Certain jobs have different age requirements. If you want to be President, you need to be at least 35 years old. If you want to work a bar, you need to be above the legal drinking age in your community. Different occupations have different requirements beyond age, too. For certain jobs you’ll need a certain level of experience, or education, and for some jobs you’ll just kind of need to know the right people. But we’re not talking about these abstract jobs right now, we’re talking about roofing jobs for teens in particular.
If you’re not afraid of heights, and you like working with your hands and spending time outdoors, and you want to make a very decent living, then roofing jobs are a good option. Whether you’re working on regular wooden roofs with shingles, or you’re interested in installing metal roofing, there are often a lot of jobs out there that you can apply to. Beyond that, you usually won’t have to work during the winter months, and depending where you live, you might be able to collect employment insurance during those off-months. As far as jobs go, you could do a lot worse, but not every teenager can get a roofing job.
Minimum Age for Roofing Jobs
If you want to work on roofs in America, you need to be at least 18 years of age. Here’s a source, along with these direct quotes from the Department of Labor:
Youth under 18 years of age may not work in roofing occupations.
The term roofing occupations means all work performed in connection with the installation of roofs, including related metal work such as flashing, and applying weatherproofing materials and substances (such as waterproof membranes, tar, slag or pitch, asphalt prepared paper, tile, composite roofing materials, slate, metal, translucent materials, and shingles of asbestos, asphalt, wood or other materials) to roofs of buildings or other structures. The term also includes all jobs on the ground related to roofing operations such as roofing laborer, roofing helper, materials handler and tending a tar heater.
Youth under 18 years of age may not perform work on or about a roof.
The term on or about a roof includes all work performed upon or in close proximity to a roof, including carpentry and metal work, alterations, additions, maintenance and repair, including painting and coating of existing roofs; the construction of the sheathing or base of roofs (wood or metal), including roof trusses or joists; gutter and downspout work; the installation and servicing of television and communication equipment such as cable and satellite dishes; the installation and servicing of heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment or similar appliances attached to roofs; and any similar work that is required to be performed on or about roofs.
There are some exceptions for people who are 16 and 17, you can read more about them in the document linked above. So, if you were thinking of getting a job in roofing and you were wondering, “How old you have to be to work on a roof?”, then hopefully this information has helped point you in the right direction. The document referenced above and the excerpts explain it all pretty clearly.
