People everywhere are getting back to work or looking for work while trying to find the new normal that fits them. Whether people are looking to work online from home or out and about with people. Some are even to start working for the first time, especially younger people. Teens everywhere are talking about getting jobs or looking for some kind of work, but at what age can they legally work in Washington state?

Some assume the age is 16, others claim you won't even be considered for a real job until you're a legal adult. Yet others seem to be working before they're 16, so it sparked the question of when kids can start earning a paycheck without their employer getting in trouble for it.

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How early can Someone start working?

Believe it or not, you can start working at the age of 14 years old with a minor's work permit. There are some hoops you'll have to jump through to get this permit, it's also extremely unlikely that places like restaurants and supermarkets are willing to take the risk of having such a young minor working.

Working without a Permit

Now if you wanna skip the permit thing you can simply by leveling up to age 16, (sorry, gamer joke, I had to do it.) Once you are 16 it's an open world of opportunity unless you have to be 18 or even 21 for job qualifications. If you're looking to work in the food industry you'll have to get a food handler permit before any job will take you seriously. Other things you have to be aware of are the jobs you can't do even tho you are of legal working age. some of these include working an industrial oven, handling alcohol, or using other industrial equipment. However, this is on your place of work and not you, so if you assume you're being taken advantage of in the workplace do some quick searches and make sure that they're having you do your job by the book.

 

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