Sponsors (65)
The bill tightens and clarifies child-labor protections for tobacco agriculture—improving safety and legal clarity for minors—while reducing employment flexibility for small tobacco farms and limiting some teen work opportunities in rural communities.
Children under 18: are explicitly prevented from being treated as 'employees' for work involving direct contact with tobacco plants or dried tobacco leaves, reducing their exposure to hazardous agricultural tasks.
Children and agricultural stakeholders: the bill clarifies that tobacco-related agriculture is excluded from the subsection's second-sentence carve-out, removing legal ambiguity and strengthening enforcement of child-labor protections in that sector.
Small tobacco farm owners and family businesses: may lose flexibility to employ minors for certain tasks, increasing labor costs or administrative burden.
Teens in agricultural and rural communities: could see reduced work and learning opportunities (income and skill-building) if previously allowed tobacco-related tasks are now prohibited.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Stops minors under 18 who have direct contact with tobacco plants or dried tobacco leaves from being covered by a child-labor exemption for tobacco-related agriculture.
Prohibits children under 18 from being treated as employees for purposes of child-labor exemptions when they have direct contact with tobacco plants or dried tobacco leaves. The bill amends federal child-labor definitions to explicitly remove "tobacco-related agriculture" from a previously broader exception, closing a loophole that allowed minors to be excluded from certain protections when working with tobacco. The change is narrowly written and limited to the statutory definition language: it creates a clear, statutory ban on classifying individuals under 18 who handle tobacco as part of an exempt agricultural employment category, which increases legal protection for minors against tobacco-related work exposures.
Official title: To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to prohibit employment of children in tobacco-related agriculture by deeming such employment as oppressive child labor.
Introduced May 13, 2025 by Rosa L. Delauro · Last progress May 13, 2025