Combating Child Labor Act

Subjects: Labor and Employment


<html><body><pre>[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2956 Introduced in House (IH)]

&lt;DOC&gt;






118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2956

To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to increase criminal and 
  civil penalties related to child labor, to require the Secretary of 
Labor to annually report to Congress on child labor violations, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 27, 2023

  Mr. Kildee (for himself, Mr. Cardenas, Ms. Clarke of New York, Ms. 
Norton, Mr. Mullin, Ms. Tlaib, Mr. Garcia of Illinois, Ms. Tokuda, Ms. 
   Scholten, Ms. Schakowsky, Ms. Caraveo, Mr. Lynch, Mr. Carson, Ms. 
 Wasserman Schultz, Mr. Casar, Ms. Sanchez, Ms. Jayapal, Ms. Chu, Mr. 
McGovern, Ms. Moore of Wisconsin, Ms. Titus, Ms. Lee of California, Ms. 
Velazquez, Ms. Williams of Georgia, Ms. Adams, Mr. Norcross, Mr. Evans, 
   Ms. Dean of Pennsylvania, Mr. Trone, Ms. Slotkin, Mr. Takano, Mr. 
 Thanedar, Mrs. Dingell, Ms. Barragan, Mr. Pocan, Mr. DeSaulnier, and 
 Mrs. Hayes) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                Committee on Education and the Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to increase criminal and 
  civil penalties related to child labor, to require the Secretary of 
Labor to annually report to Congress on child labor violations, and for 
                            other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Combating Child Labor Act''.

SEC. 2. PENALTIES RELATED TO CHILD LABOR.

    (a) Criminal Penalties.--Section 16(a) of the Fair Labor Standards 
Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 216(a) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``Any'' and inserting ``(1) Any'';
            (2) by inserting ``(other than subsection (a)(4)'' after 
        ``section 15'';
            (3) by striking ``this subsection'' each place it appears 
        and inserting ``this paragraph''; and
            (4) by adding at the end the following new paragraphs:
            ``(2) Any person who repeatedly or willfully violates 
        section 15(a)(4) shall upon conviction thereof be subject to a 
        fine of not more than $100,000, or to imprisonment for not more 
        than 5 years, or both.
            ``(3) Any person who repeatedly or willfully violates 
        section 15(a)(4) that results in the death or serious injury of 
        an employee under the age of 18 years shall upon conviction 
        thereof be subject to a fine of not more than $500,000, or to 
        imprisonment for not more than 10 years, or both''.
    (b) Civil Penalties.--Section 16(e)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards 
Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 216(e)(1)) is amended--
            (1) in subparagraph (A)--
                    (A) by striking ``not to exceed'' and inserting 
                ``that is'';
                    (B) by moving the margins for clauses (i) and (ii) 
                4 ems to the left;
                    (C) in clause (i)--
                            (i) by striking ``$11,000'' and inserting 
                        ``not less than $1,000 and not more than 
                        $150,000''; and
                            (ii) by striking ``; or'' and inserting ``, 
                        which penalty may be doubled where the 
                        violation is a repeated or willful 
                        violation;''; and
                    (D) in clause (ii)--
                            (i) by striking ``$50,000'' and inserting 
                        ``not less than $20,000 and not more than 
                        $700,000''; and
                            (ii) by striking ``death or''; and
                            (iii) by striking the period at the end and 
                        inserting ``; or''
                    (E) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(iii) not less than $70,000 and not more than $700,000 
        with regard to each such violation that causes the death of any 
        employee under the age of 18 years, which penalty may be 
        doubled where the violation is a repeated or willful 
        violation.''.
            (2) in subparagraph (B), by striking ``subparagraph (A)'' 
        and inserting ``this section''.
    (c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall 
apply to violations occurring on or after the date of enactment of this 
section.

SEC. 3. REPORT ON CHILD LABOR ACTIVITIES.

    The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 201 et seq.) is 
further amended by inserting after section 12 the following new 
section:

``SEC. 12A. REPORT ON CHILD LABOR ACTIVITIES.

    ``The Secretary shall submit annually a report to Congress, and on 
the same day publish such report in the Federal Register and on the 
website of the Department of Labor, on violations of the provisions of 
section 12 or 13(c), relating to child labor, or any regulation issued 
pursuant to such sections, in the most recent fiscal year preceding 
such report, including the following information:
            ``(1) A list of employers determined to have committed such 
        violations, including--
                    ``(A) the employer's name and address;
                    ``(B) the number and type of violations committed;
                    ``(C) a summary explanation of each violation of 
                sections 12(a) and 15(a)(1) related to child labor;
                    ``(D) any penalties assessed under section 17; and
                    ``(E) any other action taken in relation to such 
                violations.
            ``(2) A list of goods (including consumer facing brands and 
        trademarks, the names under which such goods are marketed to 
        consumers, and other information a consumer may use to identify 
        such goods) that the Secretary has reason to believe were 
        produced in an establishment situated in the United States in 
        or about which any oppressive child labor has been employed.
            ``(3) A summary of trends in such violations, including--
                    ``(A) whether such violations were related to--
                            ``(i) the occupation of the child being 
                        found to be particularly hazardous for the 
                        child employed or detrimental to their health 
                        and well-being;
                            ``(ii) the periods during which such child 
                        is employed; or
                            ``(iii) the maximum hours such child may be 
                        employed for; and
                    ``(B) any comparatively high violation rates in 
                industries or regions.
            ``(4) A summary of enforcement actions taken by the 
        Secretary to prevent and detect such violations, including 
        information on how the Secretary detects violations, the 
        enforcement strategy, whether such enforcement strategy is 
        effective, and ways it could be improved.
            ``(5) Information on the prevalence of investigations 
        related to such violations in comparison to the potential 
        extent of oppressive child labor in the United States.
            ``(6) Information on data collection related to child 
        labor, including recommendations for improving such data 
        collection.
            ``(7) A description of any additional resources necessary 
        to conduct activities related to enforcing the provisions of 
        sections 12 or 13(c).''.
                                 &lt;all&gt;
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