• Michigan labor laws do not mandate a minimum number of hours between shifts.employment image by Marin Conic from Fotolia.com
  
  Michigan law does not require a minimum number of hours between shifts for adult workers. For minors, state law does not specifically address a required number of hours between shifts. But the law does restrict the number of hours minors can work per day and per week, as well as specific times of the day they are allowed to work.
  
  

Adult Employees

• Under Michigan law, employers are free to schedule employees 18 and older for shifts as needed. No law regulates the minimum or maximum numbers of hours an employee can be required to work. Employers also have the right to send workers home during slow periods and ask employees to come in as needed, even if they are not scheduled to work.
  
  

Minors Ages 14 and 15

• Michigan's Youth Employment Standards Act specifies that people ages 14 and are not allowed to work between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m., during school hours or more than six days per week. They are not allowed to work more than 10 hours per day, and the daily average must be no more than eight hours. The combined time spent at school and work cannot exceed 48 hours per week.
  
  

Minors Ages 16 and 17

• Minors ages 16 and 17 cannot work more than 10 hours per day, with a daily average of eight hours, and total combined time at work and school cannot exceed 48 hours in a week. Beyond that, 16- and 17-year-old workers enjoy a larger window of work opportunity than their younger peers. They can work from 6 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 6 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Friday through Saturday, during school vacation periods and when not regularly enrolled in school.
  
  The Youth Employment Standards Act of Michigan allows for some deviations beyond these rules. Applications for deviations must be approved by the Wage and Hour Division of the state's Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth.