The decline is hastened dramatically when employment exceeds twenty hours per week. The FLSA only restricts the hours of employment for minors who are under age 16. Currently, the Fair Labor Standards Act and most state laws allow fourteen and fifteen year olds to work eighteen hours during a school week and forty or more hours during summer holidays. Older teens are less protected. Sixteen and seventeen year olds may work forty or more hours both during the school year and summer vacation.
Some state laws are even more flexible.
Some states such as New York and Washington offer stronger hours restrictions while other states such as Georgia and Texas set forth weaker restrictions. Also on the state level, child agricultural workers are even less protected than under federal law. The maximum hours of work while school is in session is either greatly extended or no maximum is set at all. For the states that do set maximum hours of work they are as high as 60 hours a week, even when school is in session. Most experts suggest a maximum of four hours per day and twenty hours per week while school is in session for all minors over the age of sixteen.