CLAY COUNTY – Now that children and students are back in class, the rules change for those who want to keep earning extra money in their spare time.

Young workers can still have a safe and rewarding work experience after Labor Day … but with restrictions.

First, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, children younger than 18 are generally allowed to work for businesses entirely owned by their parents. The exceptions are mining and manufacturing companies or any business declared hazardous.

Hazardous duties include:

• Operating or cleaning power-driven meat processing machines like slicers, saws and choppers;

• Operating slicers used for meat, cheese and vegetables;

• Slaughtering, processing, rendering or packing meat and poultry;

• Operate power-driven circular saws, band saws, guillotine shears, chain saws, reciprocating saws, woodchippers, woodworking tools, nailing machines, sanders and abrasive cutting discs;

• Roofing, including work performed on the ground, such as removing the old roof;

• Driving or working outside as a driver’s helper to assist with loading, unloading and securing cargo;

• Work where explosives are manufactured or stored;

• Jobs in wrecking, demolition and ship-breaking operations;

• Operate, ride or help use power-driven equipment like forklifts, non-automatic elevators, skid-steers, skid-steer loaders, backhoes, manlifts, scissor lifts, cherry pickers, work-assist platforms, boom trucks and cranes;

• Operate balers, compactors, including trash compactors, and paper-product machines;

• Mining, including sand and gravel operations;

• Work where they can be exposed to rardioactive materials;

• Work where bricks, title ands similar products are manufactured;

• Industries that focus on logging or forestry, including fire prevention, timber tract management, logging or sawmilling;

• Operate, clean or repair power-driven bakery machines, including vertical dough and battery mixers, dough rollers, rounders, dividers and sheeters, cookie or cracker machines;

• Operate power-driven metal-working machines, including forming, punching and shearing machines;

• Companies that do trenching and excavation work exceeding four feet in depth.

Child Labor laws allow teens 16 or 17 years old to work unlimited hours other than those declared hazardous.

Rules are far more restrictive for younger workers.

For example, teens 14 and 15 aren’t allowed to work more than three hours a day on weekdays, including Fridays, and children of those ages cannot work more than 18 hours a week while school is in session. They also are limited to an eight-hour a day or more than 40 hours a week when isn’t in session.

Moreover, 14 and 15-year-olds can’t work before 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m. during school. The exception is June 1 through Labor Day, when the nighttime curfew is extended to 9 p.m.

The same rules apply to home-schooled students, those who attend private schools or are dropouts.

Other restrictions apply to this age group, like performing baking operations, youth peddling like sign waving or door-to-door activities and working on ladders, scaffolds and their substitutes.

The only allowable jobs for children younger than 14 are delivering newspapers, babysitting, working as an actor or making evergreen wreaths from home.

The minimum wage for workers younger than 18 is $7.25.