U.S. House Education and Workforce Committee Democrats on Thursday announced the introduction of a bill to increase civil and criminal penalties for employers who knowingly violate child labor laws.
The measure would also prevent states from easing federal child labor standards.
The bill, The Protecting Children Act, comes as multiple states have passed laws that roll back child labor laws, coupled with U.S. Department of Labor investigations that have found a steady increase in child labor violations since 2015. The Department of Labor found children as young as 10 operating fryers at a McDonald’s in Louisville, Kentucky.
Among several initiatives, the bill aims to prevent state legislation from loosening federal child labor laws by amending the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, to establish that “[n]o order, rule, or regulation promulgated … shall reduce the protection afforded children by an existing order, rule, or regulation promulgated under this Act.”
The bill would not override any of the recent changes to state laws, but would surpass any state law that would allow children to work in mines or meat processing plants.
The bill is unlikely to be brought to the floor for a vote, and House Education and Workforce Chair Virginia Foxx argued that the bill does not address the issue of child labor.
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