Florida bill weakening child labor law gets OK from Republican-dominated House panel

Despite opposition from a Democratic minority, a Florida bill that would weaken child labor protections for 16- and 17-year-olds advanced through its second Republican-dominated House subcommittee hearing on Tuesday in a 12–5 vote along party lines.

The bill (HB 49) similarly passed its first panel along party lines last month, with Republicans in support, Democrats opposed.

Bill sponsor Linda Chaney, a Republican member of the Florida House, has defended the bill in part by arguing that the bill “is not about children.”

“This bill is about teenagers,” she emphasized Wednesday, in front of the House Local Administration, Federal Affairs & Special Districts subcommittee. Last month, she favored the term “youth workers” (as in, “These are youth workers that are driving automobiles. They are not children”).

House Bill 49, drafted by a right-wing think tank, would extend the number of hours that 16- and 17-year-olds in Florida are allowed to work during the school year, and get rid of breaks on the job, specific to minors, that employers are required to give them under law. Similar to another bill recently introduced in Indiana, it would also allow teenagers aged 16 and older to drop out of school and work during school hours.

Currently, minors in Florida cannot work more than 30 hours per week while school is in session, and they must be given 30-minute breaks every four hours. There are stricter requirements under federal law for children under 16.

A previous version of the bill (HB 49) would have allowed older teens to work overnight shifts, even if they had school scheduled the next day. Republican State Rep. Linda Chaney, the bill sponsor, amended the bill Wednesday to walk that back, admitting the change was made in response to public feedback.

However, the new, amended version also adds a carve-out that would allow for 16- and 17-year-olds to drop out of school and work full-time. Currently, state law exempts minors who have already graduated from high school, or those who have obtained a high school diploma. The amended proposal from Chaney would extend that to home-schooled students, students in approved virtual school programs, and students 16 and older who have filed a declaration of intent with their school district to drop out of school.

Rep. Brackett, R-Vero Beach, also filed an amendment to fix a typo in Chaney’s amendment. That amendment was similarly adopted.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, Florida is the 16th state so far where legislation has been proposed over the past two years to ease child labor restrictions, even though violations of child labor law have been on the rise.

Critics of the bill argued that child labor protections under current law are in place to prevent minors from exploitation or burnout, and in order to prioritize their education. They also point out that teens aged 14 and older in Florida are already able to be lawfully employed in a wide variety of jobs for up to 30 hours a week during the school year.

There are prohibitions on jobs deemed too dangerous for minors, such as demolition work, meatpacking and roofing, although another controversial bill, written by homebuilder and construction industry lobbyists, seeks to change that, too.

As it is, not all minors in Florida are even protected under child labor laws, which were first established over a century ago through the advocacy of labor advocates and social workers. Children who are enrolled in career education programs in schools, minors employed by their parents or in homes (e.g. babysitting), minors in the entertainment industry, and minors who are or have been married are all exempted.

Children can also seek exemption by applying for a waiver. A representative from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, the enforcing agency, told Orlando Weekly in December that over 5,000 waivers were issued for children during the 2023 fiscal year alone. 

A teacher from Palm Beach County, worried about the implications of the bill on children’s education, grew emotional in front of lawmakers, speaking as an opponent of the bill. “I see kids falling asleep with the laws we have now,” said school teacher Ellen Baker. “This is so emotional for me because I see this every day, and I think it’s going to get so much worse.”

Jessica Maharry, another teacher from Palm Beach County, said teenagers are already overstressed and overscheduled as it is, saying, “Our children are facing stresses like no other generation has today.” Kids are already overscheduled with extracurriculars and family obligations, she added, “and are struggling to juggle the expectations that are being placed upon them in today’s society.”

The Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association, a lobbying group for the hospitality industry, was one of the earliest vocal supporters of the bill — and is in business-friendly company with right-wing think-tanks like Americans for Prosperity and the Foundation for Government Accountability, which has been a driving force for child labor rollbacks across the country. They’re lobbying for the bill, too.

FRLA lobbyist Samantha Padgett told lawmakers their group has gotten “overwhelmingly positive feedback” from its members, ranging from large businesses to “small, family-owned businesses in our communities.”

The powerful trade group, led by a board of directors dominated by industry giants, argues that Florida’s child labor laws limit youth workers’ “meaningful involvement” in hospitality jobs, “with many businesses reluctant to hire and mentor them due to stringent requirements,” a FRLA spokesperson Ashley Chambers told Orlando Weekly.

Padgett said the hospitality and tourism industries are also dealing with a labor shortage. Her group’s members, she said, “would welcome the opportunity to expand the hours of hardworking young Floridians who are strong members of their teams.”

Children, of course, are also cheaper to hire, with employers legally permitted to pay minors as little as $4.25 an hour for the first 90 days under law. If teens are desperate enough to want to work more than 30 hours per week, they’re also probably desperate enough to put up with a job even if their boss fails to pay overtime or fails to pay them all of what they’re lawfully owed. As we’ve reported extensively, Florida doesn’t have a strong mechanism to crack down on wage theft.

State Rep. Marie Woodson, D-Hollywood, pointed out that the bill also wouldn’t protect older teens from being fired if they refused to take on extra hours that would be legalized under this bill.

Chaney rebuffed this by claiming employers won’t want to work teens too many hours anyway. “Employers are not going to want to pay overtime,” Chaney said. “That does not make business sense.”

She might be right. The owners of a couple of North Florida restaurants, after all, were recently penalized by the federal government because they failed to comply with existing child labor law and overtime requirements. “These types of violations are all too common in the restaurant industry,” said Wildalí De Jesús, regional administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, in a statement on the case.

An Orlando-area roofing contractor who illegally employed a 15-year-old to do roofing work in 2022 similarly violated overtime requirements, in addition to child labor protections. The 15-year-old fell off a 20-foot roof on the job, suffering injuries that landed the teenager in a hospital for days. The contractor was fined over $50,000 in child labor violation penalties.

But too many children still fall through the cracks in enforcement, often illegally employed in industries like construction, service and hospitality.

“If you look at who is supporting these efforts to try to weaken child labor laws across the country, it’s the same companies who are often leaders in wage theft problems,” David Weil, the former head of the Wage and Hour Division under the Obama administration, told Orlando Weekly last month. “They’re trying to find the least-cost way of expanding their labor supply.”

And enforcement of Florida’s child labor law is already weak.

A recent poll conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy found that loosening child labor protections for older teens is unpopular among Florida voters, even among registered Republicans.

Chaney argued that her bill is only seeking to align state law with the federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which is somewhat weaker than the state’s. Federal law doesn’t have restrictions on the number of hours 16- and 17-year-olds can work, for instance. Florida is one of over 20 states that did step up over the last century to enact child labor protections that are stronger than what’s in federal law. Rep. Robin Bartleman, D-Weston, said lawmakers should be proud of that rather than trying to dismantle it.

“I am proud to be in a state that has child labor laws that are more restrictive, because we value our children and we do not want them exploited,” she said.

Chaney said she doesn’t know of anyone who’s protested federal child labor regulations for being less restrictive than those enacted by many states. She may not be aware of it (though frankly, that seems unlikely), but that doesn’t mean opposition doesn’t exist. There are in fact currently bipartisan proposals in Congress to strengthen federal law, which has been criticized as outdated and insufficient to deter violations.

Florida Republican Rep. Jeff Holcomb, however, similarly wasn’t convinced. “I think we’re wrapping our kids in bubble wrap here,” he blustered. (Unlike Chaney, he didn’t seem to have a problem with acknowledging these are children we’re talking about.)

A number of organizations ranging from the Florida PTA to the 1199 SEIU labor union, Florida Student Power and Florida Education Association, the statewide teachers union, all spoke or waived in opposition to the bill. The National Federation of Independent Business waived in support.

With this latest vote of approval from the House panel, the bill will now head to its last committee stop. It would need to be approved by one more committee, plus the full Florida House, in order to pass.

Roll call — Who voted for the child labor bill:

• Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka (R-Fort Myers)
  

• Rep. Robert Brackett (R-Vero Beach)

• Rep. Carolina Amesty (R-Orlando)

• Rep. Adam Anderson (R-Palm Harbor)

• Rep. David Borrero (R-Sweetwater)

• Rep. Philip Wayne Griffits Jr. (R-Panama City Beach)

• Rep. Jeff Holcomb (R-Spring Hill)

• Rep. Berny Jacques (R-Seminole)

• Rep. Kaylee Tuck (R-Lake Placid)

• Rep. Taylor Michael Yarkosky (R-Montverde)

• Rep. Rachel Plakon (R-Lake Mary)

• Rep. Stan McClain (R-Ocala)

Who voted against it:

• Rep. Marie Woodson (D-Hollywood)

• Rep. Lisa Dunkley (D-Sunrise)

• Rep. Mike Gottlieb (D-Davie)

• Rep. Robin Bartleman (D-Weston)

• Rep. Dan Daley (D-Coral Springs)

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This article appears in Jan 10-16, 2024.