A California Democrat proposes raising the minimum age for child farmworkers. Can it pass?

A son of California farmworkers introduced legislation this week to ensure that children working in agriculture have the same the same rights and protections as those working in mining and manufacturing.

The Children’s Act for Responsible Employment and Farm Safety (CARE) Act of 2023, introduced by Rep. Raul Ruiz, would raise from 12 to 14 the minimum age at which children can be farmworkers.

In the agricultural sector, children as young as 12 can work in the fields during non-school hours with few restrictions, according to federal and California labor laws. In other industries, the minimum age is 14.

Extreme heat, toxic pesticide exposure, dangerous machinery and long hours of physically-demanding labor make farmwork one of the most dangerous professions. Rising global temperatures and drought have made working — and finding work — harder.

In the Central Valley, California’s farming hub that provides a third of the nation’s produce, it’s relatively common for the children of farmers and farmworkers to work in the fields. Most California farmworkers are Latino, many of them immigrants.

Some farmers, lobbyists and Republicans fear amending agriculture labor laws would hurt family farming.

Ruiz, an emergency physician raised by Coachella Valley farmworkers, said in introducing the bill Monday that farm labor has “one of the highest occupational injury rates in our nation.”

“In fact, every three days, a child employee dies while working in agriculture,” Ruiz, D-Indio, said. “Despite these dangerous conditions, agriculture is the only industry with little to no protections for the 400,000 young children who work in this industry every day.”

Legislation would heighten penalties for labor violations

Ruiz along with Rep. Raúl Grijalva of Arizona and their co-sponsors are taking the bill up from retired Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, a California Democrat who introduced this legislation to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act repeatedly without success for two decades.

The labor law, which has been amended many times since it was enacted in 1938, governs issues ranging from minimum wage and overtime pay to prevention of minors operating in “oppressive child labor.”

The child labor protections block children from working in conditions deemed hazardous to health or well-being or that interferes with education, depending on their age. Current labor laws do not include agricultural work within the definition of “oppressive child labor.”

A 2018 federal report found that more than half of workplace fatalities of children were in agriculture.

The study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which offers nonpartisan analysis to federal bodies, detailed work-related deaths for minors between 2003 and 2016 across industries such as construction, transportation, manufacturing and hospitality.

“Quite frankly, I don’t think any children should be working in agriculture,” said Ann López, the executive director of the Center for Farmworker Families, who fights for farmworker well-being. She said most all farmworker parents want their children to receive more educational opportunities rather than be drawn to working in the fields.

“Children are highly susceptible to the impact of pesticides which are used almost indiscriminately in the fields,” López said. She noted that through her work she hears of children with cancer or other ailments who are “constantly affected” by pesticides: “This is no way to treat human beings.”

The legislation would amend several levels of agricultural labor to match those of mining and manufacturing, according to Ruiz. It would prohibit children under 14 from working, heighten time restrictions for children under 16 and block children under 18 from completing hazardous work.

The bill would create a minimum penalty and increase maximum civil and criminal penalties for child labor violations. It would also tighten reporting requirements for work injuries and illnesses and call for greater protections from pesticides, in line with past versions.

Antonio De Loera-Brust, communications director for the United Farm Workers, the nation’s largest farmworker’s union, said that these legislative efforts were important, but that conditions farmworker families live in make it so “children will continue to work in the fields for as long as farmworker families are deeply affected by child poverty.”

“We agree it shouldn’t be legal for kids to do dangerous work,” he said. “That means creating a world in which it isn’t necessarily for kids to do dangerous work.”

Pushback from farmers and Republicans

Farmers, lobbyists and rural Republicans expressed concern over the decades that changing child labor laws would hurt family farming traditions.

Facing that pressure in 2012, the U.S. Labor Department under former President Barack Obama’s administration scrapped a rule to limit the work children could do on farms despite having an exemption for ones owned by a minor’s family. In announcing the withdrawal, the Department wrote that the administration was “firmly committed to promoting family farmers and respecting the rural way of life, especially the role that parents and other family members play in passing those traditions down through the generations.”

As with other versions of the CARE Act, Ruiz’s exempts the age restriction for children working on their family’s farms or in the stead of their parents, according to the bill text reviewed by The Bee.

Rep. John Duarte, who has not seen the bill yet and thus did not want to pass judgment on it, said he would not support infringing on farm families’ rights. Duarte, R-Modesto, a life-long family farmer, grew up working in greenhouses since he was about 10 years old.

“Honestly, it’s really not going to happen without their parents’ consent,” Duarte said.

Legislation would affect children of Latinos and immigrants

Even with Ruiz’s amendment, it might be hard to prevent children from taking on dangerous farm jobs when families are reliant on the income. Especially when those children are unaccompanied migrants or the children of undocumented immigrants.

Recent investigations by The New York Times, which revealed that the federal government missed or ignored red flags concerning child labor violations for children of color and immigrants, prompted officials to look at widespread issues. It has yet to usher in a resolution.

Thousands of unaccompanied migrant children took on brutal jobs in slaughterhouses, construction and manufacturing over the past two years, The Times reported in May.

Many Central Valley farmworkers are undocumented immigrants who lack governmental protections. About 75% of California farmworkers are undocumented, according to the UC Merced Community and Labor Center. A majority of California farmworkers are Latino — 97%, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

Legislative efforts by California Sen. Alex Padilla federally for essential workers and State Sen. Ana Caballero, D-Merced, for farmworkers aim to provide citizenship pathways.

All farmworkers face hardships, said López, because many agricultural employers don’t follow laws already on the books. Farmworkers suffer poor health outcomes and earnings from the effects of pesticides, overwork, poverty and theft by some employers who take a cut of their pay, forcing children to take on tough roles.

“If the parents have adequate income, their children have a better chance,” she said.