Bill raises penalties for child labor violations and lets workers sue.
S. 5414 — Stop Child Labor Act · Filed by Brian Schatz (D-HI) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Sep 16, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
The bill makes penalties bigger for employers who break child labor laws. Workers can now sue for up to $250,000 in damages each. Penalties on employers go from $11,000–$50,000 to $5,000–$601,150. Penalties rise each year with inflation. The bill adds criminal penalties for employers who break the law on purpose, repeatedly. It funds programs to help employers follow the rules. It sets up a national group to advise on child labor.
Who it affects
Children and working families get stronger legal protections. They can win more money if employers break child labor laws. Employers face bigger fines and possible criminal charges.
One thing to notice
If the federal government files a complaint about the same violation, workers may lose the right to sue. Private lawsuits and government enforcement do not always happen together.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Sep 16, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 16, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- criminal penalties — Punishment by the government, which can include fines or jail time.
- inflation — When prices go up over time, so money buys less than before.
- national group — An organization that covers the whole country and gives advice.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (7,467 characters) on Oct 1, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Bill raises penalties for child labor violations and lets workers sue.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5414/simple Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.