What work can 15 and 16 year olds do?

The employment of 15 year old and 16 year old children who have not reached school leaving age is restricted by the Children and Young Persons Act (1933).

Essentially, the restrictions on hours and types of work are the same as those applying to 14 year olds:

• not in prohibited industries
• only light work
• before 7am or after 7pm
• not during school hours on any day he or she is required to attend school
• not for more than 2 hours on any school day, or 12 hours in any school week, or for more than 2 hours on a school day.

However, at 15 and 16, a child may work for up to 8 hours on a weekday when he or she is not at school or on a Saturday and for up to 35 hours in a non-school week.

The National Minimum Wage applies to 16 and 17 year olds at £3.68 an hour (as of October 2011). Apprentices under the age of 19 (or over 19 but in the first year of their apprenticeship) are entitled to £2.50 an hour.

Statutory Sick Pay regulations also specify that only persons over the age of 16 years are entitled to sick pay, so a child under school leaving age is not entitled to SSP and, in reality, is most unlikely to receive contractual sick pay, even if prevented from working by illness.