Child labor laws in agriculture would raise required age

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(The Center Square) - A new law introduced by a California congressman would raise the minimum legal age of child workers in agriculture from 12 to 17.

The bill would update the original 1938 law regulating farmworkers and children in farm jobs.

U.S. Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Palm Desert, introduced House Resolution 6066, or the CARE Act, on the floor of the U.S. House on Nov. 17. The bill would raise the minimum age of agricultural workers nationwide from 12 to 17 for most agricultural jobs and to 16 for jobs in mining, manufacturing and similar industries.

According to The CARE Act, which stands for the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment, children are allowed to work in agricultural jobs at much younger ages than virtually any other job in any other line of work. The primary aim of the bill is to raise wages for these children and institute new regulations regarding work hours.

“Historically, children have been permitted to work in agriculture at younger ages, for longer hours, and under more hazardous conditions than other working children,” according to Ruiz's bill. “Like most other agricultural workers, they remain excluded from basic protections provided to workers in other industries under federal employment laws. Even where protections exist under federal law, they are seldom ever enforced.”

Agricultural jobs are more dangerous than most jobs in other industries, especially for children, the legislation says. The bill adds that kids who work in agriculture die at four times the rate of death in other jobs. The legislation also links agriculture with an increase school dropout rates and sexual abuse for girls at the hands of authority figures in the fields.

“Children, particularly those in farmworker communities, deserve the same basic protections as every other child,” said Ruiz in a Nov. 20 press release announcing the legislation. “Right now, a child dies in an agriculture-related incident about every three days, and that is unacceptable. The CARE Act will finally bring fairness, safety, and accountability to protect the health and futures of vulnerable youth.”

Ruiz was unavailable to answer questions from The Center Square on Wednesday.

Employers who violate the law would be required to pay fines between $500 and $15,00 for each violation involving a child under the required age limit, and between $15,000 and $60,115 for each violation in which a child was severely injured, sickened or died because of a dangerous environment in the workplace, according to the text of the bill.

Serious death or injury of a child in the workplace could also result in five years in prison.

The bill would also make protections stronger for children who are exposed to pesticides and chemicals in farm settings, boost funding for the monitoring and establish a federal research and data collection program that would track youth injuries and fatalities in farm labor jobs, according to the press release.

“We love the Children’s Act for Responsible Employment and Farm Safety because it levels the playing field for farmworker children and closes exemptions to child labor law that never should have existed,” said Reid Maki, the director of child labor advocacy at The Child Labor Coalition and the National Consumers League. “Farmworker children face many dangers working in agriculture, and it makes no sense to allow them to do it at younger ages than teens working in any other sector.”

According to the Switzerland-based International Labour Organization, poverty of families and communities is the main reason children work in agriculture all over the world. These children often have limited access to education and face high hazards and risks in the work they do. While there can be benefits to children working agriculture - primarily on family farms where knowledge is passed down from one generation of the family to the next - it is important to distinguish between light farm work and dangerous activities that could harm the child, the organization says.

Democratic and Republican members of the California Legislature's agriculture and labor committees were not available to answer The Center Square's questions on Wednesday. Officials with labor advocacy groups and the state's Agricultural Labor Relations Board also did not respond to The Center Square's request for comment.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office also did not respond.