How old did employees have to be to bartend, serve alcohol, or work in a South Carolina liquor business under RR 95-4?

Plain-English summary

South Carolina Revenue Ruling 95-4 set different minimum ages according to the employee's job and the type of alcohol business.

• A bartender serving open containers of beer, wine, or distilled spirits had to be at least 21.
• A server, waiter, or waitress could serve or remove open alcoholic beverages in a licensed establishment at age 18.
• A person working in any capacity in a retail liquor store, wholesale liquor business, or distillery had to be at least 21.

For sealed containers of beer or wine, the ruling said the ABC laws themselves did not state a minimum employee age, while warning that South Carolina's separate child-labor laws still applied. The ruling also discussed an 18-year minimum for serving or delivering sealed "alcoholic liquors," then explained that the cited statutory definition excluded beer and wine meeting the specified alcohol limits.

The Department traced the rules to exceptions from the general prohibition on possession by people under 21. An employee who was at least 18 could lawfully possess alcoholic beverages while serving or removing them within the course of employment, but that exception did not lower the bartender age.

Common questions

Q: Could an 18-year-old serve beer, wine, or liquor at a table? Yes, under the 1995 ruling, if lawfully employed as a server in a licensed establishment.

Q: Could an 18-year-old work as a bartender? No. RR 95-4 required bartenders to be at least 21.

Q: Could someone under 21 stock shelves or perform another job in a liquor store? No. The ruling said no person under 21 could work in any capacity in a retail or wholesale liquor business or distillery.

Q: Did the ruling eliminate child-labor restrictions for sealed beer and wine? No. It expressly directed readers to the separate child-labor laws.

Q: Are these age rules necessarily current? This page establishes the Department's 1995 guidance only. Current alcohol and employment law should be checked.

Citations and references

• S.C. Code Ann. § 20-7-370 (possession rule and employee exceptions quoted)
• S.C. Code Ann. § 61-5-20(6) (sealed alcoholic-liquor service provision)
• S.C. Code Ann. § 61-13-340 (employment in liquor businesses)
• S.C. Code Ann. §§ 61-3-20 and 61-9-10 (definitions discussed)

Subject

Minimum Age Requirements

Source

• Landing page: https://dor.sc.gov/advisory-opinion-search
• Original PDF: https://dor.sc.gov/sites/dor/files/policies/RR95-4.pdf

Original ruling text

State of South Carolina

Department of Revenue
301 Gervais Street, P. O. Box 125, Columbia, South Carolina 29214

SC REVENUE RULING #95-4 (ABC)

SUBJECT:

Minimum Age Requirements
(ABC Laws)

EFFECTIVE DATE:

Applies to all periods open under statute.

SUPERSEDES:

All previous documents and any oral directives in conflict herewith.

REFERENCES:

S.C. Code Ann. Section 20-7-370 (Supp. 1994)
S.C. Code Ann. Section 61-5-20(6) (Supp. 1994)
S.C. Code Ann. Section 61-13-340

AUTHORITY:

S.C. Code Ann. Section 12-4-320 (Supp. 1994)
S.C. Revenue Procedure #94-1

SCOPE:

A Revenue Ruling is the Department of Revenue's official advisory
opinion of how laws administered by the Department are to be applied to
a specific issue or a specific set of facts, and is provided as guidance for
all persons or a particular group. It is valid and remains in effect until
superseded or modified by a change in the statute or regulations or a
subsequent court decision, Revenue Ruling or Revenue Procedure.

Question:
How old do employees have to be in order to work in locations selling beer, wine, or distilled
spirits?
Conclusions:
Beer and Wine
In order to work as a bartender in any facility that sells open containers of beer or wine, a person
must be at least twenty-one years of age.
In order to work as a server, waiter or waitress and serve open containers of beer or wine a person
must be at least eighteen years of age.
The ABC laws do not set any minimum age requirement in order to sell or deliver sealed containers
of beer or wine. (See Chapter 13 of Title 41 of the South Carolina Code of Laws for other laws
concerning child labor.)

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Alcoholic Liquors
In order to work as a bartender in any facility that sells open containers of distilled spirits, a person
must be at least twenty-one years of age.
In order to work as a server, waiter or waitress and serve open containers of distilled spirits, a person
must be at least eighteen years of age.
In order to work in any capacity in a retail liquor store, wholesale liquor business, or a distillery, a
person must be at least twenty-one years of age.
Facts:
There has been some confusion surrounding the minimum age of different employees in various
aspects of the beer, wine, and distilled spirits industry. Prior to the General Assembly raising the
minimum age to possess beer and wine, bartenders and employees in locations that sold only beer
and wine needed only to be eighteen years of age. The initial changes in the minimum age had no
exceptions for employees. In response to public demand, the General Assembly created some
exceptions for various categories of employees.
Discussion:
SC Code Section 20-7-370 states in part:
It is unlawful for any person under the age of twenty-one to purchase or knowingly have in
his possession, any beer, ale, porter, wine, or any other similar malted or fermented
beverage. . .
This section does not apply to any employee lawfully engaged in the sale or delivery of any
such beverage in an unopened container.
Persons eighteen years of age and over lawfully employed to serve or remove beer, wine, or
alcoholic beverages in establishments licensed to sell such beverages are not considered to
be in unlawful possession of the beverages during the course and scope of their duties as an
employee. The provisions of this paragraph shall in no way affect the requirement that a
bartender must be at least twenty-one years of age.
Hence, this statute allows persons eighteen years and older to serve or remove alcoholic beverages in
licensed establishments; however, to serve as a bartender, a person must be at least twenty-one years
of age.
SC Code Section 61-5-20(6) provides that:
No person shall serve or deliver to a purchaser any alcoholic liquors in sealed containers in a
business where such sales are authorized unless such person has attained the age of eighteen
years;

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"Alcoholic liquors" are defined in Code Section 61-3-20:
(1) The words "alcoholic liquors" mean any spirituous malt, vinous, fermented, brewed
(whether lager or rice beer) or other liquors or any compound or mixture thereof by whatever
name called or known which contains alcohol and is used as a beverage, but shall not extend
to:
(a) wine when manufactured or made for home consumption and which is not sold
by the maker thereof or by any other person, or
(b) any beverage declared by statute to be nonalcoholic or nonintoxicating.
SC Code Section 61-9-10 declares that:
All beers, ales, porter and other similar malt or fermented beverages containing not in excess
of five per cent of alcohol by weight and all wines containing not in excess of twenty-one per
cent of alcohol by volume are hereby declared to be nonalcoholic and nonintoxicating
beverages.
Thus, in order to serve sealed containers of "alcoholic liquors", the definition of which does not
include beer and wine which meet the requirements of Code Section 61-9-10, a person must be at
least eighteen years of age. To serve or deliver sealed containers of beer and wine, the statute does
not state a minimum age requirement.
SC Code Section 61-13-340 further states that:
It shall be unlawful for any person under the age of twenty-one years to work as an
employee or otherwise in a retail, wholesale or manufacturing liquor business or business
establishment or for any person knowingly to employ any person under the age of twentyone years in any such business or business establishment.
Therefore, no person under the age of twenty-one years of age may be employed in any capacity in a
retail liquor store, wholesale liquor business, or a distillery.
For questions concerning minimum age requirements, contact Nicholas Sipe at (803) 737-4440.

SOUTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE

s/Burnet R. Maybank
Burnet R. Maybank, III, Director

Columbia, South Carolina
, 1995
May 31

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