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Raises and clarifies civil penalties across federal labor, safety, wage, child-labor, Family and Medical Leave, ERISA mental‑health parity/genetic information enforcement, and National Labor Relations Act violations; expands who can be held liable and creates new penalty authorities. It requires updated OSHA/FLSA recordkeeping rules within one year and sets most new enforcement rules to take effect January 1, 2027 (with some provisions effective on enactment).
Amend 29 U.S.C. 216(e)(1)(A) (child labor): For violations of sections 12 or 13(c) (child labor) or their regulations, impose a civil penalty of not more than $150,000 and not less than $1,500 for each employee who was the subject of the violation. If the violation causes the death or serious injury of any employee under age 18, impose a penalty of not more than $700,000 and not less than $7,000; this penalty may be doubled where the violation is repeated or willful.
Amend section 16(e) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (wage and hour): revise paragraph (2) to set per-violation civil penalties at up to $5,000, or up to $50,000 if the violation is repeated or willful; redesignate paragraphs (3)-(5) as (4)-(6); and insert a new paragraph (3) making violations of section 11(c) subject to a civil penalty not to exceed $2,500 per violation.
Increase civil penalty amounts in Section 17 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA): replace various prior dollar amounts with larger maximums and minimums (examples include changing $70,000 to $800,000 and $5,000 to $60,000 in subsection (a); other subsections receive new amounts as listed in the statute).
Amend Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, section 503(a)(1), by replacing a prior amount with $30,000.
Add to 30 U.S.C. 820(b) (Federal Mine Safety and Health Act): when an operator has received written notice of a pattern of violations, for violations occurring during the pattern period assess a civil penalty equal to the lesser of (A) twice the amount that would otherwise be assessed, or (B) the maximum amount that may be assessed for the violation.
Who is affected and how:
Employees and children: Workers and minors gain stronger enforcement tools and higher penalties for violations of child-labor, wage/hour, safety, retaliation, and FMLA protections, which is intended to deter violations and improve workplace protections.
Employers and corporate officers: Private employers face higher fines, a broader risk of civil penalties (including possible personal liability for responsible officers or directors in certain NLRA cases), and new recordkeeping and compliance duties. This raises compliance costs, recordkeeping burdens, and potential exposure to civil enforcement and litigation.
Plan administrators, insurers, and benefit service providers: Employee group health plan actors beyond employers (plan administrators, issuers, vendors) can now be held liable for specific ERISA/health plan violations (genetic information and mental‑health parity), exposing them to penalties and civil collection actions and requiring revisions to plan operations and vendor contracts.
Labor organizations and collective-bargaining processes: The NLRA amendments add penalties for unfair labor practices, which could change employer and union behavior by increasing the financial consequences of certain labor-law violations.
Government agencies: The Department of Labor, NLRB, and related agencies must establish new rules, guidance, enforcement practices, and a recordkeeping regulation within a tight timeline (OSHA/FLSA rulemaking within one year), requiring administrative work and possible resource shifts.
Courts and legal system: Higher penalties and expanded liable parties are likely to generate more contested enforcement actions and litigation over penalty assessments, scope of liability, and administrative procedures.
Net effects:
Short term: Increased compliance planning, revised contracts and policies (especially health-plan vendor agreements), administrative rulemaking, and likely a rise in enforcement actions and contested cases.
Long term: Intended stronger deterrence of labor and health-plan violations and improved protections for workers and minors; potential increased costs for employers and benefit providers that may be passed partly to employees or plan sponsors.
Uncertainties and tradeoffs:
The practical impact depends on how aggressively agencies and the NLRB use the new penalty authorities and how courts interpret expanded liability for non-employer plan actors and corporate officers.
Employers and plan service providers may incur one-time transition costs and higher ongoing compliance costs; that could alter employer practices around leave, scheduling, benefits design, and labor relations.
Adds a sentence to 29 U.S.C. 658(c) specifying that violations relating to making, keeping, or preserving a record continue until the earlier of employer compliance or expiration of the recordkeeping requirement.
Amends 29 U.S.C. 211(c) by inserting new text before the last sentence of that subsection (the insertion text is referenced in this section but not included in the provided excerpt).
Amends Section 12 of the National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. 162) by replacing the existing penalty provision text and adding new subsections that establish civil monetary penalties for employers who commit unfair labor practices, set factors the Board must consider in assessing penalties, and authorize assessment against directors or officers in certain circumstances; requires penalty proceeds to be deposited in the Treasury general fund.
Modifies subsection (c)(10)(A) to change the parties subject to penalties and to specify the statutory requirements whose violation can give rise to liability.
Revises civil penalty amounts for violations related to child labor under sections 12 or 13(c) of the FLSA, setting per-employee minimums and maximums and higher penalties for violations causing death or serious injury to minors.
Modifies paragraph (2) to set per-violation caps of $5,000 for typical violations and $50,000 for repeated or willful violations, redesignates following paragraphs, and adds a new paragraph (3) establishing a $2,500 cap for violations of section 11(c).
Increases multiple civil penalty amounts across subsections (a), (b), (c), (d), and (i), raising maximums and minimums for willful/repeated, serious, non-serious, failure-to-correct, and other categories.
Replaces the civil money penalty amount in Section 503(a)(1) of the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act with $30,000.
Adds a subsection (3) to authorize doubling of assessed civil penalties (subject to a cap) for operators given written notice of a pattern of violations, and makes multiple amendments including redesignation of subsections and adding payment-enforcement procedures, a civil penalty for retaliation with specified minimums and maximums, and provisions regarding withdrawal orders for unpaid final assessments.
Increases the penalty in section 423(d)(1) (30 U.S.C. 933(d)(1)) to $50,000 but not less than $5,000.
And 3 more affected sections...
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Referred to the Committee on Education and Workforce, and in addition to the Committees on Oversight and Government Reform, and House Administration, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Introduced December 10, 2025 by Robert C. Scott · Last progress December 10, 2025
Referred to the Committee on Education and Workforce, and in addition to the Committees on Oversight and Government Reform, and House Administration, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Introduced in House