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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Underage Drinking: Minimum Ages for On-Premises Servers and Bartenders

About this resource:

HHS Non-systematic Review

Source: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

Last Reviewed: January 2019

Workgroups: Substance Use Workgroup

This webpage includes tools about laws that set a minimum age for employees who serve or dispense alcoholic beverages in on-premises establishments. It features tables that include:

  • Policies for each state as of specific dates
  • Policy changes over time
  • Minimum ages set by each policy 
  • Whether a manager or supervisor must be present when alcohol is served
  • Citations to legal sources

Users can sort and filter the tables by a variety of criteria. In addition to the tables, the webpage provides resources like:

  • Timeline of policy changes
  • Useful maps and charts
  • List of variables and other definitions to help understand the language used in the webpage
  • Detailed information about the policy these laws are based on
Read more about this resource

Objectives related to this resource (1)

Reduce the proportion of adolescents who drank alcohol in the past month — SU‑04
Little or no detectable change

Suggested Citation

1.

Alcohol Policy Information System. (n.d.). Underage drinking: Minimum ages for on-premises servers and bartenders. Retrieved from https://alcoholpolicy.niaaa.nih.gov/apis-policy-topics/minimum-ages-for-on-premises-servers-and-bartenders/38