with what is not there. Minn. Stat. § 181.171, the general private-action statute for chapter 181, enumerates the sections it reaches: §§ 181.02, 181.03, 181.031, 181.032, 181.08, 181.09, 181.10, 181.101, 181.11, 181.13, 181.14, 181.145, 181.15, 181.722, and 181.723. No provision of ch. 181A appears on that list. The Child Labor Standards Act has no general private right of action. In a 1977 footnote the supreme court described the Act’s enforcement scheme in a single clause: “even had the statute been in effect, the only penalty provided for its violation is conviction of a misdemeanor.” Danek v. Meldrum Manufacturing & Engineering Co., 312 Minn. 404, 413 n.4, 252 N.W.2d 255 (1977).

Two things have changed since.

Liquidated damages for hazardous employment. Minn. Stat. § 181A.12, subd. 4, added in 2024:

An employer who employs a minor in violation of section 181A.04, subdivision 5, may be liable to the minor for an amount equal to the minor’s regular rate of pay for all hours worked in violation of section 181A.04, subdivision 5, as liquidated damages, in addition to the wages earned by the minor.

Read the scope narrowly, because it is narrow. This runs to the minor, not to the department. But it is triggered only by a subdivision 5 violation — hazardous or detrimental occupations. Hour violations, age-floor violations, and proof-of-age failures do not trigger it.

Retaliation. Section 181A.12, subdivision 5 forbids an employer to “discharge, discipline, penalize, interfere with, threaten, restrain, coerce, or otherwise retaliate or discriminate against an employee for asserting rights or remedies under sections 181A.01 to 181A.12,” including filing or announcing an intent to file a department complaint or participating in an investigation. The remedy as written runs through the agency: “the commissioner may order an employer in violation of this subdivision to provide back pay, compensatory damages, reinstatement, and any other appropriate relief to the aggrieved employee.” The subdivision does not on its face create a court action. A minor who is fired for complaining should also evaluate the Minnesota Whistleblower Act, which does.

What happens when the minor is injured?

The workers’ compensation act swallows the tort claim — but the child labor violation still does real work.

Minnesota’s workers’ compensation definition of “employee” expressly includes “a minor,” Minn. Stat. § 176.011, subd. 9(a)(2), and the supreme court held in Danek that this forecloses a common-law action even by an illegally employed minor:

Since the act now applies to all minors, the remedies of the act are exclusive and common-law actions against an employer are barred.

312 Minn. at 413–14, 252 N.W.2d 255. See our discussion of the exclusive remedy rule.

Three qualifications keep the child labor violation relevant.

First, the uninsured employer loses the shield. Section 176.031 provides that where an employer other than the state or a municipal subdivision “fails to insure or self-insure liability for compensation to injured employees and their dependents,” the injured employee “may elect to claim compensation under this chapter or to maintain an action in the courts for damages on account of such injury or death.” In that action the employee need not plead or prove freedom from contributory negligence, and the employer may not plead fellow-servant, assumption of risk, or contributory negligence unless the employee’s negligence was willful, on which the employer bears the burden. An employer willing to put a 15-year-old on a punch press is frequently an employer without a comp policy.

Second, where the child labor violation is in play, the minor’s own carelessness is not a defense. Minnesota treats child labor statutes as one of the classic “exceptional statutes” imposing absolute liability. In Zerby v. Warren, the supreme court explained the test:

In order to create absolute liability, it must be found that the legislative purpose of such a statute is to protect a limited class of persons from their own inexperience, lack of judgment, inability to protect themselves or to resist pressure, or tendency toward negligence.

297 Minn. 134, 139–40, 210 N.W.2d 58 (1973). The court then listed the categories: “Types of statutes which would be exceptions to the general rule include (1) child labor statutes; (2) statutes for the protection of intoxicated persons; and (3) statutes prohibiting sale of dangerous articles to minors.” Id. at 140. The rule goes back a century. In Dusha v. Virginia & Rainy Lake Co., where a boy under 16 died working around mill machinery in violation of the then-current child labor statute, the court held: “We hold in harmony with the holdings elsewhere that contributory negligence and assumption of risks are not defenses open to the employer.” 145 Minn. 171, 174 (1920).

The court of appeals applied that framework to ch. 181A in Keenan v. Hydra-Mac, Inc., 422 N.W.2d 741 (Minn. Ct. App. 1988), where a 16-year-old was injured operating a skid-steer loader. The parties did not dispute that the employer was “absolutely liable to Keenan for Keenan’s injuries and may not assert Keenan’s negligence as a defense to its own liability because Keenan was a minor and operating ‘power-driven machinery’ at the time of his accident,” id. at 744, citing Dusha and Zerby. What the court actually decided was that the employer’s child labor violation was not a superseding cause insulating the machine’s manufacturer and dealer: “Keenan’s fortuitous status as a minor should not preclude him from asserting claims against the manufacturer and dealer whose negligence contributed to his injuries.” Id. at 745.

Third, the product case is usually the case. Keenan is the template for a serious minor-injury file in Minnesota: comp benefits from the employer, a products or premises claim against the equipment manufacturer, dealer, or property owner, and the child labor violation used to establish the employer’s fault share and to defeat a superseding-cause defense. On the offsets that follow, see comparative fault and collateral source.

One procedural point counsel miss: an injured minor employee must have a guardian or conservator to obtain compensation once the case crosses the thresholds in Minn. Stat. § 176.092, subd. 1, and a parent is presumed to be that guardian under subd. 1a. If the attorney knows or has reason to believe the employee is a minor and no guardian exists, the attorney has 30 days to seek a district court appointment. § 176.092, subd. 2.

The July 1, 2025 rule nobody sent a memo about: family content creators

Laws 2024, ch. 103 added Minn. Stat. § 181A.13, and by its own terms § 181A.13 took effect July 1, 2025. It regulates a relationship most people would never call employment: a parent who films a child for money.

Who is covered. A “content creator” is an individual 18 or older, “including family members, who create video content performed in Minnesota in exchange for compensation,” and includes an entity assuming the name or identity of such an individual or family. § 181A.03, subd. 4b. It does not include a person under 18 producing their own content.

When a minor is “engaged in the work of content creation.” Two criteria, both measured at any time in the previous 12 months: (1) at least 30 percent of the creator’s compensated video content produced within a 30-day period included the minor’s likeness, name, or photograph — measured by the share of segment time in which the minor visually appears or is the subject of the oral narrative; and (2) the video met the platform’s compensation threshold or the creator was actually paid at least $0.01 per view. § 181A.13, subd. 1(a).

The under-14 rule.

A minor under the age of 14 is prohibited from engaging in the work of content creation as provided in paragraph (a). If a minor under the age of 14 is featured by a content creator, the minor shall receive 100 percent of the proceeds of the creator’s compensation for the content they have appeared in, less any amount owed to another minor.

§ 181A.13, subd. 1(b). A minor 14 or over who is compensated under the section is exempt from the § 181A.04, subd. 1 age floor. Subd. 6. A minor over 13 and under 18 may produce and publish their own content and is entitled to all compensation for it. Subd. 1(c). A minor who appears incidentally in video of a public event a reasonable person would know to be broadcast — a concert, competition, or sporting event — is outside the section. Subd. 1(d).

The trust. For a covered minor, the creator must set aside gross earnings in a trust account preserved for the minor’s benefit until majority. If one minor meets the threshold, the set-aside is a percentage of gross earnings on the segment equal to at least half the content percentage attributable to the minor; if more than one minor appears in a segment, that percentage is divided equally among them regardless of differing shares. § 181A.13, subd. 3(a). The account must be available only to that minor, held by a bank, corporate fiduciary, or trust company as defined in ch. 48A, released at 18 or on emancipation, and structured to satisfy ch. 527, the Uniform Transfers to Minors Act. Subd. 3(b).

Records. Six categories — proof of the minor’s age, the compensated content volume, total compensated minutes, total minutes featuring the minor, total compensation generated from content featuring the minor, and the amount deposited to the trust — retained until the minor reaches 21, kept readily accessible to the minor, with notice to the minor that they exist. § 181A.13, subd. 2.

Enforcement, and why it looks different from the rest of the chapter. The Child Labor Standards Act is, by its own citation clause, “[s]ections 181A.01 to 181A.12.” § 181A.01. Section 181A.13 sits outside that range — so the § 181A.12 fine schedule, the misdemeanor provisions, and the compliance-order machinery of § 181A.08 do not reach it. Instead the section supplies its own remedies. A minor may bring a civil action where the creator “knowingly or recklessly” violates the trust requirements, and the court may award actual damages including compensation owed, punitive damages, and costs including attorney fees and litigation costs. Subd. 3(c). Separately, the minor “may commence a civil action against the content creator for damages, injunctive relief, and any other relief the court finds just and equitable to enforce this section.” Subd. 4(a). The attorney general may enforce subdivision 1 pursuant to Minn. Stat. § 8.31 and recover costs and fees. Subd. 4(b). Whether that reference also imports the private attorney general remedy of § 8.31, subd. 3a is untested; the point is largely academic given the express private actions already in subdivisions 3 and 4.

Takedown. Subdivision 5 is the provision with the longest tail:

Content containing the likeness of a child must be deleted and removed from any online platform by the individual who posted the content, the account owner, or another person who has control over the account when the request is made by a minor age 13 or older whose likeness appears in the content, or by an adult who was under the age of 18 when their likeness was used in the content.

There is no time limit on that right. A 30-year-old can demand deletion of video posted when they were nine.

The federal agricultural cross-reference

Section 181A.11 is a single sentence with real consequences: “Nothing in sections 181A.01 to 181A.12 shall prohibit a person from employing a child in any agricultural pursuit permitted under the United States Code, title 29, section 213(c)(2).” Minnesota’s agricultural exemptions therefore float with the federal agricultural child labor rules rather than standing on their own. The federal hazardous-occupation orders for agriculture live at 29 C.F.R. part 570, subpart E-1; the non-agricultural orders at subpart E; and Minn. R. 5200.0920, item K independently bars minors under 16 from any agricultural occupation the U.S. Secretary of Labor declares particularly hazardous for that age group.

What an employer should actually do

1. Run both rulebooks. Build the schedule against the stricter of ch. 181A and 29 C.F.R. part 570 for every employee under 18. For 14- and 15-year-olds during the school year, that will almost always be the federal rule.
2. Get proof of age before the first shift, and keep it. Four documents qualify under § 181A.06, subd. 1. Without one, the employer forfeits the youth wage defense and takes on a $250-per-employee fine exposure.
3. Audit the equipment list, not the job title. Minn. R. 5200.0910, item I and 5200.0920, item F are equipment lists. A 17-year-old “stock clerk” who uses a box compactor or a pallet jack is doing prohibited work regardless of the title on the schedule.
4. Treat a 15-day compliance order as a deadline, not an invitation. Under § 181A.08, subd. 2 the order becomes final by operation of law if no written objection is filed.
5. If a minor is hurt, assume the file is a products file. Keenan is the pattern; preserve the machine, the manual, the retro-fit history, and the training records immediately.
6. If you feature your children in monetized video, you are covered. Section 181A.13 has applied since July 1, 2025. The trust and the records are not optional, and the records run until the child turns 21.

Madgett Law, LLC

Madgett Law, LLC handles Minnesota wage and hour disputes, including claims involving minor employees — unpaid wages, misclassification, retaliation, and the injury cases that follow a hazardous-occupation violation. We also advise small employers who need a defensible schedule and recordkeeping practice for workers under 18 before an inspection or a claim arrives. If you have a question about a specific situation, call 612-470-6529 or send us a message.

Related reading: Minnesota wage and hour guide · meal breaks, rest breaks, and overtime · the wage theft notice requirement · the Minnesota Whistleblower Act

Sources: Minn. Stat. § 181A.01 (Act’s citation range, “sections 181A.01 to 181A.12”); § 181A.03, subds. 4a, 4b, 5a (content creation, content creator, online platform definitions); § 181A.04, subd. 1 (age 14 floor), subd. 2 (school-hours bar), subd. 3 (7 a.m.–9 p.m. window), subd. 4 (8-hour day / 40-hour week under 16), subd. 5 (hazardous occupations; pyrotechnics retail carve-out), subd. 6 (high school students, 11 p.m./5 a.m. and its three exceptions), subd. 7 (amusement rides); § 181A.05, subds. 1, 4, 5 (employment certificates; return; cancellation); § 181A.06, subds. 1, 4 (four proof-of-age documents; retention); § 181A.07, subds. 1, 2, 3, 4, 4a, 5, 7 (exemptions); § 181A.08, subds. 1, 2, 2a, 3 (inspections; 15-day objection and final order; employer liability and cost reimbursement; restraining orders); § 181A.09, subds. 1–2 (rulemaking; hazardous occupation list); § 181A.11 (agricultural cross-reference to 29 U.S.C. § 213(c)(2)); § 181A.115 (liquor); § 181A.116 (lawn care equipment; four permitted settings); § 181A.12, subd. 1(a)–(c) (“up to” fine schedule for each violation; $500 certificate-refusal fine; § 14.045 factor limitation), subd. 2 (misdemeanor, excluding § 181A.04, subd. 6), subd. 3 (gross misdemeanor; substantial bodily harm), subd. 4 (liquidated damages for § 181A.04, subd. 5 violations), subd. 5 (retaliation; commissioner-ordered relief); § 181A.13, subds. 1–6 (content creation thresholds; under-14 prohibition and 100 percent proceeds; records to age 21; trust; civil actions and attorney general enforcement; takedown; age-floor exemption); § 181.171, subd. 1 (enumerated private actions — ch. 181A not listed); § 177.24, subd. 1(b)–(c) (90-day youth wage for employees under 20; anti-displacement; annual indexing); § 176.011, subd. 9(a)(2) (“a minor” as employee); § 176.031 (exclusive remedy; uninsured-employer election and lost defenses); § 176.092, subds. 1, 1a, 2 (guardian thresholds; parental presumption; 30-day appointment duty); § 609.02, subds. 3, 4, 7a; § 609.03 (misdemeanor and gross misdemeanor maximums); § 8.31, subd. 3a (private remedies); § 645.02 (August 1 default effective date). Minn. R. 5200.0010, subps. 1–2 (proof of age; adult minimum wage consequence; stale block quotes of §§ 181A.06 and 181A.12); 5200.0900 (home chore definition); 5200.0910, items A–S (prohibited employments under 18); 5200.0920, items A–M (additional prohibitions under 16); 5200.0930, subps. 1–4 (exceptions); 5200.0940, 5200.0950, 5200.0960 (special exemption permits). Laws 2024, ch. 110, art. 2, §§ 13–16 (signed May 17, 2024; § 181A.08 and § 181A.12 amendments; no effective-date clause); Laws 2024, ch. 103, § 4 (signed May 15, 2024; § 181A.13 effective July 1, 2025); Laws 2000, ch. 488, art. 2, § 10 (source of the fine amounts). 29 U.S.C. § 203(l) (oppressive child labor); § 212(a)–(d); § 213(c)(2); § 216(e)(1)(A) (statutory penalty maximums); § 218(a) (higher standard governs). 29 C.F.R. § 570.32; § 570.33; § 570.35(a)(1)–(6) (hours for 14- and 15-year-olds); § 570.39 (higher state standards preserved); part 570, subparts E and E-1; § 579.1(a)(1)(i) (current inflation-adjusted child labor civil money penalties). Danek v. Meldrum Manufacturing & Engineering Co., 312 Minn. 404, 413–14 & n.4, 252 N.W.2d 255 (1977) (workers’ compensation exclusivity bars an illegally employed minor’s common-law action). Zerby v. Warren, 297 Minn. 134, 139–40, 210 N.W.2d 58 (1973) (absolute liability test; child labor statutes as an exceptional category). Dusha v. Virginia & Rainy Lake Co., 145 Minn. 171, 174 (1920) (contributory negligence and assumption of risk unavailable to an employer violating a child labor statute). Keenan v. Hydra-Mac, Inc., 422 N.W.2d 741, 744–45 (Minn. Ct. App. 1988) (undisputed absolute liability for a power-driven-machinery violation; violation not a superseding cause as to manufacturer and dealer). This article is general legal information about Minnesota law. It is not legal advice, it does not create an attorney–client relationship, and no outcome is promised or implied. Federal civil money penalty amounts are adjusted annually and should be confirmed against the current eCFR text before use.