By Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix
A significant rollback for child labor laws in Florida received approval in its third and final committee stop in the House on Tuesday. The same bill would speed up a state preemption of local living-wage laws in nearly a dozen cities and counties.
It added insult to injury to its critics via a late-filed amendment that would speed up a preemption against local-living wage laws in nearly a dozen Florida cities and counties that require their contractors to pay employees a wage that’s higher than the state’s minimum.
Related: United, we can improve Florida labor for all.
The original proposal (HB 1225), sponsored by Brevard freshman Republican Rep. Monique Miller, would allow employers during the school year to schedule any 16- and 17-year-old Floridian to work for unlimited hours and days without breaks. It would also allow employers to schedule 14- and 15-year-olds who have graduated from high school or are home or virtual-school students for unlimited hours and days without breaks.
Those specific provisions would repeal the existing prohibition on scheduling 16- and 17-year-olds from working more than 8 hours on any day when school is scheduled for the next day, except when the day of work falls on a holiday or Sunday. It would repeal the limit for scheduling a 16- and 17-year-old to work no more than 30 hours in one week.
“Due to resurgence of apprenticeships and such, we want to reduce barriers to teenagers learning their trade and getting prepared for their careers,” Miller told the House Commerce Committee. “There are currently certain waiver programs that give government the power to decide whether or not teenagers should work. I believe that power rests with the parents.”
A similar proposal was introduced in the 2024 legislative session but was watered down, in part due to considerable pushback from the public. This year’s versions in the House and the Senate ignore that criticism — and come after the Orlando Weekly revealed that staffers within Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office emailed draft legislation to Miller and Jay Collins, sponsor of the Senate version.
Miller told lawmakers that one motivation for her bill was to eliminate “barriers” so that parents could decide what was best for their kids when it comes to early employment.
Tampa Bay area Democratic Rep. Michele Rayner asked Miller what barriers now prohibit parents of 16- and 17-year-olds in school to work more than 30 hours. Miller did not appear to directly respond to that inquiry, prompting Rayner to later say that she had been troubled that she could not get direct answers on a policy question.
“It’s disheartening and disrespectful to the process when decorum is sacrificed in the name of partisanship,” she said.
All of the Democrats on the committee and one Republican — Panhandle Rep. Michelle Salzman — voted against the proposal.
“This bill strips away any type of foundational oversight requirement for breaks, limitations of hours during school, under the guise of parental rights. Meanwhile, the bill has no requirements for parental consent, no requirements for a break,” said Orlando Democratic Rep. Anna Eskamani.
An amended version of Miller’s bill introduced on Tuesday added a provision that angered critics. It would speed up a law passed in a contentious bill a year ago to block 11 local governments in the state from requiring contractors to pay more than the state’s minimum wage. The provision would speed up the date that law will go into effect from September 2026 to September 2025.
When asked by Winter Garden Democratic Rep. Leonard Spencer why she was making that change in her bill, Miller said, “My understanding is that they were ready to move forward now,” without mentioning who “they” were.
That insertion did not go unrecognized by members of the public.
“These are working families that make currently $17.45 an hour,” said Jess McCarty, executive assistant county attorney for Miami-Dade County. “The new language on this 50th day of the session would take away health benefits. It would eliminate these living wages that are offered only on county contracts.”
“This amendment is a bombshell,” added Jackson Oberlink with the progressive group Florida For All. “This isn’t just about child labor anymore. It’s a full-scale assault on working people and local democracy. And worse, it sets a trap. This language opens up a section of law ripe for future anti-worker amendments to be slipped in at the last minute, circumventing the committee process and public testimony.”
While the measure’s passage now means it will go to the full House for a vote, its odds of ultimately getting to DeSantis desk for his signature remains uncertain. The Senate version (SB 918), sponsored by Hillsborough County Republican Collins, has only passed one of three committees to which it is assigned — and Tuesday was the last day that any committees are scheduled to convene in the Senate.
Minimum wage
Meanwhile, another controversial proposal, one that would allow employersemployees less than the minimum wage, to pay certain may also be dying in the Senate.
The legislation, sponsored by Lee County Republican Jonathan Martin (SB 676), says that if an employee is working a structured work-study, internship, pre-apprenticeship, or “other similar work” and voluntarily signs a waiver, their employer can pay them less than the state minimum wage, now set at $13 an hour. Parents and guardians must sign the wavier for employees under 18 years of age.
These “work-based learning opportunities” may not last longer than nine months or two full-time semesters in school consisting of at least 15 credit hours each.
Martin told questioning Democrats on the Senate Rules Committee on Monday night that he intends his bill to deal with what he described as a decades-long decline in the labor force for teenagers and young adults. He hopes, he said, that the bill could encourage employers to hire young people.
“I want to have more young adults or teenagers to learn basic job skills,” he said.
Floridians approved a constitutional amendment in 2020 raising the state’s minimum wage by $1 every year until it reaches $15 per hour in September 2026. The passage of that amendment immediately raised the minimum wage to $10 in 2021.
There is a no standardized definition of “internship” in Florida law, according to the Senate bill analysis.
With the clock approaching 8 p.m. on Monday night, Martin announced that he was temporarily postponing the bill — which might indicate its chances of passage are fleeting, as this was the last time the Rules Committee would meet this session.
Rich Templin of the Florida AFL-CIO said on Tuesday that the bill simply wasn’t ready for primetime.
“There was no agency authority, there was no parameters [in the bill] on how to set up an internship,” he said. “There’s no educational goals. There’s not even [a definition] of what a waiver form would look like. There would literally be no way for businesses to implement it, which would lead to failed attempts, lots of lawsuits.”
A similar proposal in the House (HB 841), sponsored by Ocala Republican Ryan Chamberlain, has cleared all of its committee stops and is awaiting a vote in the full chamber.
