In Maine, no one under 18 years old may do work that involves:
Driving a vehicle or forklift
Using meat slicers or power-driven bakery machines
Serving or selling alcoholic beverages (17-year-olds can serve or sell
liquor if supervised by someone 21 or older)
Using a circular saw, band saw, guillotine shears, or a box crusher
Using power-driven woodworking machines
Working in wrecking, demolition, shipbreaking, or excavation
Exposure to radioactive substances
Using power-driven paper-products machines
Using power-driven metal-forming, punching, or shearing machines
Manufacturing brick, tile, or similar products
Manufacturing explosives or storing explosives
Mining, logging, or sawmilling
Using a power-driven hoisting apparatus
Slaughtering, packing, or processing meat
Most roofing or railway operations
Working in foundries or around blast furnaces
Manufacturing hazardous products such as phosphorus matches
Working as a firefighter or engineer on a boat
Working alone in a cash-based business
NO ONE under 16 years old may do work that involves:
Any work in a manufacturing facility (e.g. factory)*
Operating any power-driven machinery (except machines in offices, retail
stores, and food service, and gasoline pumps)
Cooking (except at soda fountains, lunch counters, snack bars, or cafeteria
serving counters) or baking
Working in freezers or meat coolers
Working in construction, transportation, communications, or public utilities
Working in warehouses (except clerical)
Loading or unloading trucks, railroad cars, or conveyors
Working on ladders or scaffolds
Washing windows in a public or commercial building if the window sill is
more than 10 feet above the ground
Laundering in a commercial laundry or dry cleaning establishment
Working in a pool room, billiard room, or bowling alley
Working as a public messenger or chamber maid
Any processing operations (as in meat, fish, or poultry processing or cracking
nuts)
Working in a hotel or motel (except 15-year-olds can work in the office,
lobby, kitchen, or dining room)
Any mining
Working around boilers or in engine rooms
Doing industrial homework
Handling, serving or selling alcoholic beverages (15-year-olds can handle
liquor - stocking and carrying, for example - but not serve or sell it)
Any of the occupations prohibited for all minors under the age of 18
Any work that the Maine Department of Labor determines to be dangerous to
the health and well-being of minors
*Except in office, retail, or customer service/sales areas, in a separate
room away from manufacturing or processing operations, or outside in non-hazardous
work on the grounds.
Persons under 14 may not work in most businesses. There are a few exception
to this, e.g. as news carriers, on farms, and in entertainment.
NOTE: These are not complete lists and there are some exceptions. Rules differ
for farm work. The Maine Department of Labor can give you more information.
Call toll-free 1-877-SAFE-345; TTY 1-800-794-1110 (for deaf or hard of hearing).
