site.btaMinors' Hiring Rises Steeply in 2023

The 10,459 permits for employment of minors, issued by the General Labour Inspectorate (GLI) in the January-July 2023 period, were considerably more than the 8,422 issued for the like period a year ago and the 7,397 for the seven months of 2019, the GLI reported on Tuesday.

The largest number of such permits were issued in Burgas, Varna, Plovdiv, Dobrich, Sofia City, Sofia Region, Blagoevgrad and other administrative regions. Minors are employed above all in accommodation and food service activities and retail trade.

The minimum legal employment age in Bulgaria is 16. Hiring a person under that age without obtaining a permit from the GLI constitutes a criminal offence.

Persons aged between 15 and 16 may not be employed in work which is hard, hazardous or detrimental to their proper physical, mental and moral development and which hinders their regular school attendance or participation in career guidance or occupational education programmes.