CARE Act of 2022
Bill: H.R.7345 | Sponsor: Rep. Roybal-Allard, Lucille (D-CA)
Policy area: Labor and Employment

Summary:
Children's Act for Responsible Employment and Farm Safety of 2022 or the CARE Act of 2022
This bill revises labor provisions for protecting child workers, including those employed in agriculture, and increases the civil penalties for violations of such provisions and imposes new criminal penalties for violations resulting in the death or serious injury or illness of a child worker.
Specifically, the bill revises the definition of oppressive child labor to prohibit the employment of children under 14 years of age and imposes new employer reporting requirements for work-related injuries or deaths of agricultural employees under the age of 18.
The Department of Labor must analyze, collect, and report on data concerning children under the age of 18 who are employed in agriculture and each work-related injury, illness, or death of any such child. Labor must also revise regulations to prohibit the employment of a child under the age of 18 as a pesticide handler.

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 Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Children's Act for Responsible 
Employment and Farm Safety of 2022'' or the ``CARE Act of 2022''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Across the United States, there are hundreds of 
        thousands of children younger than 18 years old who are working 
        in the agricultural industry. It is difficult to know exactly 
        how many children are performing the grueling work that is 
        required to plant, pick, process, and pack the food that people 
        eat every day.
            (2) For farmworkers, many of whom are immigrants, all of 
        whom are poor and some of whom are undocumented, it is 
        challenging to capture accurate data that reflects both the 
        percentage of children working in one of the Nation's most 
        dangerous occupations, as well as the scope of the work that 
        they are engaged in. One thing that is notable is that unlike 
        virtually every other job in the labor market, Congress has 
        made exceptions to allow children to lawfully work in this 
        industry.
            (3) Historically, children have been permitted to work in 
        agriculture at younger ages, for longer hours and under more 
        hazardous conditions than other working children. Like most 
        other agricultural workers, they remain excluded from basic 
        protections provided to workers in other industries under 
        Federal employment laws. Even where protections exist under 
        Federal law, they are seldom ever enforced.
            (4) Allowing children to engage in agricultural work from a 
        young age can result in long-term negative consequences, 
        especially when the child worker is not employed on a family 
        farm where family members take precautions for their children 
        and family members. Working in agriculture as a child can 
        result in an early end to childhood, and long hours worked at 
        unfair and unlawful wages can pose risks to their overall 
        health and lives.
            (5) Child farmworkers suffer work-related fatalities at 
        over four times the rate of other young workers, often because 
        exceptions are made that allow farmworker children to operate 
        heavy, dangerous equipment and to be exposed to other hazards. 
        Yet, great efforts have been taken to strictly limit the 
        possibility of children in other industries from engaging in 
        dangerous work activities or jobs. The demands imposed by doing 
        agricultural work, coupled with the low pay and poor working 
        conditions, result in shocking drop-out rates from school. 
        Aside from these risks, farmworker girls are exceptionally 
        vulnerable to sexual abuse and harassment by supervisors, 
        company owners, crew leaders, co-workers and others.
            (6) While the focus of this Act is on improving the health 
        and safety for all children engaged in agricultural labor, 
        primarily through strengthened general wage and hour 
        protections, the high rates of workplace sexual violence 
        against farmworker women and girls should not be ignored, 
        particularly given that they are susceptible to this violence 
        due to the overall lack of workplace protections available to 
        them.

SEC. 3. AMENDED DEFINITIONS.

    Section 3(l) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 
203(l)) is amended to read as follows:
    ``(l) `Oppressive child labor' means a condition of employment 
under which--
            ``(1) any employee who is 16 or 17 years of age is employed 
        by an employer in any occupation found by the Secretary and by 
        order declared to be particularly hazardous for the employment 
        of children between such ages or detrimental to their health or 
        well-being;
            ``(2) any employee who is 14 or 15 years of age is employed 
        by an employer, unless the Secretary has determined that the 
        employment is confined to periods which will not interfere with 
        the schooling of the employee, and that the conditions of 
        employment will not interfere with the health and well-being of 
        the employee; or
            ``(3) any employee who is under 14 years of age is employed 
        by an employer.''.

SEC. 4. REVISED AGE REQUIREMENT FOR CHILD AGRICULTURAL EMPLOYMENT; 
              REPEAL OF WAIVER PROVISION FOR HAND HARVEST LABORERS.

    (a) Revised Age Requirement.--Section 13(c) of the Fair Labor 
Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 213(c)) is amended by striking 
paragraphs (1) and (2) and inserting the following:
            ``(1) The provisions of section 12 relating to child labor 
        shall not apply to any employee under 18 years of age who is 
        employed in agriculture outside of school hours for the school 
        district where such employee is living by his or her parent, or 
        by a person standing in the place of the parent, on a farm 
        owned by the parent or person.
            ``(2) The provisions of section 12 relating to child labor 
        shall not apply to any employee under 16 years of age who is 
        employed by his or her parent, or by a person standing in the 
        place of the parent, in employment other than manufacturing, 
        mining, or any other employment the Secretary finds to be 
        particularly hazardous for the employment of a child 16 or 17 
        years of age or detrimental to their health or well-being.''.
    (b) Repeal of Waiver Provision.--Section 13(c) of such Act (29 
U.S.C. 213(c)) is further amended by striking paragraph (4) and 
redesignating paragraphs (5) through (7) as paragraphs (4) through (6), 
respectively.

SEC. 5. INCREASED CIVIL PENALTIES FOR CHILD LABOR VIOLATIONS.

    Paragraph (1) of section 16(e) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 
1938 (29 U.S.C. 216(e)(1)) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``person'' each place it appears and 
        inserting ``employer'';
            (2) in subparagraph (A)--
                    (A) by striking ``not to exceed'' and inserting 
                ``of''; and
                    (B) by amending clauses (i) and (ii) to read as 
                follows:
            ``(i) not less than $500 and not more than $15,000 for each 
        employee who was the subject of such a violation; or
            ``(ii) not less than $15,000 and not more than $60,115 with 
        regard to each such violation that causes the serious injury, 
        serious illness, or death of any employee under the age of 18 
        years, which penalty may be doubled where the violation is a 
        repeated or willful violation.''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(C) For purposes of subparagraph (A), the term `serious illness' 
means any abnormal condition or disorder resulting from an event or 
exposure in the work environment. Illnesses which result from events or 
exposures on the employer's premises are presumed to be work 
related.''.

SEC. 6. SPECIAL CRIMINAL PENALTIES FOR CERTAIN AGGRAVATED CHILD LABOR 
              VIOLATIONS.

    Section 16 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 216) 
is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a), by striking ``Any person'' and 
        inserting ``Except as provided in subsection (f), any person''; 
        and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(f) Any person who repeatedly or willfully violates any of the 
provisions of section 12, if violations result in or cause the death or 
serious injury or serious illness of an employee under 18 years of age 
at the time of such violation, shall be subject to imprisonment for not 
more than 5 years or a fine under title 18, United States Code, or 
both.''.

SEC. 7. REPORT TO CONGRESS ON WORK-RELATED INJURIES TO CHILDREN AND 
              RELATED MATTERS.

    The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 is amended by inserting after 
section 12 (29 U.S.C. 212) the following new section:

``SEC. 12A. DATA ON WORK-RELATED INJURIES TO CHILDREN AND RELATED 
              MATTERS.

    ``(a) Data Analysis.--Using the sources specified in subsection 
(b), the Secretary shall analyze data concerning children under the age 
of 18 who are employed in agriculture and each work-related injury, 
illness, or death of any such child.
    ``(b) Sources Specified.--The sources referred to in subsection (a) 
are the following:
            ``(1) Sources within the Department of Labor, including the 
        Wage and Hour Division, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the 
        Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
            ``(2) State employment security agencies and other relevant 
        State agencies.
            ``(3) The National Institute for Occupational Safety and 
        Health.
    ``(c) Report.--
            ``(1) In general.--The Secretary shall annually submit 
        report to Congress which shall include--
                    ``(A) a summary of the data collected by the 
                Secretary under this section and section 12B;
                    ``(B) an evaluation, based on such data, that 
                reflects the status of child labor and related safety 
                and health hazards; and
                    ``(C) any information, based on such data, that 
                leads the Secretary to believe that children under 18 
                years of age may have been employed in violation of 
                section 12.
            ``(2) Publication.--The Secretary shall, on the date that 
        the Secretary submits each report under paragraph (1) to 
        Congress, publish each such report in the Federal Register and 
        ensure that such reports are posted on the Department of Labor 
        website.''.

SEC. 8. EMPLOYER REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.

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

``SEC. 12B. EMPLOYER REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.

    ``(a) Report.--Not later than 5 days after an event specified under 
subsection (b), the employer involved in the event shall submit a 
report to the Secretary in accordance with subsection (c).
    ``(b) Events Specified.--An event referred to in subsection (a) 
is--
            ``(1) a work-related serious injury to an employee under 18 
        years of age employed in agriculture;
            ``(2) the discovery of a work-related serious illness of an 
        employee under 18 years of age employed in agriculture; or
            ``(3) the work-related death of an employee under 18 years 
        of age employed in agriculture.
    ``(c) Contents.--The report required by subsection (a) shall 
include--
            ``(1) the name and address of the employer;
            ``(2) the name, address, and age of the employee;
            ``(3) details relevant to the incident, to include 
        environmental hazards, such as chemical or pesticide exposure, 
        use of machinery or tools at time of incident, work tasks 
        performed at time of incident, and other details relating to 
        the incident; and
            ``(4) such other information as the Secretary of Labor may 
        by regulation prescribe.
    ``(d) Failure To Report.--The Secretary may assess a civil penalty 
on any employer who fails to file a report as required by this section 
in an amount not less than $500 and not more than $7,000 per violation.
    ``(e) Definition.--In this section, the terms `serious injury' and 
`serious illness' have the meanings given such terms in section 
16(e)(1)(B).
    ``(f) Effective Date.--The requirements under this section shall 
take effect on the date that is the earlier of--
            ``(1) the date on which the Secretary issues a rule under 
        section 10(a) of the CARE Act of 2022; or
            ``(2) the date that is 6 months after the date of the 
        enactment of such Act.''.

SEC. 9. PESTICIDE-RELATED WORKER PROTECTION STANDARD.

    (a) Congressional Finding.--Congress finds and declares that the 
employment of children under the age of 18 in the occupation of a 
pesticide handler, as such occupation is defined in the worker 
protection standard for workers exposed to pesticides in part 170 of 
title 40, Code of Federal Regulations, is particularly hazardous for, 
and detrimental to the health and well-being of, such children.
    (b) Requirement for Secretary of Labor.--Not later than the date 
that is 30 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary 
of Labor shall revise part 570 of title 29, Code of Federal 
Regulations, to prohibit the employment of a child under the age of 18 
to perform any of the tasks or duties described in the definition of 
the term ``handler'' in section 170.3 of title 40, Code of Federal 
Regulations.

SEC. 10. APPLICATION OF FAIR LABOR STANDARDS AMENDMENTS.

    (a) Rulemaking.--Not later than the date that is 6 months after the 
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Labor may prescribe 
rules as necessary to implement the amendments made by sections 3 
through 6 and the revision required by section 8. Any such rules issued 
shall take effect not later than 30 days after the date on which the 
rules are published in the Federal Register.
    (b) Violations.--The amendments made by sections 3 through 6 and 
the revision required by section 9 shall apply to violations of the 
Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 201 et seq.) that occur 
after the date on which the rules issued under subsection (a) take 
effect.
    (c) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in the amendments made by 
section 4, 5, or 6 or in the revision required by section 9 shall be 
construed to preempt any State law that provides protections or 
remedies for employees that are greater than the protections or 
remedies provided under such amendments or such revision.
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