Congress moves to protect child farmworkers from hazards 4× deadlier than other jobs
H.R. 6066 — CARE Act of 2025 · Filed by Raul Ruiz (D-CA) · 6 cosponsors · Introduced Nov 17, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
The CARE Act of 2025 strengthens federal protections for child farmworkers by raising the minimum age for agricultural work, eliminating a waiver that allowed younger hand-harvest laborers, increasing civil and criminal penalties for violations, requiring employers to report serious injuries or deaths of child workers within 5 days, and mandating the Department of Labor collect and publish annual data on child farmworker injuries. The bill aims to bring agricultural child labor rules closer to protections that already exist in other industries.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core function is to strengthen federal child labor protections in agriculture through age restrictions, penalty increases, employer reporting, and data collection—a straightforward public-safety measure with no hidden mechanism or narrow beneficiary carve-out.
What the text implies
- Employer reporting requirement (5 days for serious injury/illness/death) creates a new compliance burden and paper trail that may deter some agricultural employers from hiring minors, potentially reducing child labor through friction rather than explicit prohibition.
- Annual DOL data collection and Federal Register publication establishes a public accountability mechanism; states with high child farmworker injury rates will face reputational pressure and may strengthen their own enforcement.
The full analysis lists 4 implications of this text.
Who it affects
Hundreds of thousands of children working in agriculture face hazards at 4× the fatality rate of other young workers, with minimal federal oversight. This bill extends basic labor protections already standard in other industries—raising minimum age, banning pesticide-handler work for minors, increasing penalties for violations, and creating transparency through injury reporting and data collection.