Florida Sen. Jay Collins, R-Tampa, says his bill is simply “lining Florida up with federal law” on child labor. The federal law he’s referring to was passed in 1938. Credit: Photo via Jay Collins/Facebook

After approving a new law last year that weakens Florida’s child labor protections for workers age 16 and older, Florida lawmakers are now considering a bill that would undermine these protections even further, including for children as young as 14.

Proposed legislation (SB 918) would nix state regulations that limit the number of hours and days per week 16- and 17-year-olds can legally work in Florida during the school year. It would also eliminate meal breaks the state currently mandates.

Currently, these teens can’t work more than eight hours per day, can’t work past 11 p.m. or before 6:30 a.m. on school days, and can’t work during the day on a school day, unless they’re enrolled in a career education program.

Fourteen- and 15-year-olds in Florida who are home-schooled, enrolled in virtual school, or who have graduated with a high school diploma or GED would also be exempted from existing work hour restrictions under the new proposal.

“What we are doing is lining Florida up with federal law. That’s what this is,” argued Florida Sen. Jay Collins, R-Tampa, the bill sponsor.

Under federal law, only minors 15 and younger have restrictions on the number of hours they are legally allowed to work during the school year, how late they can work — preventing overnight shifts, for instance — and how many days they can work in a row.

This makes the federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, governing certain labor rights and protections, weaker than Florida’s current child labor statutes, which labor leaders and child welfare advocates pressured state lawmakers into strengthening decades ago.

“Florida law is better on this than the federal government’s,” said Dr. Rich Templin, lobbyist for the Florida AFL-CIO, appealing to the Florida Senate’s Commerce and Tourism Committee on Tuesday. “We urge you to stay with trusted, proven, free state of Florida law and vote no on this bill.”

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The Republican-dominated committee nonetheless advanced SB 918 to its next committee stop in a slim 5 to 4 vote Tuesday morning, despite concerns voiced by both Democrats and Republicans.

“I think we need to let kids be kids,” said Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, the only Republican to join Democrats on the panel in voting against the bill. Gruters similarly voted down another child labor-related bill last year that had provoked concern from child welfare advocates.

Gruters said the current system for young workers — which allows parents and school superintendents to waive certain child-labor restrictions — is fine as it is. Sen. Tom Wright, R-Ormond Beach, similarly said he had “concerns” about the bill, before voting in favor of advancing it Tuesday.

“I think we need to work on this more,” he admitted. “There are some concerns, and I too will be up to help try to move this along today, but I think we have a lot of ways to go yet on this particular bill.”

About a dozen people testified against the proposal in-person, with others waiving in opposition. Opponents cited concerns about the risks of exploitation, using children as cheap labor to fill the gaps for adults who are fed up with poor wages and working conditions, and sacrificing children’s health and well-being to appease corporate interests.

“This bill will allow 16- and 17-year-olds to work longer hours, putting their education, health and well-being at risk. This is not about opportunity. It’s about exploitation,” said Jackson Oberlink, legislative director for the progressive coalition of labor and social advocacy groups, Florida for All.

Unlike adults, workers under age 20 can legally be paid a sub-minimum wage of as little as $4.25 an hour for the first 90 days of employment under federal law — less than one-third of Florida’s current minimum wage of $13 an hour.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, during a recent panel on immigration issues with President Donald Trump’s border czar, admitted he sees teenagers as part of the solution to the labor shortages created through the state’s crackdown on the hiring of undocumented immigrants.

“Make no mistake, the children who will suffer the most under this law will be low-income, working-class and migrant youth”

“Yes, we had people that left because of those rules, but you’ve also been able to hire other people,” DeSantis claimed, according to reporting from the Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald. “And what’s wrong with expecting our young people to be working part-time now? I mean that’s how it used to be when I was growing up.”

“Make no mistake, the children who will suffer the most under this law will be low-income, working-class and migrant youth, the same communities that corporations already exploit,” said Oberlink.

Multiple investigations in recent years from the New York Times and others have exposed widespread exploitation of migrant and undocumented youth in Florida and elsewhere. Florida does not have a state agency tasked with upholding wage and hour laws, nor any department dedicated to protecting workers’ safety on the job.

The Florida Policy Institute — a progressive think tank that also opposes the bill—estimates there are over 110,000 teenagers in Florida’s workforce, already juggling school and work demands, who could be impacted by the bill. Florida lawmakers this session are also considering bills that aim to carve certain entry-level workers out of minimum wage requirements and undermine labor unions — key proponents of child labor protections.

“I think this sends a bad message,” said Gruters.

Sen. DiCeglie, R-Indian Rocks Beach, who nonetheless voted up the bill, admitted he shared “some of the same concerns” of his colleagues and “look[s] forward” to continuing “this very important conversation” on how to address concerns (through potential amendments to the proposal, for instance) moving forward.

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Collins, the bill sponsor, however, dismissed colleagues’ concerns. He argued that his bill only looks to align Florida law with federal law, bolster parental rights, and offer teens more “flexibility” — a talking point fed by the Foundation for Government Accountability, a right-wing think tank, to the sponsor of last year’s child labor legislation.

“This is a parental rights issue,” said Collins, an Army combat veteran who said he himself grew up “incredibly poor.”

“And frankly, we’re not talking The Jungle by Upton Sinclair,” he added, referencing the 1905 expose of dangerous and exploitative working conditions in meat-packing factories. “We’re talking about them working at Publix, at Piggly Wiggly, or jobs within the industry.”

A mission to expand parental rights in Florida, championed by DeSantis, has been a popular talking point in recent years to justify efforts to restrict books in Florida schools and to dictate what teachers can and cannot teach.

One of the “parental rights” movement’s key proponents, the conservative Moms for Liberty group, founded in Florida, waived in support of Collins’ bill Tuesday morning.

Alexis Tsoukalas, a senior policy analyst for the Florida Policy Institute, countered Collins’ parental rights argument. “It’s being said it’s about the parents and choice, but where in the bill does it say parental rights have to be secured before employers can overwork these teens?”

There is no language in the bill that would prevent employers, for instance, from scheduling a 16-year-old to work an overnight shift when they have school the next day, or from firing a 16-year-old who dares to say no to an overnight shift.

“Most teens looking for work in the state have it already, and 72 percent are currently juggling work and school. Meanwhile, Florida’s absenteeism rates are soaring. at their second highest level in 15 years,” Tsoukalas added.

Florida is one of a number of states that have moved to roll back child labor protections in recent years, despite upticks in child labor violations. Reporting from the Washington Post revealed in 2023 that many of these legislative proposals popping up in state legislatures are coming directly from the Foundation for Government Accountability.

The Naples-based think tank — also reportedly behind efforts to undermine social welfare programs like SNAP, unemployment benefits and Medicaid — is funded in large part by billionaires like Richard “Dick” Uihlein, who’s donated to the campaigns of both DeSantis and President Donald Trump.

“This is not about corporations. This is not about demonizing small businesses or Publix or organizations out there,” Collins claimed in defense of his bill. “This is about providing soft skills in executive function, developing responsibility, sense of self and self-determination, learning personal finance, money management, assisting in growth in adulthood.”

The bill has a twin in the Florida House (HB 1225), sponsored by Moms for Liberty activist and State Rep. Monique Miller, that has yet to be heard by any committee.

Both will have to get the approval of three legislative committees, plus the full House, Senate and the governor, in order to become law.

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This article appears in Apr 2-8, 2025.

General news reporter for Orlando Weekly, with a focus on state and local government and workers' rights. You can find her bylines in Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, In These Times, and Facing South.