118 HR 2956 IH: Combating Child Labor Act
U.S. House of Representatives
2023-04-27
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EN
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I
118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2956
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 27, 2023
Mr. Kildee (for himself, Mr. Cárdenas, Ms. Clarke of New York, Ms. Norton, Mr. Mullin, Ms. Tlaib, Mr. García of Illinois, Ms. Tokuda, Ms. Scholten, Ms. Schakowsky, Ms. Caraveo, Mr. Lynch, Mr. Carson, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, Mr. Casar, Ms. Sánchez, Ms. Jayapal, Ms. Chu, Mr. McGovern, Ms. Moore of Wisconsin, Ms. Titus, Ms. Lee of California, Ms. Velázquez, Ms. Williams of Georgia, Ms. Adams, Mr. Norcross, Mr. Evans, Ms. Dean of Pennsylvania, Mr. Trone, Ms. Slotkin, Mr. Takano, Mr. Thanedar, Mrs. Dingell, Ms. Barragán, Mr. Pocan, Mr. DeSaulnier, and Mrs. Hayes) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce
A BILL
To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to increase criminal and civil penalties related to child labor, to require the Secretary of Labor to annually report to Congress on child labor violations, and for other purposes.
1.

Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Combating Child Labor Act”.
2.

Penalties related to child labor
(a)

Criminal penalties
Section 16(a) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 216(a) is amended—
(1)
by striking “Any” and inserting “(1) Any”;
(2)
by inserting “(other than subsection (a)(4)” after “section 15”;
(3)
by striking “this subsection” each place it appears and inserting “this paragraph”; and
(4)
by adding at the end the following new paragraphs:
“(2)
Any person who repeatedly or willfully violates section 15(a)(4) shall upon conviction thereof be subject to a fine of not more than $100,000, or to imprisonment for not more than 5 years, or both.
(3)
Any person who repeatedly or willfully violates section 15(a)(4) that results in the death or serious injury of an employee under the age of 18 years shall upon conviction thereof be subject to a fine of not more than $500,000, or to imprisonment for not more than 10 years, or both”.
(b)

Civil penalties
Section 16(e)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 216(e)(1)) is amended—
(1)
in subparagraph (A)—
(A)
by striking “not to exceed” and inserting “that is”;
(B)
by moving the margins for clauses (i) and (ii) 4 ems to the left;
(C)
in clause (i)—
(i)
by striking “$11,000” and inserting “not less than $1,000 and not more than $150,000”; and
(ii)
by striking “; or” and inserting “, which penalty may be doubled where the violation is a repeated or willful violation;”; and
(D)
in clause (ii)—
(i)
by striking “$50,000” and inserting “not less than $20,000 and not more than $700,000”; and
(ii)
by striking “death or”; and
(iii)
by striking the period at the end and inserting “; or”
(E)
by adding at the end the following:
“(iii)
not less than $70,000 and not more than $700,000 with regard to each such violation that causes the death of any employee under the age of 18 years, which penalty may be doubled where the violation is a repeated or willful violation.”.
(2)
in subparagraph (B), by striking “subparagraph (A)” and inserting “this section”.
(c)

Effective date
The amendments made by this section shall apply to violations occurring on or after the date of enactment of this section.
3.

Report on child labor activities
The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. 201 et seq.) is further amended by inserting after section 12 the following new section:
“12A.

Report on child labor activities
The Secretary shall submit annually a report to Congress, and on the same day publish such report in the Federal Register and on the website of the Department of Labor, on violations of the provisions of section 12 or 13(c), relating to child labor, or any regulation issued pursuant to such sections, in the most recent fiscal year preceding such report, including the following information:
(1)
A list of employers determined to have committed such violations, including—
(A)
the employer’s name and address;
(B)
the number and type of violations committed;
(C)
a summary explanation of each violation of sections 12(a) and 15(a)(1) related to child labor;
(D)
any penalties assessed under section 17; and
(E)
any other action taken in relation to such violations.
(2)
A list of goods (including consumer facing brands and trademarks, the names under which such goods are marketed to consumers, and other information a consumer may use to identify such goods) that the Secretary has reason to believe were produced in an establishment situated in the United States in or about which any oppressive child labor has been employed.
(3)
A summary of trends in such violations, including—
(A)
whether such violations were related to—
(i)
the occupation of the child being found to be particularly hazardous for the child employed or detrimental to their health and well-being;
(ii)
the periods during which such child is employed; or
(iii)
the maximum hours such child may be employed for; and
(B)
any comparatively high violation rates in industries or regions.
(4)
A summary of enforcement actions taken by the Secretary to prevent and detect such violations, including information on how the Secretary detects violations, the enforcement strategy, whether such enforcement strategy is effective, and ways it could be improved.
(5)
Information on the prevalence of investigations related to such violations in comparison to the potential extent of oppressive child labor in the United States.
(6)
Information on data collection related to child labor, including recommendations for improving such data collection.
(7)
A description of any additional resources necessary to conduct activities related to enforcing the provisions of sections 12 or 13(c).”.