Under-18s working in pubs and bars: hours, breaks and serving alcohol

Plenty of people started their hospitality career at 16, collecting glasses or running food in the local. Young staff are keen, flexible and often brilliant. But the rules for under-18s are stricter than for adults, they're easy to break by accident on a busy rota, and in a licensed venue they come with alcohol rules too.

This guide covers young workers: people above school leaving age but under 18. Children still of school age are covered briefly at the end. Working time rules here apply in England, Scotland and Wales; the alcohol rules are for England and Wales, and Scotland and Northern Ireland differ.

Working hours for 16 and 17 year olds

The no-averaging point is the one that trips people up. An adult can do 55 hours one week and 40 the next. A 17-year-old can't go over 40 in any week, or over 8 on any day.

Night work

• Under-18s can't work between midnight and 4am. No exceptions for pubs.
• Normally they also can't work between 10pm and 6am (or 11pm and 7am if their contract says so).
• Hospitality exception: Regulation 27A of the Working Time Regulations lets young workers in hotels, catering, pubs, restaurants and bars work in that 10pm to midnight (or 4am to 6am) window if:
  • no adult worker is available to do the work,
  • the work is needed to keep a service going or to cope with a surge in demand, and
  • it won't harm their education or training.
• If the exception is used, they must be supervised by an adult where that's needed for their protection, and get equivalent compensatory rest.

An example week for a 17-year-old

The rota looks ordinary, which is the point: build young workers' shifts to finish by 10pm and keep them under 8 hours, and the rules mostly look after themselves.

In practice: a 17-year-old shouldn't be on your regular Friday close. "We're short on a busy night and no adult can do it" might qualify occasionally; "it's their usual shift" won't.

Health and safety

HSE says you have the same duties for young workers as for anyone else, but they may lack experience or maturity, or physical strength, so they need clear instruction, training and supervision, often more than adults. Think about:

• Lifting kegs, crates and gas cylinders in the cellar.
• Dangerous equipment such as slicers and fryers.
• Dealing with drunk or aggressive customers on their own.
• Late finishes and getting home safely.

Include young workers specifically in your risk assessment. Our risk assessment guide covers how.

Serving alcohol: the Licensing Act 2003 (England and Wales)

Under section 153 of the Licensing Act 2003, it's an offence for a "responsible person" to knowingly allow someone under 18 to sell or supply alcohol on the premises, unless that sale is specifically approved by a responsible person.

Who can approve: the premises licence holder, the designated premises supervisor (DPS), or anyone aged 18 or over authorised by either of them.

The table meal exception: approval isn't needed where the alcohol is sold or supplied for consumption with a table meal, in premises (or a part of them) used only for table meals, where alcohol isn't sold to anyone other than diners drinking with their meal. So a 17-year-old waiter in a restaurant dining room can bring a bottle of wine to the table without each sale being approved.

What "specifically approved" looks like behind a bar

Each sale, not a general "you're fine to serve". The usual way to manage it:

• The under-18 can take orders, pour soft drinks, and collect glasses.
• When an alcohol sale comes up, a named adult on shift approves that sale before it's made.
• Write this into your staff training and your licensing paperwork, and check your premises licence conditions in case they add anything.

In practice many pubs find it simpler to keep under-18s off the bar entirely and use them for food running, glass collecting, kitchen portering or front of house in the restaurant.

Age verification still applies

Every premises licence in England and Wales has a mandatory condition requiring an age verification policy. Your young staff need the same training as everyone else on asking for ID and refusing sales.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

Scotland has its own licensing law, the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005, with different rules on young people working with alcohol and different mandatory staff training. Check the Scottish Government's guidance and your local Licensing Board before rota'ing under-18s on a bar in Scotland.

Northern Ireland has separate licensing and employment law. Check nidirect and your local council.

Children under school leaving age

Children of school age can do limited part-time work from 14 (13 in some council areas). In term time it's a maximum of 12 hours a week, 2 hours on school days and Sundays, and no work before 7am or after 7pm. Local by-laws list the jobs children can't do, and most councils require a child employment permit. Check with your council before offering any work, especially in licensed premises.

Pay

From 1 April 2026 the minimum wage for under-18s above school leaving age is £8.00 an hour, the same as the apprentice rate. When they turn 18 it rises to £10.85. Put birthdays in the diary. See our minimum wage guide.

A young worker checklist

• Date of birth recorded and checked; rate set correctly.
• Right to work check done before the first shift.
• Included in your risk assessment; specific training given.
• Rota never over 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week.
• 30-minute break on any shift over 4.5 hours.
• 12 hours between shifts; 48 hours off each week.
• No work between midnight and 4am, ever. Late shifts only under the hospitality exception.
• England and Wales: no alcohol sales unless each one is approved by a responsible adult (table meal exception aside).
• Scotland or Northern Ireland: check local licensing rules first.

Where ShiftComplete helps

ShiftComplete doesn't automatically police the under-18 rules, so you still need to check them. It does make them much easier to see. Labour cost shows while you build the rota, staff areas show at a glance whether a young worker is on Floor or Bar, and day notes let you record who's approving alcohol sales on a shift. Split shifts (up to four time blocks a day) make it easy to build in the 30-minute break. Staff set their availability from their phone weeks ahead, so school and college commitments are on the rota before you build it.

If you switch on clocking in and out, you'll see the hours they actually worked against the rota, so a late finish that crept past 10pm doesn't go unnoticed.

£1.49 per staff member per month, every feature included, free for 60 days with no card needed.

This guide is general information, not legal advice: for a specific case, speak to Acas, your local licensing authority or an adviser.