School is winding down and many teenagers now look forward to getting summer jobs and making some extra cash. That's why May is "Safe Jobs for Youth Month," a time to focus on making sure our working youth are safe and healthy.

This addition to the workforce also helps Missouri's economy, communities, and businesses now and in the future. Through employment, teens are learning important skills, including responsibility, timeliness, honesty, teamwork, resourcefulness, communication skills, and confidence. 

It also takes effort from all the parties involved to make sure that our youth workforce remains safe and healthy. 

What Business Owners Need to Know

It's important to have successful businesses pay-it-forward and teach the next generation how to be good workers. It's also vital for those businesses to know and be in compliance with the youth employment laws for the State of Missouri. 

Two of the major responsibilities of the employer is to know when teens can be on the job, and what types of work they can do. 

How to Help Protect Youth Workers

Here are a few ways businesses can create a safe and healthy environment for youth workers:

• Stress safe practices, particularly among first-line supervisors who have the greatest opportunity to influence teens and their work habits. 
• Work with supervisors and experienced workers to develop an injury and illness prevention program that helps identify and solve safety and health problems. 
• double-check for and eliminate any potential hazards in areas where youth will be working. 
• Train youth workers to recognize hazards and use safe work practices.

Are You Complying with Youth Labor Laws? Take the Test! 

This "self-help" tool can help employers ensure compliance with Missouri's youth employment laws. Our experience has shown that most employers who employ youth workers have the best interests of the youth in mind, but that the most common problems occur as a result of a lack of thorough knowledge of the law.

This tool is designed to help evaluate your business's legal compliance using very simple straightforward questions followed by a more thorough explanation of the requirements of Missouri's Child Labor Law.

Want to learn more about how parents, employers, school officials and the Missouri Department of Labor & Industrial Relations work better together for youth employment?  Visit labor.mo.gov/dls/youth-employment