Money, working hours, meal breaks and tax: What young workers need to know about summer jobs

So your child has a summer job? Flipping burgers, waiting tables, selling ice cream, cutting grass, milking cows – if they are out of the house and earning a buck, you probably all feel like you’ve won the lotto.

To a child used to a slow drip feed of pocket money, getting a lump sum after a week pulling 99s can feel like a bonanza. Buying a fancy phone, acrylic nails or snazzy sneakers is at last in reach.

Young people are a valued source of labour, particularly for businesses with seasonal peaks. These workers can be enthusiastic, energetic and flexible, but they are also inexperienced, particularly when it comes to their rights.

Money, working hours, meal breaks, tax – it pays for young workers and their guardians to know what a job entails.

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Working hours

A person aged 14 to 18 who works for an employer is classified as a “young worker”. They are generally in full-time education and so have different protections to adults.

Those aged 16 and 17 can work a maximum of eight hours a day and up to 40 hours a week. If they have more than one employer, their combined hours can’t exceed this.

The law bans anyone under 18 from doing late-night work. You might not know it, but they are only allowed to work their eight hours between 6am and 10pm. So if they are asked to start a hotel breakfast shift at the crack of dawn or work after 10pm on reception, that’s a no.

If you are being pressured to work more hours, know you have rights, says Anne Lyne, partner specialising in employment law at Hayes Solicitors. “You want it to stop, so bringing it to your employer’s attention would be the key thing,” says Lyne. If that doesn’t work, contact the Workplace Relations Commission, she says.

There are some special rules for pubs and other licensed premises. A 16- or 17-year-old can work in a pub clearing glasses, just not pulling pints. They can’t work selling alcohol in an off-licence either. They can work a bit later until 11pm, but only if it’s not a school day the next day. For example, they can work until 11pm on Friday night if they are not in school on Saturday. They cannot work until 11pm on Sunday if they have school on Monday.

If your 16- or 17-year-old is working in a pub or restaurant after 11pm, that’s against the law.

Children

Workers aged 14 and 15 are classed as “children” and need written permission from a guardian to work. The employer needs to take a copy of their birth cert.

They can work a maximum of 35 hours a week during the school holidays doing light work, but they must have at least 21 days off during this time. During the school term, however, 14-year-olds are not allowed work. Those a year older can do eight hours of light work a week.

Take a break

Whether you are working in a coffee truck, an ice cream shop or a restaurant, it can be hard to take a break when there’s a queue of people around the block. Young workers are entitled to a break, and if your employer isn’t forthcoming, remind them of your rights.

Workers aged 16 and 17 must get a full 30-minute break after 4½ hours, no matter how busy it is. Those under 16 get that break after four hours, says Lyne.

Every 24 hours, 16- and 17-year-olds must get a straight 12 hours off.

Contract

All workers should be given a statement of employment where their employer sets out their various entitlements, says Lyne. “It’s unlawful not to give it to an employee, even if you are a casual worker,” she says. This should state your hours, rate of pay and how often you get paid.

There are different types of work contracts too. Some summer jobs may be an “if and when” arrangement, says Lyne. “For most students in the hospitality or similar industries, the agreement would be, ‘We’ll call you if we need you, and if you say no, that’s fine, we move on to the next person on the list,’” she says.

Show me the money

Young people are entitled to fair pay for their work, that’s the law. In January, the national minimum wage increased to €11.30 per hour. However, not everyone is automatically entitled to get this.

Workers under 18 are only guaranteed up to 70 per cent of the national minimum wage, which is €7.91 per hour. That’s not a lot for a 16- or 17-year-old working just as hard as the 20-year-old beside them who is on €3.39 an hour more. It’s no wonder some employers are keen to hire younger workers.

If you are aged 18, your entitlement goes up to €9.04. At the age of 19, it rises to €10.17. From age 20, young people are entitled to the full minimum wage.

An employer can pay you more than the minimum wage if they want, but they are not required to by law.

Because young workers have limited working hours, payment for overtime isn’t a factor. If your adult colleagues get paid more for Sundays, it’s not quite fair that you don’t. “If an employer does pay more on specific days, they should look at paying young workers more as well from a point of fairness,” says Lyne.

Tips please

Tips can boost summer wages. A new law aimed at ensuring restaurant, bar, hairdressing and delivery service staff get paid their share of tips left by customers came into effect last year.

It gives employees a legal entitlement to receive tips and gratuities paid in electronic form and requires that the tips be paid in a fair manner. “Fairness” can take into account the seniority or experience of an employee, the value of sales generated by them and the number of hours worked.

Tips and gratuities cannot be used to contribute to an employee’s contractual wages.

Employers are required to display information on how tips and mandatory service charges are distributed to employees. If your employer isn’t doing this, they could be fined €2,500.

Taxing times

Working your first job brings a lesson in tax – yes, the State gets a slice of your earnings. If you work only part-time, or full-time for just a few months, you could be off the hook, says Marian Ryan of Taxback.com. “You may end up paying no tax, or if you do, it’s likely you will be due a tax refund at the end of the year,” says Ryan.

You are entitled to a personal tax credit of €1,775 and an employee tax credit of 1,775, which means if your total annual income for 2023 is below €17,750 for the year, you won’t need to pay any PAYE tax. You will still have to pay PRSI of about 4 per cent and USC of 0.5 per cent and 2 per cent of your total income. The employer deducts this.

If you start work in June, for example, your tax credits are split evenly over the remaining months of the year. So if you only work for two months full-time, you may pay some tax while you are working, but when the year finishes, you can claim a refund.

“My top tip to young workers is to review their taxes at the end of the year to claim back any taxes they may have paid during the summer or when they were working part-time,” says Ryan.

Some people starting a job can end up paying emergency tax – that’s higher tax for a temporary period. The good news is refunds should come back to you in later pay packets. You can avoid emergency tax by giving your employer your PPS number and registering your job using the Revenue’s myAccount service.

Claim expenses

If you are working in the service and retail sector, you’re entitled to claim flat-rate expenses, says Ryan. These increase the amount you can earn before paying tax. “Shop assistants are entitled to a flat-rate expense of €121 a year.

“If you are working in a bar, you are entitled to a flat-rate expense of €93. A waiter or waitress can claim €80,” says Ryan. “These are really easy to claim and you don’t need any receipts,” she says. You can do this online through Revenue’s myAccount service.

Uniform

If your summer job requires a uniform – a supermarket shirt or a restaurant T-shirt – some employers will provide it for free, others will ask you to pay. “If you have to pay for it, they should tell you this in advance and agree how to deduct it from your wages,” says Lyne. “Taking it all from your first week’s wages wouldn’t be fair and reasonable, it should be split over a few weeks,” she says.

Off-books payment

If someone is offering to pay you in cash, or “off-books”, they are breaking the law. Your income isn’t being reported to Revenue and so no tax, USC or PRSI is being paid by you and no employer PRSI contributions are being paid for you either. Avoid this type of employer.

“It means you are not an actual employee, so if there are HR or health and safety issues at your place of employment, you might not be protected,” says Ryan.

Duty of care

As any proprietor knows, some customers can be problematic. That’s why young people, particularly those working in pubs, restaurants and entertainment venues where alcohol is served, may need extra minding. Any worker, not to mind a younger one, should not have to put up with sexual banter, “jokes”, touching, flirtation or threatening behaviour from customers or other staff members.

“If you are experiencing harassment in the workplace, you have the same rights as any other employee, that doesn’t change with age,” says Lyne. Employers are required to do a risk assessment of their workplace, and where there are young workers, an employer should be mindful of their potential vulnerability.

“A prudent employer would have a system in place so that there is someone looking out for the young person specifically. It’s about acknowledging a particular category of worker,” says Lyne.