United States S 4038: CARE Act of 2024

Bill Text

II
118TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION S. 4038
To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to strengthen the provisions
relating to child labor, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH 21, 2024
Mr. LUJA ́N introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred
to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
A BILL
To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to
strengthen the provisions relating to child labor, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Children’s Act for Re-4
sponsible Employment and Farm Safety of 2024’’ or the 5
‘‘CARE Act of 2024’’. 6
SEC. 2. TABLE OF CONTENTS. 7
The table of contents for this Act is as follows: 8
Sec. 1. Short title.
Sec. 2. Table of contents.
Sec. 3. Findings.
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TITLE I—AMENDMENTS TO THE FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT
OF 1938
Sec. 101. Application of child labor laws to independent contractors.
Sec. 102. Revised age requirement for child agricultural employment and ex-
emptions for hazardous and non-hazardous work.
Sec. 103. Repeal of waiver provision for hand harvest laborers.
Sec. 104. Pesticide-related worker protection standard.
TITLE II—PENALTIES AND ENFORCEMENT
Sec. 201. Increased civil penalties for child labor violations.
Sec. 202. Special criminal penalties for certain aggravated child labor viola-
tions.
TITLE III—REPORTS AND MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING
Sec. 301. Report to Congress on child labor and work-related injuries to chil-
dren and related matters.
Sec. 302. Employer reporting requirements.
Sec. 303. Memorandum of understanding.
TITLE IV—EFFECTIVE DATES
Sec. 401. Effective date for application of child labor laws to independent con-
tractors.
Sec. 402. Application of other fair labor standards amendments.
Sec. 403. Application of Occupational Safety and Health Act amendments.
SEC. 3. FINDINGS. 1
Congress finds the following: 2
(1) Across the United States, there are hun-3
dreds of thousands of children who are working in 4
the agricultural industry and performing the gruel-5
ing work that is required to plant, pick, process, and 6
pack the food that people eat every day. 7
(2) Congress included exemptions to the Fair 8
Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 201 et 9
seq.) child labor provisions that create separate min-10
imum age thresholds and hazardous occupations 11
rules for children employed in agriculture. Such Act 12
does not limit the number of hours per day or week 13
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that children can work in agriculture, nor does it 1
place limits on when that work occurs outside of 2
school hours (i.e., children may work in agriculture 3
for any number of hours per day or week, and at 4
any time during the day or night). 5
(3) Historically, children have been permitted to 6
work in agriculture at younger ages, for longer 7
hours, and under more hazardous conditions than 8
other working children. Like most other agricultural 9
workers, children remain excluded from basic protec-10
tions provided to workers in other industries under 11
Federal employment laws. Even where protections 12
exist under Federal law, Federal agencies lack suffi-13
cient resources to conduct investigations and hold 14
employers accountable for violations. 15
(4) Allowing children to engage in agricultural 16
work from a young age can result in long-term nega-17
tive consequences, especially when the child worker 18
is not employed on a family farm where family mem-19
bers take precautions for their children and family 20
members. Working in agriculture as a child can re-21
sult in an early end to childhood, and long hours 22
worked at unfair and unlawful wages can pose risks 23
to their overall health, education, and lives. 24
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(5) Child farmworkers suffer work-related fa-1
talities at more than 4 times the rate of other young 2
workers and, according to a 2018 report by the Gov-3
ernment Accountability Office, more than half of all 4
work-related child fatalities are in the agriculture in-5
dustry, often because exceptions are made that allow 6
farmworker children to operate heavy, dangerous 7
equipment and to be exposed to other hazards. Yet, 8
great efforts have been taken to strictly limit the 9
possibility of children in other industries from en-10
gaging in dangerous work activities or jobs. The de-11
mands imposed by doing agricultural work, coupled 12
with the low pay and poor working conditions, result 13
in shock