{"id":17071,"date":"2025-05-19T09:51:44","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T13:51:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/?p=17071"},"modified":"2025-05-19T09:51:44","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T13:51:44","slug":"child-labor-reforms-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/child-labor-reforms-new-york\/","title":{"rendered":"The Significant Child Labor Reforms New York Employers Need to Know"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-17072\" src=\"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/pexels-creative-vix-375468.jpg\" alt=\"child labor reforms new york\" width=\"1024\" height=\"790\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/pexels-creative-vix-375468.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/pexels-creative-vix-375468-980x756.jpg 980w, https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/pexels-creative-vix-375468-480x370.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 981px) 1024px, 100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<p>On <strong>May 9, 2025<\/strong>, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law several provisions under the 2025-26 New York state budget, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lawandtheworkplace.com\/2025\/05\/approved-new-york-state-budget-legislation-bolsters-child-labor-protections\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">significant child labor reforms<\/a>. Among the child labor reforms are increased civil penalties for violations, which <strong>become effective immediately<\/strong>, as well as changes to requirements for minor employment certification and recordkeeping and certain child labor protections, which take effect on <strong>May 9, 2027<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2>Child Labor Civil Penalties<\/h2>\n<p>The amendments significantly increase the maximum civil penalties for child labor violations as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Up to $10,000 for a first violation (previously up to $1,000);<\/li>\n<li>Between $2,000 and $25,000 for a second violation (previously up to $2,000); and<\/li>\n<li>Between $10,000 and $55,000 for a third or subsequent violation (previously up to $3,000).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In situations where a child labor violation results in serious injury or death to a minor, the amendments implement a new penalty scale. The penalty range for the new scale is as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Between $3,000 and $30,000 for a first violation;<\/li>\n<li>Between $6,000 and $75,000 for a second violation; and<\/li>\n<li>Between $30,000 and $175,000 for a third and subsequent violation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Previously, for violations involving serious injury or death of a minor, the penalty was triple the maximum penalty allowed under the law. These changes took effect on <strong>May 9, 2025<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2>Minor Employment Certification and Recordkeeping<\/h2>\n<p>The amendments also make significant changes to minor employment certification and recordkeeping requirements. Any employer hiring minors under the age of 18 must register in a confidential database, providing information about their business and the minors they employ, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The name of the employer;<\/li>\n<li>The employer\u2019s email address;<\/li>\n<li>Any location of the employer\u2019s business operations within New York, including any location where a minor will be working;<\/li>\n<li>The number and names of minors who are hired, employed or otherwise permitted to work for the employer;<\/li>\n<li>A certified statement from the employer that the employer is hiring, employing or otherwise permitting minors to work only in positions for the employer as permitted by New York child labor laws to ensure the minors\u2019 health, safety and well-being; and<\/li>\n<li>Any other information deemed appropriate by the New York commissioner of labor.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL), in consultation with the New York Department of Education, will create and maintain this confidential database, which is not accessible to the public. Employers are required to file employment certificates and permits (either electronically or physically) at the place of employment before a minor\u2019s employment begins and make the certificates and permits accessible to authorized individuals. Employers must destroy any physical or electronic copies of a minor\u2019s employment certificate upon termination of the minor\u2019s employment. Temporary service employers are also required to keep employment certificates on file and provide copies to each establishment where a minor is assigned.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, minors are required to register in the database and update their employment certificate or permit for each employer. The NYSDOL, instead of school officials, will be responsible for issuing and revoking minor employment certificates and permits. These certificates and permits will be issued electronically within the database. Employment certificates are valid for the minor\u2019s initial employment and subsequent work, as permitted by a particular type of certificate, provided the minor has updated their electronic registration to reflect the subsequent employer.<\/p>\n<p>These new requirements take effect on <strong>May 9, 2027<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2>Child Labor Protections<\/h2>\n<p>The amendments eliminate the hours of work coverage exemption for newspaper carriers and the exemption permitting the employment of a minor 15 years old who is found to be incapable of profiting from further instruction available and who presents a special employment certification. These changes take effect on <strong>May 9, 2027<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2>Employer Next Steps<\/h2>\n<p>Employers should review their employment policies and procedures related to employing minors to ensure they comply with the new provisions. Additionally, employers should start reviewing their employment policies regarding minor employment certificates and permits and recordkeeping requirements and make any updates to comply with amendments by May 9, 2027. Employers can also train personnel on the new database requirements and be prepared to use the amendments\u2019 effective date.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a92025 Zywave, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>Ensure Compliance with Child Labor Laws<\/h2>\n<p>If you are concerned about compliance with these and other labor laws, and you don&#8217;t have the HR resources to stay on top of it, GTM can help. Our <a href=\"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/hr-consulting-services\/hr-audit-service\/\">HR Audit service<\/a> provides a comprehensive review of an organization\u2019s human resources policies, practices, procedures, and systems to identify improvement areas and ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. It is an objective examination conducted internally to identify and remedy possible exposure. On-site records are physically reviewed, issues are identified, and presented in memo form with a worksheet. Clients are copied on requests for information and kept apprised of the audit status.<\/p>\n<p>Fill out the brief form below for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Employers in New York should review policies and procedures related to employing minors to ensure compliance with new child labor reforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[266],"tags":[415,79,18,416,6],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-17071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consulting-services","tag-child-labor","tag-compliance","tag-employer-policies","tag-minors","tag-new-york-employers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17071"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17073,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17071\/revisions\/17073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17071"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=17071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}