Working Before the Age of 14

By Raymond Viger

A 12-year-old entrepreneur stands in the hot summer sun all day, selling lemonade. Is this legal? Many kids start out in the business world with individual entrepreneurship, proud of their involvement in commerce. These experiences become positive influences on their lives.

In 2023, the Quebec government set the minimum age someone can go to work at 14, with some well-supervised exceptions. Let’s start by examining those exceptions.

Quebec’s labor standards organization, the Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST), summarizes the sorts of paid work under-14s can perform in Quebec, under the constant supervision of an adult:

• Creator or actor in an artistic production;
• Delivery person for newspapers or other publications;
• Babysitting;
• Tutoring or helping with homework;
• In a family business of 10 employees or less;
• In a socially, community oriented non-profit organization like a vacation colony, a day camp or a leisure organization;
• In a non-profit sports organization to assist another person, such as an assistant instructor, assistant coach or scorer;
• For a municipality in the context of leisure activities they are organizing, such as a day camp;
• In an agricultural enterprise of 10 employees or less. The youth must be at least 12 years old to perform light manual labor, take care of animals or prepare the soil.  

Article 156 of Quebec’s Civil Code regulates the emancipation of minors at age 14. Anyone 14 years old or older can sign work contracts without the authorization of their parents.

Furthermore, section 84.4 of the Employment Standards Act (la Loi sur les norms du travail) stipulates that children cannot be made to work during school hours, for more than 17 hours per week, or for more than 10 hours from Monday to Friday. Section 84.6 states that they cannot work at night between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.

The goal of all these regulations is to protect children from abuse, forced labor, the dangerous nature of some jobs… All very laudable objectives, but these regulations can create injustices.

My daughter, at age 12, could have worked in my family business. But my granddaughter, at that same age, cannot do the same.

My neighbor, who has no family business, can’t offer his son job experience by having him come to work for me.

One point of debate is how we define “make someone work.” When I went door-to-door at age 6 to represent two young artists and sell their creations, no one hired me on to do this. It was my personal initiative to create my own business. If I were 10 years old and wanted to stand in the hot summer sun all day selling lemonade, I couldn’t do it for a business, but I could do it on my own behalf, in an artisanal fashion.

You have to participate in activities of Quebec’s annual La grande journée des petits entrepreneurs (the big day for little entrepreneurs) to see how young people take pleasure from participating in businesses that they are highly motivated to create and experiment with. They start young, taking personal initiative, with no pressure from a boss. They are supported and accompanied by family members.

Photo: Clara Yelle of Clara Créa selling her creations.