From October 2, 2026, a Michigan work permit for minors comes from the state, not from a school. The Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity states that on that date all youth work permits must be obtained exclusively through its centralized system, the Youth Employment Permit Portal, run by the Wage and Hour Division. If you employ anyone under 18, three things change for you: you register your business in the portal before you hire, the permit arrives through the portal instead of a school office, and you tell the state when that minor's employment ends. Permits your school offices issued before launch stay valid for the job they were issued for. Everything else about the Youth Employment Standards Act, the hours, the breaks, the supervision and the banned tasks, is unchanged.
In short
- The new process takes effect October 2, 2026. LEO: "Beginning October 2, permits will be issued through YEPP" (2026).
- Employer registration opens before the implementation date, and LEO advises registering early to avoid delays (2026).
- School-issued permits are still honored, but a new portal permit is required if the minor changes employer or worksite (LEO, 2026).
- Employing a minor in violation of the act is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to 1 year in prison or a fine of up to $500, or both (MCL 409.122).
What actually changes on October 2
LEO's own page answers the four questions employers ask, in its own words.
Schools are out. "Will schools still issue work permits? No. Beginning October 2, permits will be issued through YEPP."
Employers go first. "Employer registration opens before the October implementation date. Register early to avoid delays." A business that waits until it wants to hire a teenager for Thanksgiving week is registering in the queue behind everyone else.
Old permits stand. "A valid work permit issued by a Michigan school before YEPP launches will continue to be honored. A minor will not need to obtain a new permit solely because the permitting process moved to YEPP." Keep them on file.
A new job means a new permit. "A new YEPP permit will be required if the minor changes employers or begins working at a different worksite." For a business with two or three locations, that last clause is the one that catches people: moving a 16 year old from one store to another is a new permit, not a scheduling decision.
LEO is running a demonstration webinar on September 24, 2026 from 2:00 to 2:30 p.m. covering employer and minor registration and the permit process. It is the cheapest half hour available on this subject.
What does not change: the hours that trip employers up
The Youth Employment Standards Act, Public Act 90 of 1978, covers every Michigan employer of anyone under 18, including part-time staff, volunteers, independent contractors and performing artists. Where state and federal youth employment law both apply, the stricter standard controls. That sentence does most of the damage, because Michigan's own limits are looser than the federal ones during the school year.
| Rule for a 14 or 15 year old | Michigan YESA | Federal FLSA |
|---|---|---|
| Hours on a school day | 10 hours a day, 8-hour weekly average | 3 |
| Hours in a school week | 48 school and work combined | 18 |
| Latest finish, school year | 9:00 p.m. | 7:00 p.m. |
| Hours in a non-school week | 6 days, 10-hour days | 40 |
Read from Michigan's Wage and Hour Division FAQ on the act. Two more rules apply to every minor, at any age under 18: nobody under 18 may work more than five hours without a documented 30-minute uninterrupted break, and a minor may not work unless the employer, or an employee at least 18 years old, is supervising. Hazardous tasks stay banned outright: meat slicers, most power-driven machinery, woodworking equipment, work on construction and excavation sites, driving and outside-helper work such as delivery.
Six steps before the first October shift
- List every employee under 18 and the worksite each one works at. The list is the whole compliance problem in one column. If you cannot produce it in a minute, that is the finding.
- Register the business in the portal now. Registration opened ahead of the launch date. Do it before you need a permit, not while a candidate waits.
- Pull the school-issued permits into one file. They stay valid for the employer and job they name. Missing ones are the gap to close before October 2, while schools can still issue.
- Check the two hour limits against your actual schedule. Pull last week's rota for anyone 14 or 15 and test it against the federal school-day rule, not the state one, if your business is covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act.
- Write down who reports the end of employment. The new process requires notifying the state when a minor's job ends. Name the person, not the department.
- Fix the second-location habit. If your managers move staff between sites, add a rule: a minor moving worksite needs a new permit first.
The mistake most employers make at step 2
They wait for a date that two sources report differently. LEO's portal page says the new process takes effect October 2, 2026, while the Michigan Retailers Association told members to keep accepting school-issued permits until the law changes on October 1. The safe reading is the simple one: treat the week of October 1 as the cutover, get registered before it, and stop assuming a school office will be there to fix a missing permit on October 5.
What it costs to get this wrong
A person who employs a minor in violation of the act, or who obstructs the department in enforcing it, is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for up to one year, a fine of up to $500, or both. Violations of the hazardous-work provisions carry up to $2,000 for a first offence, $5,000 for a second, and felony exposure at $10,000 for a third. The department may enter and inspect any place where a minor may be employed and demand the permits and the time records.
The wage cost of teenage staff is moving too. The Michigan minimum wage guide for 2027 sets out the January 1 rate and what it does to a quote signed this autumn.
The part a system does
None of this is difficult. It is a set of documents with dates and people attached, which is exactly the thing a busy shop loses. Our back office work covers that pattern: documents captured into the record when they arrive, the missing one chased from the person who owes it, and what has not happened surfaced as status. What is reported is what is missing from a file, as status. It is never a statement that a file is compliant, and nothing here is legal advice. Your lawyer reads the act; the system makes sure the permit is in the folder before the shift starts.
