Quick Summary: Louisiana changed the work permit process in 2026. House Bill 232, signed May 11, 2026, moved the authority to issue employment certificates for 14 to 17 year olds away from schools and onto employers. Schools lost access to the state certificate system on July 24, 2026. You now download the Employment Certificate form from laworks.net, fill in the employer section, get a parent or guardian signature, and email it to EmploymentCertificate@la.gov. The certificate counts as issued once you get the confirmation email back. Keep it at the work site and hold it for two weeks after the minor stops working for you. Hour limits did not change: 14 and 15 year olds are capped at 3 hours on a school day, 8 on a non school day, 18 hours in a school week, and no work between 7 pm and 7 am once Labor Day passes.
If you hire high school students, the Louisiana work permit for minors in 2026 is now your paperwork, not the school’s. For years the routine was simple. You hired a 16 year old, sent them to the school board office, and they came back with a permit. That routine ended this summer. House Bill 232 was signed on May 11, 2026, and by July 24 schools no longer had access to the state system that issued employment certificates. The responsibility moved to you, the employer, for every worker between 14 and 17. The good news is that the new process is genuinely faster once you know it. The harder part is what comes after the form, because Louisiana still limits exactly when and how long a minor can work, and those limits tighten the week school starts. If you are already juggling shift swaps and split shifts, this is the same problem you have with every hourly employee, only with a legal ceiling on top. That is why scheduling and attendance turn into accurate paychecks is worth reading alongside this one, and why most of the businesses that get teen scheduling wrong are the ones still running the schedule on a whiteboard.
What House Bill 232 Actually Changed
For as long as most Louisiana business owners can remember, the local school board handled the paperwork the moment you hired a minor. House Bill 232, signed into law on May 11, 2026, ended that arrangement. The bill shifted the authority to issue employment certificates, what most people still call a work permit, from school issuing officers directly to the employer. The Louisiana Workforce Commission now oversees the certificate system through laworks.net, and it stopped granting school access to that system on July 24, 2026. That gap between the signing date and the cutoff date matters because it tells you the change is not theoretical or upcoming. It already happened. Every business in the state that plans to bring on a worker between 14 and 17 years old for the 2026 to 2027 school year is operating under the new rule right now, whether the front office has caught up or not. The practical effect is that a task you used to hand off to a school office is now a task your own HR function, or whoever answers the phone when a parent calls about paperwork, has to complete correctly the first time.
The New Employment Certificate Process, Step by Step
The mechanics are simpler than the old system, even if they feel unfamiliar the first time through. You start by downloading the Employment Certificate form directly from laworks.net. Fill in the employer section with the business information and job details, then have a parent or legal guardian sign the form. Once the signatures are complete, email the form to EmploymentCertificate@la.gov. The certificate is not considered issued the moment you hit send. It is issued when you receive a confirmation email back from the Louisiana Workforce Commission, so build a step into your hiring checklist that waits for that confirmation before the minor’s first shift. If a question comes up mid process, the Louisiana Workforce Commission can be reached at 225-342-2683. Businesses that used to think of the school certificate as a formality sometimes treat this the same way and let a new hire start before the confirmation lands. That is the single most common mistake employers are making with the new process, and it is an easy one to build a fix for once you know to expect it.
Louisiana Minor Work Hours Once School Starts
House Bill 232 changed who issues the paperwork. It did not touch the hour limits, and those limits are the part that actually costs money when they are missed. Fourteen and 15 year olds are capped at 3 hours on a school day and 8 hours on a non school day, with a total ceiling of 18 hours in a school week. During the school year those younger minors cannot work between 7 pm and 7 am, though that evening cutoff extends to 9 pm from June 1 through Labor Day. Sixteen and 17 year olds do not have a daily or weekly hour cap, but they still cannot be scheduled during hours they are required to be in school, and they are still entitled to the same unpaid meal period as younger minors.
| Age Group | School Day Max | Non School Day Max | Weekly Max |
| 14 to 15 | 3 hours | 8 hours | 18 hours |
| 16 to 17 | No cap | No cap | No cap |
The Hours Rules Nobody Reads Until They Get Caught
The rule that trips up the most Louisiana employers is not the headline number, it is the meal period. Any minor who works five consecutive hours is entitled to an unpaid meal period of at least 30 minutes, and that applies to every age group covered by the law, not just the youngest workers. The second rule that catches people off guard is the seasonal shift in the evening cutoff. A manager who memorizes the 7 pm rule in July gets it right all summer, then keeps scheduling a 15 year old past 7 pm the week after Labor Day because the rule quietly reverted while attention was on something else. That is exactly the kind of change that a whiteboard schedule does not flag and a real time and attendance system does.
What You Have to Keep on File, and for How Long
Once the certificate is issued, the compliance work is not finished. Louisiana requires you to keep the certificate at the work site where the minor is actually employed, not in a central HR office three towns away and not only in a cloud folder. You have to hold onto it for two weeks after the minor’s employment with you ends. If a labor inspector shows up, the expectation is that a manager on site can produce it, so a system that only stores certificates digitally at a corporate office does not satisfy the requirement on its own. A simple fix many Louisiana employers are adopting is a physical folder at each location, backed by a digital copy for retention.
Why Teen Schedules Break Payroll More Than Any Other Group
Teen scheduling is the single fastest way a Louisiana payroll department discovers a labor violation, and it usually happens after the paycheck runs rather than before the shift. A student picks up an extra Friday shift, a manager approves it without checking the weekly total, and the business has already violated the 18 hour cap by the time anyone notices. Businesses running schedules through spreadsheets or a whiteboard catch these violations the expensive way, after the fact. Businesses using time and attendance management catch the same violation before the shift is published, because the system can be configured to flag a minor’s schedule against the Louisiana limits automatically instead of relying on a manager’s memory.
Paying a First Job: Direct Deposit and Rapid Cards Instead of Paper Checks
A first job often comes with a first paycheck decision that has nothing to do with hours or certificates. Many teen employees do not have a bank account yet, which historically meant a paper check that sat in an envelope until a parent could get to a branch. Rapid Cards and similar pay card options solve that specific problem, letting a student’s first paycheck land somewhere usable on payday without waiting on a bank account to exist. For employers already juggling the certificate process and the hour limits, offering a pay card option removes one more manual step from the back to school hiring rush.
A Back to School Hiring Checklist for Louisiana Employers
Before the first student clocks in this school year, confirm four things. Confirm the Employment Certificate form has been downloaded from laworks.net for each new minor hire and that the parent or guardian signature is in place before the form is emailed. Confirm you have received the confirmation email from EmploymentCertificate@la.gov before scheduling that employee’s first shift. Confirm the certificate will be stored at the work site, not only at a central office, and that your process for holding it two weeks past the employment end date is built into your offboarding steps. Confirm your scheduling system, whatever it is, actually reflects the 7 pm cutoff that returns the week after Labor Day rather than the 9 pm summer cutoff that was accurate through the end of August. For a broader look at how Louisiana compliance obligations tie together across payroll and HR, our Louisiana payroll and HR compliance guide is a useful reference, and businesses in the restaurant and hospitality payroll for tipped and hourly staff space in particular tend to hire the highest volume of student workers each fall.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do 16 and 17 year olds still need a work permit in Louisiana?
They still need an employment certificate, but they no longer get it from a school. Under House Bill 232, the employer issues it. You complete the Employment Certificate form from laworks.net, have the parent or guardian sign, and email it to EmploymentCertificate@la.gov. The certificate is issued once you receive the confirmation email.
Who issues employment certificates for Louisiana minors now?
Employers do, with the Louisiana Workforce Commission managing the system. School issuing officers lost that authority when House Bill 232 took effect on May 11, 2026, and school access to the state certificate system ended on July 24, 2026. This applies to every worker aged 14 through 17, not just 16 and 17 year olds.
How many hours can a 15 year old work on a school day in Louisiana?
Three hours on a school day and eight hours on a non school day, with a cap of 18 hours during a school week. Fourteen and 15 year olds also cannot work between 7 pm and 7 am during the school year. From June 1 through Labor Day that evening cutoff extends to 9 pm.
How long do I have to keep a minor’s employment certificate?
Keep the certificate at the work site where the minor is employed, and hold it for two weeks after their employment ends. Storing it only in a central office or a cloud folder does not satisfy the on site requirement, so keep a copy where an inspector would actually look for it.
Do 16 and 17 year olds have hour limits in Louisiana?
Louisiana does not cap daily or weekly hours for 16 and 17 year olds, but you cannot schedule them during hours they are required to be in school. They are still entitled to an unpaid meal period of at least 30 minutes after five consecutive hours worked, the same as younger minors.
One whiteboard schedule mistake, one payroll headache. Let’s fix that.
The Paperwork Got Simpler. The Scheduling Did Not.
House Bill 232 took a real headache off Louisiana families and school offices, and for employers the form itself is a five minute job. The part that will actually cost you money this school year is the hours. Three hours on a school day is a narrow window, and it moves every time a student changes a class period or picks up a Friday football shift. Businesses that track this in a spreadsheet find the violation after payroll runs, which is the most expensive time to find it. Businesses that track it in a system that knows the rule catch it before the shift is even published.
If you are hiring students this August and you would rather not audit every teen timecard by hand, we can help. Coeur has spent 24 years handling this for Louisiana employers, and our time and attendance management tools flag a shift that breaks a minor’s hour limit before it becomes a payroll problem. Pair that with payroll management services and a student’s first paycheck lands on a Rapid Card or in a bank account on payday, instead of sitting in an envelope waiting for someone to come pick it up. Get a quote and we will look at your school year schedule with you.
