Code of Federal Regulations Title 29. Labor § 29.570.126 Parental exemption

By the parenthetical phrase included in section 3(l)(1) of the Act, a parent or a person standing in place of a parent may employ his own child or a child in his custody under the age of 16 years in any occupation other than the following:  (a) Manufacturing;  (b) mining;  (c) an occupation found by the Secretary to be particularly hazardous or detrimental to health or well-being for children between the ages of 16 and 18 years. This exemption may apply only in those cases where the child is exclusively employed by his parent or a person standing in his parents' place. Thus, where a child assists his father in performing work for the latter's employer and the child is considered to be employed both by his father and his father's employer, the parental exemption would not be applicable. The words “parent” or a “person standing in place of a parent” include natural parents, or any other person, where the relationship between that person and a child is such that the person may be said to stand in place of a parent. For example, one who takes a child into his home and treats it as a member of his own family, educating and supporting the child as if it were his own, is generally said to stand to the child in place of a parent. It should further be noted that occupations found by the Secretary to be hazardous or detrimental to health or well-being for children between 16 and 18 years of age, as well as manufacturing and mining occupations, are specifically excluded from the scope of the exemption.