LET’S Protect Workers Act

Summary

Raises and expands federal civil penalties and enforcement tools across multiple labor laws. The bill sharply increases dollar fines for child-labor, wage-and-hour, OSHA and mine-safety violations; creates a civil-penalty regime for unfair labor practices under the NLRA (including potential fines for officers and directors); expands liability and civil-penalty collection authority under ERISA for group health nondiscrimination and mental health parity failures; and makes recordkeeping failures continue until employers comply (with required DOL rulemaking). Most major changes take effect January 1, 2027, while the recordkeeping change is effective on enactment.

• Significantly raises civil monetary penalties for child-labor, wage-and-hour, OSHA, and mine-safety violations.
• Creates a new civil-penalty regime for employers who commit unfair labor practices, with fines up to $50,000 (or $100,000 for serious/repeat acts) and potential liability for officers/directors.
• Expands ERISA liability to include plan administrators, service providers, and issuers for certain health nondiscrimination and parity failures and allows the Secretary to sue to collect penalties.
• Makes recordkeeping violations under OSHA and the FLSA continuing violations until compliance or expiration, and requires DOL rulemaking within one year.
• Most enforcement and penalty increases take effect January 1, 2027; recordkeeping changes are effective at enactment.
• Penalty assessments under the NLRA are cumulative to other remedies and must be deposited in the federal general fund.
• Mine operators in a pattern-of-violations period face increased penalties capped at either double the normal penalty or the statutory maximum, whichever is less.
• Increased penalties and broader liability expand potential financial exposure for employers, service providers, plan administrators, and corporate officers.
• The act substantially boosts enforcement tools for DOL, the NLRB, and mine-safety authorities, likely increasing inspections, investigations, and litigation.
• DOL must update or issue regulations to implement continuity in recordkeeping enforcement; this rulemaking is specifically authorized under the Congressional Review Act process.