New Employer Obligations for Minors & Interns

Employers are gearing up for summer staffing that includes minors and interns. Unfortunately, it isn’t as easy to hire kids looking for some extra cash as it used to be. Employers now face strict State and Federal laws pertaining to hiring minors and interns. Many laws limit both the industries and also the wage and hour considerations for these two groups.

Minors

Effective January 1, 2021, any California employer with five or more employees that employs minors must provide training on the identification and required reporting of child abuse and neglect to all human resource employees and all adults whose duties require direct contact with and supervision of minors in the performance of the minors’ duties in the workplace.

“Mandated reporters” include direct supervisors of minors (any employees under the age of 18) and/or Human Resources (HR) employees authorized to receive complaints of misconduct on your company’s behalf. Yes, you are reading this correctly, HR employees and supervisors of minors are now required to report any reasonably suspected child abuse and neglect that they learn about in the scope of their employment. The failure to report this abuse may result in criminal penalties and even jail time.

In addition to the training requirement AB 1963 mandates that covered supervisors and HR representatives receive and sign specified notices of their obligations.

Employers Must:

• Retain copies of this signed documentation and
• Distribute copies of applicable Penal Code sections to mandated reporters, including sections 11165.7, 11166 and 11167.

Your staff can meet the obligation by taking the 1 hour recorded webinar training, available in the CEA Store.

Interns

As a general rule, a person hired as an unpaid intern must be a student enrolled in an accredited academic program and be receiving academic credit for the internship or be in a program approved by a public agency to provide training. If an accredited program is not involved, the employer must then pay the “intern” at least minimum wage for all hours worked. Thus, the paid intern is also an employee, but does not need to receive the same benefits as other “regular” employees.

Tool Kits to Make Your Life Easier

For step-by-step guidance in the employment of minors, members can access our new Employing Minors Tool Kit. CEA’s tool kit has all of the resources, templates, and guidance to ensure you are in compliance. In our HR Forms section, you can also find a Fact Sheet for Internships to help make an informed hiring decision before hiring an intern.