Pay and Hours for Young Workers: 2026 Employer Law

Employing young workers brings distinct legal responsibilities that go beyond standard employment compliance. UK law imposes stricter controls on pay, working hours, rest breaks and night work for individuals under the age of 18, reflecting their status as a protected group in the labour market. For employers, failures in this area are rarely technical oversights; they are compliance breaches that can trigger enforcement action, financial penalties and reputational damage.

This is not an area where informal practices or operational convenience offer protection. The rules governing young workers are prescriptive, closely monitored and enforced by multiple regulators. HMRC enforces National Minimum Wage compliance, local authorities oversee child employment controls and working time breaches can raise wider workforce welfare and health and safety concerns. Employers must therefore approach the engagement of young workers with a clear understanding of both the statutory framework and the practical risks that arise from getting it wrong.

What this article is about

This article is a compliance-grade guide for HR professionals, business owners and senior managers on pay and working time rules for young workers under UK employment law. It explains who qualifies as a young worker, when they can lawfully be employed, how many hours they can work, what they must be paid and what additional safeguards apply, particularly in relation to night work and work experience. Throughout, the focus is on employer decision-making: what the law requires, what employers must actively check or control and the consequences of non-compliance.

The analysis assumes a working knowledge of employment law and is designed to support defensible, risk-aware decisions rather than provide general guidance. It addresses common grey areas, frequent compliance failures and the enforcement context employers operate within.

Section A: Who counts as a young worker under UK law?

For employers, the starting point for compliance is correctly identifying whether an individual is legally classed as a young worker. This is not a semantic exercise. Misclassification at this stage commonly leads to unlawful working hours, underpayment and record-keeping failures, all of which are enforceable breaches.

1. What is the legal definition of a young worker?

Under UK employment law, a “young worker” is someone who has reached school leaving age but is under 18 years old. This definition is used in the Working Time Regulations 1998 and it is the trigger for enhanced protections on working hours, rest breaks, rest periods and night work. Employers should treat the Working Time definition as the operational test for compliance, regardless of how the individual is described internally, for example as a “casual”, “trainee” or “work experience student”. If the statutory definition applies, the protections apply automatically.

2. Why school leaving age and jurisdiction matter

School leaving age is not uniform across the UK, which creates an immediate risk point for multi-site or national employers. In England, a young person reaches school leaving age on the last Friday in June of the school year in which they turn 16. Scotland and Wales apply different statutory frameworks and employers cannot assume that a 16-year-old has the same legal status across all jurisdictions. Failing to check this can result in unlawful child employment rather than lawful engagement of a young worker, a materially more serious breach that may draw local authority enforcement.

It is also essential to distinguish young workers from children below school leaving age. Children are subject to far tighter restrictions on hours, types of work and local authority permissions. Employers who treat children as young workers, whether deliberately or through poor onboarding checks, expose themselves to regulatory intervention and potentially criminal consequences in serious cases.

3. Does employment status change young worker protections?

Employment status still matters, but not in the way employers often assume. A young worker may be an employee or a worker for employment law purposes. While status can affect rights such as unfair dismissal protection, redundancy entitlement and some contractual remedies, it does not remove the Working Time protections that apply to young workers. The working time limits and night work restrictions apply regardless of whether the individual is engaged on a zero-hours contract, part-time contract or fixed-term arrangement.

Where an individual is engaged through work experience or an internship-style arrangement, employers should not assume that “learning” or “shadowing” avoids worker status. Labels are legally irrelevant. If the reality is that the individual performs work personally under the organisation’s direction, the risk of worker status and National Minimum Wage liability increases.

4. What employers must check and document before engagement

From a compliance perspective, employers should make and document three threshold determinations before engagement begins: the individual’s age, their school leaving status and the UK jurisdiction whose rules apply. Relying on assumptions, previous experience or informal assurances from the individual is a frequent cause of regulatory failure.

Employers should also ensure that recruitment, onboarding and rostering systems flag under-18 status so that working time limits and night work restrictions are applied in practice. This is particularly important in operational environments where managers adjust shifts informally to cover absences or peak demand.

Section summary

Correctly identifying who qualifies as a young worker is the foundation of lawful engagement. Employers who fail to assess age, school leaving status and jurisdiction at the outset risk breaching working time, pay and child employment rules simultaneously. Robust pre-employment checks and age-aware scheduling controls are core compliance requirements in this area.

Section B: When can young workers legally start work?

Once an employer has established that an individual meets the legal definition of a young worker, the next compliance question is whether and when that individual can lawfully start work. This is not determined solely by age. It is shaped by school leaving rules, participation requirements and, in some cases, local authority oversight. Employers who overlook these layers often assume they are operating lawfully when they are not.

1. When is a young person legally allowed to start work?

A young person can enter full-time employment only once they have reached minimum school leaving age. In England, this is the last Friday in June of the academic year in which the individual turns 16. Until that point, the individual remains a child for employment law purposes, even if they are approaching their 16th birthday. Employing a child outside the tightly controlled child employment framework is unlawful and exposes the employer to intervention by the local authority.

Where a young person has not yet reached school leaving age, work is only lawful in limited circumstances and is normally controlled through local authority rules, including restrictions on hours and, in many cases, a permit system. Employers should treat any request to start work before school leaving age as a higher-risk compliance scenario and ensure that local requirements are checked before any work begins.

2. What is the England “duty to participate” and does it affect employers?

In England, reaching school leaving age does not mean young people can simply move into unrestricted full-time work. Young people aged 16 and 17 remain subject to the “duty to participate” in education or training until their 18th birthday. This duty is a legal obligation on the young person, not a direct statutory duty on the employer.

However, employers can still face indirect scrutiny where work arrangements make participation unrealistic in practice. In particular, where an employer schedules hours that conflict with full-time education, prevents attendance at training or creates a pattern that undermines the young person’s ability to comply with participation requirements, the arrangement may attract attention from local authorities or education bodies. For risk management purposes, the employer’s safest position is to ensure the working pattern is compatible with lawful participation routes.

Between school leaving age and 18, a young person in England must be in one of the recognised participation pathways, such as full-time education or training, an apprenticeship or other work-based learning, or working or volunteering for 20 hours or more a week while in part-time education or training. Employers should understand which pathway applies in practice and structure hours accordingly.

3. What is different in Scotland and Wales?

The position differs across the UK. In Scotland and Wales, once a young person reaches the minimum school leaving age, there is no equivalent duty to participate. They may lawfully enter full-time employment without the additional participation constraint that applies in England. Employers operating across multiple nations should not apply a single onboarding rule based on the England position, as this can lead to incorrect assumptions about what is permitted and what checks are needed.

4. What employers must decide before confirming a start date

From a compliance perspective, employers should treat start dates for young workers as a controlled decision rather than an administrative step. Before confirming a start date, employers should verify school leaving status, confirm which UK nation’s rules apply and, in England, ensure the proposed working pattern is compatible with the young person’s participation route.

Where the role involves evening work, weekend work or fluctuating hours, employers should also consider in advance whether rostering practices could drift into non-compliance. It is materially easier to design a compliant working pattern at offer stage than to retrofit compliance after the young person has started.

Section summary

Employers can only lawfully engage young workers once minimum school leaving age has been reached and, in England, should also structure work in a way that is compatible with the young person’s participation obligations up to age 18. Starting work too early or setting working patterns that undermine education or training can create compliance exposure and regulatory intervention risk. Careful pre-start checks and documented decision-making are essential.

Section C: What hours can young workers legally work?

Working hours for young workers are subject to stricter statutory controls than those that apply to adult staff. These limits are not guidelines or best practice standards; they are binding legal requirements under the Working Time Regulations 1998. Employers who exceed them, even inadvertently, are in breach and may face enforcement action.

1. What are the maximum working hours for young workers?

A young worker must not work more than 8 hours in any day or 40 hours in any week. Unlike adult workers, young workers cannot opt out of these limits. Any contractual provision that purports to allow longer hours is unenforceable and offers no defence if a breach occurs.

This is a frequent compliance failure in sectors with variable demand, such as hospitality, retail and logistics, where scheduling pressures can override legal constraints if controls are weak. Employers should assume that “helping out”, “staying late” or “covering a gap” can create an immediate breach if it pushes daily or weekly hours beyond the statutory ceiling.

2. What rest breaks must young workers receive during shifts?

Young workers are entitled to enhanced rest break protections. Where a young worker’s working day is longer than 4.5 hours, they must receive a rest break of at least 30 uninterrupted minutes. The break must be taken during working time and cannot be replaced by placing the break at the start or end of the shift. Employers should also avoid treating short paid breaks as sufficient unless the legal requirement for an uninterrupted 30-minute break is met.

From a risk perspective, the most common failure is operational rather than contractual. Breaks may exist on paper but are missed in practice due to understaffing or peak demand. Where managers routinely allow this to happen, it creates a repeatable breach that can be evidenced through rotas, time records, CCTV and witness evidence.

3. What daily and weekly rest periods apply?

Daily and weekly rest periods are equally prescriptive. A young worker is entitled to 12 consecutive hours’ rest in each 24-hour period in which they work. They must also receive 48 hours’ uninterrupted rest each week.

There is a limited exception where there is a good business reason why 48 consecutive hours’ weekly rest is not possible. In that case, the young worker must receive at least 36 consecutive hours, with the remaining 12 hours taken as soon as possible afterwards. Employers should treat this as a narrow, objectively justified exception. It should not be used routinely, and it should not be treated as a discretionary option to solve rostering inconvenience. If the business relies on the reduced weekly rest position, it should be able to evidence why the longer weekly rest was not practicable and how the remaining rest was provided promptly.

4. Do contract types change the working time rules?

These working time limits apply regardless of the contractual arrangement. Zero-hours contracts, part-time roles and fixed-term engagements do not dilute the protections. Nor does the fact that a young worker is willing to work longer hours or has done so previously for another employer. Consent is legally irrelevant in this context.

From a compliance perspective, the highest risk arises where rotas are adjusted informally, shifts are extended at short notice or young workers are used to cover unexpected absences. Without real-time monitoring and managerial training, it is easy for daily or weekly limits to be exceeded, particularly across multiple sites or departments.

Section summary

Young workers are subject to absolute daily and weekly working time limits and enhanced rest entitlements that cannot be waived. Employers must actively control scheduling, ensure breaks are taken in practice and apply any reduced weekly rest exception only where it is objectively justified and promptly made good. Relying on contractual wording, worker consent or operational pressure does not mitigate liability where limits are breached.

Section D: Can young workers work nights or late shifts?

Night work is one of the most tightly regulated aspects of young worker employment and a common source of enforcement risk for employers. The legal framework starts from a clear presumption that young workers should not be exposed to night working, with only narrow and carefully controlled exceptions. Employers who misunderstand or overextend these exceptions frequently find themselves in breach.

1. What counts as prohibited night work for young workers?

As a general rule, a young worker must not work during the restricted night period. This is normally between 10pm and 6am. Where the employment contract expressly allows for later working, the restricted period shifts to between 11pm and 7am. This contractual provision does not authorise night work; it merely defines the boundaries of the statutory restriction. Employers often assume that contract wording permitting late work creates flexibility, when in reality the prohibition still applies.

Any attempt to schedule young workers routinely within these restricted periods without a valid statutory exception will be unlawful, regardless of operational need or worker consent.

2. When do the sector-based exceptions apply?

There are limited sector-specific exceptions that allow young workers to work later than 10pm or earlier than 7am. These include areas such as agriculture, hospitality, retail, healthcare, bakeries and newspaper delivery. These exceptions are tightly constrained and apply only where two conditions are met.

First, there must be no adult workers available to perform the work. This is not a cost-based test. The fact that adult labour would be more expensive or less convenient does not justify using a young worker. Employers should be able to evidence that adult cover was genuinely unavailable at the relevant time.

Second, the work must not have a negative effect on the young person’s education or training. This requires a real assessment of working patterns, not a general assumption. Where late working leads to fatigue, missed education or reduced training engagement, the exception is unlikely to apply.

3. What additional safeguards must employers put in place?

Where a young worker lawfully works late under an exception, the employer must implement additional protections. These include ensuring appropriate adult supervision where necessary for the young worker’s protection and providing compensatory rest if normal daily or weekly rest periods are disrupted.

Employers should document how supervision is provided and how compensatory rest is delivered. In enforcement scenarios, the absence of evidence often leads regulators to conclude that safeguards were not properly implemented, even if managers believed they were acting responsibly.

4. Is any night work completely prohibited?

Yes. There is an absolute ban on employing anyone under the age of 18 between midnight and 4am. This prohibition applies regardless of sector, contractual terms or business need. There are no exceptions. Scheduling work during this period is a clear breach and is likely to attract immediate regulatory attention.

From a risk management perspective, night work involving young workers should be treated as exceptional. Employers should expect that regulators will assess these arrangements not only against the Working Time Regulations but also against broader safeguarding and health and safety standards.

Section summary

Night work for young workers is heavily restricted and subject to strict conditions. Contract wording does not create permission to work late, sector-based exceptions are narrow and evidentially demanding, and an absolute ban applies between midnight and 4am. Poor control of night working arrangements presents a high risk of enforcement and reputational damage.

Section E: What must young workers be paid?

Pay compliance for young workers is closely scrutinised and actively enforced, particularly by HMRC in its role as National Minimum Wage enforcement authority. While the core obligation appears straightforward, employers frequently fall into breach through misunderstanding age thresholds, employment status or the treatment of training, apprenticeships and work experience.

1. When does the National Minimum Wage apply to young workers?

Any individual who is above compulsory school leaving age and is legally classed as a worker or employee must be paid at least the National Minimum Wage. For most young workers, this means the specific 16–17 year old National Minimum Wage rate, unless a higher age-based rate applies due to the individual’s age.

The obligation to pay the correct rate applies regardless of hours worked, contract type or length of service. Paying less on the basis that the role is part-time, short-term, casual or informal is unlawful. Employers should also be aware that willingness to work for less, or agreement to unpaid work, has no legal effect where worker status exists.

2. How does apprentice pay work for under-18s?

Apprenticeship pay is a common source of error. Young workers may be paid the apprentice rate of the National Minimum Wage only where they are engaged as an apprentice under an approved statutory apprenticeship framework or standard. Even then, the apprentice rate applies only if the individual is under 19 or aged 19 or over and in the first year of their apprenticeship.

Where a young person is described as an apprentice but the arrangement does not meet the legal definition of an approved apprenticeship, the apprentice rate does not apply. In those circumstances, the individual must be paid at least the age-appropriate National Minimum Wage. Mislabelled “apprenticeships” are a frequent trigger for HMRC enforcement action.

3. Does training and induction time count as paid working time?

Time spent on mandatory training, inductions and job-related learning generally counts as working time for National Minimum Wage purposes. This includes required health and safety training, onboarding sessions and compulsory study time linked to the role. Excluding this time from pay calculations can result in underpayment, even where headline hourly rates appear compliant.

Employers should ensure that payroll systems capture all time that qualifies as working time and that managers understand that training time is not optional from a pay perspective.

4. When can young people lawfully work without pay?

There are limited circumstances in which young people may lawfully work without pay. The most common example is a short-term work experience placement that forms part of a recognised educational course. These arrangements must be genuinely educational, time-limited and structured around learning rather than productive output.

Employers frequently misapply this exception by extending placements beyond their educational purpose or using young people to perform regular operational tasks. Once the arrangement functions as productive work under the employer’s direction, National Minimum Wage obligations are likely to arise, regardless of age.

5. What are the consequences of getting pay wrong?

The consequences of underpaying young workers extend beyond back pay. HMRC can impose financial penalties, require repayment of arrears and publicly name non-compliant employers. For businesses that employ young workers in customer-facing roles, public naming can have a disproportionate reputational impact and affect recruitment, retention and brand perception.

Section summary

Young workers who are above school leaving age and engaged as workers or employees must be paid at least the applicable National Minimum Wage rate. Special rules apply to apprentices, but only where statutory conditions are met. Misclassifying roles, excluding training time or relying on informal unpaid arrangements exposes employers to HMRC enforcement, financial penalties and reputational harm.

Section F: How do work experience and internships affect pay and hours?

Work experience and internship arrangements involving young people are a frequent source of legal risk for employers. These arrangements are often informal and well-intentioned, but they are closely scrutinised by regulators where they drift into unpaid work or excessive hours. Employers must assess these arrangements by reference to legal substance, not labels or expectations.

1. When does work experience create worker or employee status?

The key legal test is whether the individual is required to perform work personally under the direction or control of the organisation. If a young person is expected to attend set hours, carry out tasks of value to the business and follow managerial instructions, they are likely to be classed as a worker or employee. Where this threshold is met, young worker protections apply in full, including limits on working hours, rest breaks and entitlement to the National Minimum Wage once school leaving age has been reached.

Employers should not assume that describing a placement as “work experience” or “internship” avoids these obligations. Regulators and tribunals will look at the reality of the arrangement rather than its description.

2. When can work experience be unpaid?

Unpaid work experience is lawful only in limited circumstances. The clearest example is a placement that forms part of a recognised course of education, such as a school or college-arranged placement. In these cases, the placement must be genuinely educational, time-limited and structured around learning objectives rather than operational output.

Employers should be cautious about extending placements, increasing responsibilities or allowing the young person to fill staffing gaps. These factors strongly indicate productive work and significantly increase the risk that National Minimum Wage obligations apply.

3. How are internships involving young workers treated?

Internships involving young workers require particularly careful scrutiny. Where an internship involves regular hours, defined duties and ongoing supervision, it will almost always trigger worker status. The fact that the individual is young, keen to gain experience or willing to work unpaid does not alter the legal position.

HMRC enforcement action frequently focuses on internships that last several weeks or months, involve routine operational work or replace paid staff. Employers relying on unpaid internships for under-18s without a clear educational exemption risk retrospective wage claims and financial penalties.

4. Do working time limits still apply to unpaid placements?

Even where a placement is genuinely unpaid, working time protections may still apply. Excessive hours, failure to provide rest breaks or exposure to prohibited night work can constitute breaches of young worker protections, regardless of whether wages are paid. Employers must therefore assess both pay risk and working time risk when designing work experience arrangements.

5. What practical controls should employers put in place?

From a risk management perspective, employers should document the purpose, duration and educational basis of any unpaid placement involving a young person. Arrangements should be reviewed regularly to ensure they have not evolved into productive work. Informal extensions, role creep and unrecorded hours are common triggers for enforcement action.

Section summary

Work experience and internships involving young workers require careful legal analysis. Unpaid arrangements are lawful only in narrow, clearly defined circumstances. Where placements involve productive work, regular hours or extended duration, pay and working time protections are likely to apply, exposing employers to enforcement and reputational risk if misjudged.

Section G: What records must employers keep for young workers?

Record keeping is a critical but often underestimated element of young worker compliance. While employers are not required to keep a complete log of every hour worked, the law does require employers to retain sufficient records to demonstrate that young worker protections are being met. In practice, weak or missing records can fatally undermine an employer’s position, even where working arrangements are intended to be compliant.

1. What working time records are employers legally required to keep?

Employers must be able to show that young workers do not work more than 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week and that they are not undertaking prohibited night work, including work between midnight and 4am. This does not require minute-by-minute timekeeping, but it does require records that allow working patterns to be reconstructed if challenged.

Examples include rotas, timesheets, clock-in data or scheduling system records. Reliance on informal shift swaps, verbal arrangements or manager recollection creates a significant evidential risk if compliance is questioned by regulators or challenged by the worker.

2. What additional records are required for night work?

Where a young worker lawfully undertakes night work under a permitted exception, employers must keep records showing that health assessments were offered before night work began and at appropriate intervals during employment. Failure to evidence these assessments is treated as a breach in its own right, regardless of whether any harm has occurred.

Employers should also be able to demonstrate how additional safeguards, such as supervision and compensatory rest, were provided in practice. In enforcement scenarios, regulators typically focus on documentary evidence first, and the absence of records is often taken as evidence that safeguards were not properly implemented.

3. How long must records be retained?

Records relating to young worker working time and night work must be retained for at least two years from the date they are made. Employers who delete or overwrite records earlier, or who cannot retrieve them in an accessible format, may be unable to defend enforcement action even where historic practices were compliant.

For organisations with high staff turnover or decentralised record systems, retention failures are a common vulnerability. Employers should ensure that record retention policies explicitly cover young worker compliance records.

4. What systems and controls reduce record-keeping risk?

From a practical perspective, employers should ensure that time-recording and scheduling systems flag under-18 status automatically and apply the correct legal limits. Generic systems that treat all staff in the same way increase the risk that young workers are scheduled unlawfully without detection.

Manager training is also critical. Many record-keeping failures arise not from policy gaps but from supervisors failing to record changes to shifts or allowing informal extensions to working hours.

Section summary

Employers must keep sufficient records to demonstrate compliance with young worker working time and night work rules and retain them for the required period. Weak, incomplete or inaccessible records significantly increase enforcement risk and can undermine an employer’s defence even where breaches were unintended.

Section H: What happens if employers get this wrong?

Non-compliance with pay and working time rules for young workers carries a level of legal and commercial risk that is often underestimated. Breaches in this area rarely remain isolated. They can trigger scrutiny from multiple regulators and escalate quickly from a technical failure into a broader compliance, safeguarding and governance issue.

1. What enforcement action can regulators take?

Where pay obligations are breached, HMRC has primary enforcement responsibility under the National Minimum Wage regime. HMRC can require employers to repay arrears to affected young workers, impose financial penalties and publicly name non-compliant organisations. Underpayment involving young workers is treated as a higher-risk issue because of the vulnerability of the group involved, and enforcement activity in this area is active rather than reactive.

Working time breaches, including excessive hours or unlawful night work, may attract intervention from local authorities or the Health and Safety Executive, depending on the nature of the failure. Where breaches suggest inadequate safeguarding or exposure to risk, enforcement action can extend beyond civil penalties and into more serious regulatory consequences.

2. Can employers face tribunal claims?

Yes. Young workers who have been underpaid or subjected to unlawful working arrangements may bring employment tribunal claims for unlawful deduction from wages or breach of working time rights. Where age-related treatment is mishandled, discrimination complaints under the Equality Act 2010 may also arise.

Although individual awards may be modest, tribunal proceedings create management distraction, legal costs and reputational exposure. For employers with multiple young workers or systemic compliance weaknesses, claims may also reveal wider organisational risk.

3. What are the wider business and reputational risks?

Beyond formal enforcement and litigation, failures involving young workers can have significant reputational consequences. Public naming by HMRC, adverse media coverage or complaints raised through social media can damage employer brand and undermine recruitment efforts, particularly in sectors that rely heavily on younger staff.

There are also wider governance implications. Young worker exploitation and safeguarding issues are increasingly relevant to ESG reporting, public sector procurement and tender processes. Evidence of poor compliance can affect eligibility for contracts and partnerships, particularly where ethical labour standards are scrutinised.

4. Why senior management oversight matters

From a governance perspective, compliance failures involving young workers tend to attract heightened scrutiny because of the protected status of the group involved. Boards and senior leaders should therefore treat young worker compliance as a risk management issue rather than a purely HR or operational concern.

Effective oversight includes clear policies, manager training, internal audits and escalation routes where compliance risks are identified. Many breaches occur at supervisory level, where operational pressures override legal constraints. Without senior oversight, these risks often go unmanaged.

Section summary

Getting pay and working time rules wrong for young workers exposes employers to financial penalties, back pay liabilities, regulatory enforcement, tribunal claims and reputational harm. Breaches are rarely treated as minor errors and can escalate into wider compliance and governance issues. Proactive controls, training and oversight are essential to manage risk effectively.

FAQs

1. Can a 16-year-old work full time in the UK?

A 16-year-old can work full time only once they have reached minimum school leaving age. In England, this is the last Friday in June of the school year in which they turn 16. Even then, they remain subject to the duty to participate in education or training until age 18. This duty applies to the young person rather than the employer, but employers should ensure that working patterns do not undermine lawful participation. In Scotland and Wales, once school leaving age has been reached, full-time employment is permitted without an equivalent participation requirement.

2. Can young workers opt out of working time limits?

No. Young workers cannot opt out of the statutory limits on working time. The 8-hour daily limit and 40-hour weekly limit are absolute. Any agreement, whether written or verbal, that purports to allow longer hours is unenforceable and does not protect the employer from liability.

3. Do zero-hours contracts change the rules for young workers?

No. Contract type does not alter young worker protections. Young workers engaged on zero-hours contracts are subject to the same limits on working hours, rest breaks and night work as those on fixed or guaranteed-hours contracts. Employers must monitor hours across shifts and sites to ensure limits are not exceeded in practice.

4. Are young workers entitled to rest breaks even if they agree to skip them?

Yes. Rest break entitlements are statutory rights and cannot be waived. If a young worker’s shift exceeds 4.5 hours, they must receive a 30-minute uninterrupted break taken during the working day. A young worker’s willingness to skip breaks does not remove the employer’s legal obligation.

5. Can apprentices under 18 work longer hours because they are training?

No. Apprentices under 18 are still classed as young workers for Working Time purposes. Apprenticeship status does not disapply daily or weekly hour limits, rest break entitlements or night work restrictions. Employers must apply young worker protections alongside apprenticeship obligations.

6. Can employers use unpaid internships for under-18s?

Only in limited circumstances. Unpaid arrangements are lawful primarily where the placement forms part of a recognised educational course and is genuinely focused on learning rather than productive work. Where an under-18 performs regular duties under the employer’s direction, worker status and National Minimum Wage obligations are likely to arise.

7. What should an employer do if a young worker asks to work extra hours?

The employer must refuse if agreeing to the request would breach statutory limits. Enthusiasm, consent or operational pressure does not provide a legal defence. Employers should train managers to recognise that flexibility in this area is legally constrained and to escalate scheduling issues rather than resolve them informally.

Conclusion

Employing young workers requires a more controlled and risk-aware approach than employing adult staff. UK employment law imposes strict and non-negotiable rules on pay, working hours, rest breaks and night work for individuals under 18 and these rules are actively enforced. Employers who treat young worker engagement as flexible or informal arrangements expose themselves to avoidable compliance failures.

The most common risks arise from misclassification, weak scheduling controls, informal work experience arrangements and poor record keeping. These issues are rarely the result of deliberate non-compliance, but intent offers no protection where statutory limits are breached. Regulators focus on outcomes and evidence. Where controls are weak or records are missing, employers are likely to find themselves unable to demonstrate compliance.

For HR professionals and business owners, the key is to embed young worker compliance into recruitment, onboarding, rostering and payroll processes. Age verification, jurisdictional checks, clear contractual terms, real-time monitoring of hours and disciplined record retention should be treated as core controls rather than administrative burdens. Manager training is particularly important, as many breaches occur at supervisory level when operational pressures override legal constraints. With appropriate oversight and systems in place, the risks associated with employing young workers can be managed effectively and lawfully.

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