ShiftLens

Working hours for under-18s: 8 hours a day, 40 a week

Workers aged 16 and 17 can't work more than 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week. Unlike the adult 48-hour week, these limits can't be averaged out, and young workers can't opt out of them.

ShiftLens provides guidance, not legal advice. This guide is a summary for England, Scotland and Wales. Some rules have exceptions, and contracts or workforce agreements can change some of the details. For advice on your situation, contact Acas or an employment solicitor.

The rule

  • 8 hours a day. A day here means midnight to midnight.
  • 40 hours a week. A week runs from Monday to Sunday.

Breaks when no work is done don't count as working time. If a young worker has more than one job, the hours for each employer are added together.

Examples

  • A Saturday from 9am to 6pm with a 30-minute break. That's 8 hours 30 minutes of work, half an hour over the daily limit.
  • A summer week of five days like that. 42 hours 30 minutes, which is over 40 for the week as well.
  • A shift from 6pm to 2am. This one fails on timing before hours: an under-18 can't work between midnight and 4am. See night work rules for under-18s.

Exceptions

The limits don't apply when the extra hours are needed to keep the business running or to cope with a surge in demand, no adult worker is available to do the work, and it won't harm the young worker's education or training. They also don't apply in a genuine emergency that no adult is available to deal with.

Anyone still of compulsory school age is a child, and separate child employment rules apply. Your local council can tell you about them.

How ShiftLens checks this

ShiftLens needs to know who is under 18: a date of birth column, or an answer in “Add details” after the report. It then adds up each young worker's hours, less any recorded breaks, for every calendar day and every Monday-to-Sunday week, and marks anything over 8 or 40 as “Action needed”.

A rota only shows the hours for your business, so ShiftLens can't see a second job, or whether the exception above applies.

Check your rota for this

ShiftLens adds up each under-18's hours per day and per Monday-to-Sunday week, and tells you how much to cut if they're over. It's free, there's no sign-up, and your rota never leaves your browser.

Check your rota

Sources

gov.uk: maximum weekly working hours; gov.uk: calculating your working hours; Working Time Regulations 1998, regulation 5A; regulation 27A; regulation 27; gov.uk: child employment