• Babysitting is a job most youth can do in their teenage years without needing a permit.father_son11 image by Katren Yerkes from Fotolia.com
  
  The Wage and Hour Administration is a department in the Alaska State Division of Labor Standards and Safety that oversees the child labor laws for the state. This department ensures that children in Alaska can earn money and not be put in any sort of precarious position by their employer.
  
  

Under Age 14

• Children in Alaska who are under the age of 14 are, according to the Alaska Wage and Hour Administration, allowed to sell and distribute newspapers (a paper route); babysit or do other "domestic" work in private homes; or work in the entertainment industry (as, for example, an actor in a movie) as long as the appropriate permit is filed.
  
  

Special Restrictions for 14 and 15 Year Olds

• Students who are 14 and 15 years old can work and go to school a total of 9 hours in one day and the work can only be performed during the hours of 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. During the school year, students at this age may work up to 23 hours in a week. During school vacations, this expands to 40 hours a week.
  
  Fourteen and 15 year olds may not work with any power-driven machinery except office equipment; in construction (except in an office); for a public messenger service; in any place that serves alcohol; near boilers or engine rooms; from window sills, scaffolding or ladders; with food service machinery like slicers or grinders; in freezers or with meat for sale; unloading trucks or railroad cars; using sharp tools; or in storage or warehouse facilities.
  
  

Under 17

• According to the Alaska Wage and Hour Administration department, youth under the age of 17 may not work in the manufacturing, handling or use of explosives; as the driver or helper of a motor vehicle; in mining operations; in logging or in the operation of any sawmill, lathe mill, shingle mill or cooperage; with power-driven woodworking machines; be exposed to radioactive substances and to ionizing radiation; in elevator operation or other power-driven hoisting apparatus; with metal forming, punching and shearing machines; in the slaughtering or meat packing or rendering process; with or clean power-driven bakery machines; with power-driven paper products machines; manufacturing brick or tile products; in cleaning circular or band saws and guillotine shears; involving wrecking, demolition, or shipwrecking operations; in roofing; in excavation; with electricity exceeding 220 amps or in the "outside erection or repair and meter testing including telegraph and telephone lines;" in any occupation where there is exposure to bloodborne pathogens; canvassing, peddling or soliciting door-to-door contributions; or as a salesperson.
  
  

Other Issues

• Any worker under the age of 18 is entitled to a 30-minute break during any six hours of employment. All youths under 16 must have a work permit. Youths under 17 must have a work permit if the place where they are employed (like a restaurant) serves alcohol.
  
  Further, youths under 19 may not sell tobacco or tobacco-related products and those under 21 may not sell pull-tabs (a gambling game).