We're in the process of updating our employment application form.  One of our current questions on the form is "Are you 18 years of age or older? Y/N".  We often hire teens but need them to be at least 16 years of age due to the limitations applied by New York State Labor Law for the employment of teens younger than 16.  We're considering changing the question to either "Are you 16 years of age or older? Y/N" or "Are you 18 years of age or older? Y/N  If no, please list birthdate."  Anybody have some wisdom to impart?   Thanks in advance!

I don't think that the way you have it now really is a problem. But, you may want to change the wording to say "are you a minor" or "are you under 18". This way you don't even have the word "older" in there. 

I would ask the direct questioninstead (i.e., Are you at least 16 years of age?), since that is what you really care about, and it is a BFOQ under state law. NYS law also protects individuals against age discrimination if they are 18 or older, so you are clear there too.

Are you able to prove that you are at least 16 years old upon hire? this is what we went with on our application. We also put:

Are you able to prove that you are at least 18 years old upon hire? we have some jobs that require that they are 18.