Future in Logging Careers Act

This bill would change federal child labor rules for logging so some 16- and 17-year-olds can work in a family-owned timber business. It makes an exception to the usual ban on teens doing especially dangerous logging jobs when the employer is owned or run by their parent or a person acting as a parent. Outside of this family situation, the usual child labor limits still apply to these dangerous jobs.

It also spells out what counts as logging work. This includes cutting, moving, loading, and processing timber; related tasks like building or fixing logging roads and equipment; and using heavy, mechanized machines such as processors, delimbers, feller‑bunchers, skidders, forwarders, chippers, grinders, debarkers, bulldozers, excavators, and log loaders.

• Who is affected: 16- and 17-year-olds, their parents/guardians who own or run logging businesses, and timber employers.
• What changes: Allows these teens to do logging jobs the Labor Department considers especially dangerous, but only when working for a parent’s logging company; otherwise, current child labor rules stay in place.
• Where/what work: Covers a wide range of logging tasks and mechanized equipment used in timber harvesting.