Overworking underage

[CAGuy25]

Arizona. I have a friend who is 15 and works at a local Burger King. He has been feeling overworked recently and wants to know how many hours the law says that he can work.

He's also worried about retaliation. He doesn't want to present it in a bad way to his bosses, but he's afraid that if he brings up the fact that he should only be working so many hours, that they will cut back his hours entirely and/or fire him. Are there any laws against the sort of retaliation if he tries to get them to stick to the law?

Would it be better for him to just continue working and file suit afterwards for them overworking him?

 

[cbg]

If your friend is in AZ too, he may work 40 hours per week (eight hours per day) when school is not in session and 18 hours a week (3 hours per day) during the school year. If by chance he has graduated from high school already there is no limit to the number of hours he can work; there also will be no limit to the number of hours he can work once he turns 16.

Unless AZ has a specific law saying otherwise, they can fire him for complaining to them; however, they cannot fire him for complaining to the appropriate outside agency.

It is ALWAYS better to try to work things out with the employer than to immediately file suit without saying anything. For one thing, the first question out of an investigator's mouth is going to be, "Did you try to work it out with them? Why not?" Cases have been lost because the complaintant did not take all available internal avenues to resolve complaints.

If he is in another state, all of this is moot and you will have to post what state he is in since the law varies.