Working from age 15 in 2026: what is and isn't allowed?

You want to start, but nobody tells you what's allowed

You're fifteen or sixteen, you finally want to earn your own money, and everyone around you says something different. Your fourteen-year-old friend isn't allowed. Your seventeen-year-old brother works in a warehouse. One shop says you're too young, the shop next door says it's fine. That's not surprising, because the rules changed in May 2026 and many employers haven't caught up yet.

Below you'll find exactly what applies, with the law to back it up. That way you know what you're entitled to, and you can explain it to an employer who doesn't know yet.

What exactly has changed since 4 May 2026?

Before, the limit was in practice sixteen, or fifteen if you had completed the first two years of secondary school. Anyone who was fifteen and still in full-time compulsory education could not work as a student.

The Royal Decree of 19 April 2026, published in the Belgian Official Gazette on 4 May 2026, changed that. Since that publication, fifteen-year-olds who are still in full-time compulsory education can also sign a student employment contract, according to the FPS Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue. The decree does more than open the door: it also sets out which tasks these young people may do.

The legal definition is "non-industrial work of a light nature". In practice, this means work that requires no specific training and is not carried out with or on mechanical work equipment. So no machines, and no work you first need training for.

You're fifteen: which of the two situations are you in?

This is the first question to answer for yourself, because all the rules that follow depend on it.

Situation one: you have completed the first two years of secondary school. You are then no longer in full-time compulsory education and you can simply work as a student, just like a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old. The rules for young workers apply to you.

Situation two: you have not yet completed those two years. You are then still in full-time compulsory education and may only do light student jobs from the official list below.

If you are fourteen or younger, the law does not allow you to work. If you only turned fifteen after the summer, you couldn't do a holiday job that summer yet. There is one exception, and it concerns performing: a child can work as an actor, extra, singer, musician, dancer or model, but only with prior permission from the FPS Employment.

Which jobs count as light work?

The list is exhaustive. If your task isn't on it, a fifteen-year-old still in full-time compulsory education may not do it. This is what's on it:

• Help at reception or the cloakroom. Welcoming visitors, taking coats, showing people the way.
• Shelf stacker or sales assistant in retail. Restocking shelves, helping customers, checking prices.
• Light logistics tasks. Receiving, storing, weighing, packing and labelling orders, preparing orders, managing stock and getting shipments ready.
• Light cleaning tasks. Tasks with a low physical load that take little strength and are short: dusting, washing up, vacuuming or mopping small rooms, emptying bins, cleaning windows at hand height, lightly cleaning bathrooms.
• Light organisational tasks in the care sector. Bringing round and clearing away meals and drinks.

What isn't on the list is just as important. Driving a forklift or a pallet truck, working at a machine, using an industrial dishwasher or heavy lifting: all of that falls outside the list. If an employer asks you to do it anyway, something is wrong with the assignment, no matter how friendly the request.

How many hours can you work if you are still in full-time compulsory education?

The Royal Decree also links strict working times to light work. You may not work during school hours. On a school day, you work a maximum of two hours. On a day without school, eight hours is the limit. And you may not work between 8 pm and 6 am.

Those two hours on a school day surprise many young people. In practice, it means a job after school is a short shift, and the real work happens at weekends and during the school holidays.

And if you are sixteen or seventeen?

Then you are a young worker, and the Labour Act of 16 March 1971 protects you with a whole set of limits. The FPS Employment lists them.

Working hours. A maximum of eight hours a day. An average of thirty-eight hours a week, and never more than forty. Overtime is only allowed in cases of force majeure, such as an accident or urgent repair, and even then the employer must notify the inspectorate within three days.

Your hours are added up. This is the big difference with an adult worker. If you work for two employers, those hours count together towards the limits. If you attend part-time education, your school hours even count as working time.

Breaks. You may not work more than four and a half hours in a row. If you work more than four and a half hours, you are entitled to half an hour's rest. If you work more than six hours, that becomes a full hour, including one half-hour in one go.

Twelve hours between two shifts. If you finish at 7 pm, you can start again at 7 am the next day at the earliest. There are no exceptions to this rule.

An extra rest day. On top of Sunday rest, you get an additional rest day directly before or after Sunday. So Saturday and Sunday, or Sunday and Monday, together at least forty-eight hours.

Night work. Young workers may not work between 8 pm and 6 am. If you are over sixteen, that limit moves to 10 pm or 11 pm in certain cases, but only for work that cannot be interrupted or for shift work, and in a few sectors with their own Royal Decree, such as hospitality. Between midnight and 4 am, you may never work, whatever your age and without exception.

Sunday work. In principle not allowed. Where an exception applies, you may never work more than one Sunday in two.

What do you earn, and what do you keep?

For minors and students under 21, collective agreement no. 50 of the National Labour Council sets a minimum, expressed as a percentage of the guaranteed average minimum monthly income. The younger you are, the lower the percentage. Since July 2026, that comes to 1,496.52 euros gross for a full-time month if you are under seventeen, and 1,630.54 euros gross at seventeen, according to Securex. If you work a few hours a week, that amount is of course calculated proportionally.

Your sector often also has its own pay scale, which is higher. So always ask about the joint committee and the pay scale for the job, not just the hourly wage.

Within your hour quota, no regular social security contributions are deducted from your gross pay, but a solidarity contribution of 8.13 percent in total, of which 2.71 percent is paid by you and 5.42 percent by the employer, according to the NSSO. As a result, you keep much more net than a regular worker with the same gross pay.

What does this mean for your 650 hours and your family allowance?

Your age doesn't change the hour quota. Since 2025, every student can work 650 hours per calendar year at the reduced solidarity contribution, according to the NSSO. If you work more, the regular contributions of 13.07 percent apply to you on the hours above 650.

Your counter is on Student@work. There you can see how many hours you have left this year, and you can print a certificate for your employer. Check that counter before you accept a new shift, because you are the only one who sees the total across all your employers.

You don't need to worry about your family allowance (Groeipakket in Flanders) for now: as long as you are under eighteen, the right remains unconditional and your working hours play no role. From your eighteenth birthday that changes, and then those 650 hours do come into play.

What do you check yourself before your first shift?

Four things, and together they take ten minutes.

1. Your contract. Do you have a written student employment contract with your tasks described? For a fifteen-year-old still in full-time compulsory education, those tasks must be on the light work list.
2. Your schedule. Does it respect the limits above, especially the twelve hours of rest and the ban on night work?
3. Your counter on Student@work. How many of the 650 hours do you have left?
4. Your tasks on the job. If after a week you are given a machine or a pallet truck anyway, say so straight away. That's not being difficult, that's the law.

Student jobs all over Belgium, near you too

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