Sponsors (7)
Introduced November 17, 2025 by Raul Ruiz · Last progress November 17, 2025
The bill substantially strengthens protections, enforcement, and transparency to reduce hazardous child labor in agriculture—improving child safety and accountability—but raises compliance, privacy, and implementation burdens that disproportionately affect small farms, employers, and some families dependent on youth farm work.
Children and teens working in agriculture gain substantially stronger safety protections (bans on hazardous tasks, pesticide-handler prohibition, clearer age limits and hazardous-occupation designations), reducing exposure to toxic chemicals and dangerous equipment.
Workers, families, and regulators get stronger enforcement tools and clearer standards (higher civil penalties, criminal penalties for willful/repeated violations, clearer 'serious illness' definition and presumptions), increasing deterrence and supporting accountability for child-labor safety violations.
Congress, the public, and the Department of Labor gain better data and transparency through required reporting and publication of agricultural youth injuries/illnesses/deaths, enabling targeted prevention and oversight.
Small farms and other employers face substantial new compliance costs, administrative burdens, and potential fines (civil and criminal), which could raise operating costs, reduce hiring of youth, and be passed to consumers.
Expanded parental-employer exemptions and certain statutory changes may expose younger children to hazardous farm work with less regulatory oversight, raising child-welfare, safety, and schooling concerns for families that rely on parental labor arrangements.
Tight rulemaking and implementation deadlines (including 30-day effective windows) risk rushed or unclear regulations and strain Department of Labor and state agency resources, complicating stakeholder notice and compliance timelines.
Based on analysis of 10 sections of legislative text.
Tightens child-labor protections in agriculture, bans under-18 pesticide-handler duties, mandates employer reporting of serious youth injuries/illnesses/deaths, increases penalties, and creates annual federal data reporting.
Strengthens federal protections for children who work in agriculture by changing which tasks and ages count as illegal or "oppressive" child labor, tightening age-based exemptions, banning pesticide-handler duties for under-18s, creating mandatory employer reporting of serious work-related injuries/illnesses/deaths of minors in agriculture, requiring annual data collection and reporting by the Department of Labor, and raising civil and criminal penalties for violations. Employers in agriculture will face new recordkeeping and reporting duties, higher financial penalties for breaches, and possible criminal exposure for repeated or willful violations that cause serious harm or death to a minor. The Department of Labor must issue implementing rules within months and update child-labor regulations quickly, and parts of the law become effective on short timelines tied to those rules or within six months of enactment.