The bill, HB 433, also preempts the regulation of employer scheduling practices to the state, and — effective Sept. 30, 2026 — will strip local “living wage” laws passed in some Florida cities and counties that require their contractors to pay employees a wage that’s higher than the state’s minimum. An earlier version of the bill would have preempted all local mandates affecting the terms and conditions of employment.
DeSantis signed the bill in its final version Thursday night, after hours, with no statement or fanfare.
Florida Democrats on Friday criticized the move.
"Outdoor workers are all around us – working on construction sites, repairing and paving roads, picking fruit and vegetables on farms and more," said Florida Sen. Victor Torres, D-Orlando, in a statement.
"They’re just trying to make a living for their families – and instead of putting protections in place to ensure businesses are prioritizing their workers’ health and well-being from record-setting temperatures, we tied the hands of proactive local governments to do so," Torres continued. "This bill is an attack on our outdoor workers – the rent is too damn high and the sun is too damn hot!”
Sponsored by Republican Tiffany Esposito, a first-term member of the Florida House, the bill was a priority of the Florida Chamber of Commerce — a deep-pocketed business lobbying group that represents the interests of companies like Publix, AT&T, restaurant chains, and U.S. Sugar, which fork over tens of thousands of dollars to help fund their political operations.
Records obtained by the investigative newsletter Seeking Rents show the Chamber was also directly involved in drafting the language of the legislation, along with a conservative think-tank that was behind a new law rolling back certain child labor protections.
The bill was a priority of the Florida Chamber of Commerce — a business lobbying group that represents the interests of companies like Publix, AT&T, restaurant chains, and U.S. Sugar
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Esposito herself, who argued the bill was in the best interest of taxpayers, is herself the president of a regional chamber of commerce in Southwest Florida.
Thousands of working Floridians could be affected by the preemption of local living wage laws alone, which have been implemented over the years in expensive areas of the state, like St. Petersburg and Miami, in order to lift wages for workers on contracted public projects — like building and road construction — as well as airport workers.
Local governments in Florida have been barred from requiring private employers to pay above minimum wage for more than 20 years.
The idea of the so-called “living wage” laws is that if you’re an employer who wants to enter into a government, taxpayer-funded contract, you have to pay your workers at least something closer to a living wage — which, generally, under these laws is somewhere between at least $15 to $20 minimum depending on the city or county.
Ideally, workers covered by these contracts are locals — friends and neighbors of these communities who contribute to the local economy and who may not be able to live comfortably on less.
The Chamber of Commerce has been trying to gut these living wage laws in Florida for years, framing wage and benefit mandates as “unnecessary government interference.”
“Lawmakers in other parts of the country are passing job killing mandates at the local level,” reads a legislative agenda released by the Chamber for the 2024 session. “We need to keep Florida, Florida by allowing employers to flourish free of unnecessary governmental interference and inconsistencies.”
For workers who benefit from these local laws, however, the new bill could create confusion and inconsistency. It also could result in cuts to pay once that portion of the bill goes into effect on Sept. 30, 2026 — the day Florida’s $15 minimum wage also fully goes into effect.
The statewide minimum wage is currently $12 an hour, or $7.98 for tipped workers, and will rise $1 each year on Sept. 30 before reaching $15 by Sept. 30, 2026 under a ballot initiative approved by 61% of Florida voters in 2020.
Rep. Esposito, the GOP House sponsor of the bill, admitted during session that employers could decide to reduce pay — the income that supports Florida’s working families — once this is effective.
“Could wages go down? Maybe,” she said during the bill’s first committee hearing. “It’s up to the prerogative of the employer.” The chair of that committee cut the public off from providing personal testimony. Dozens had signed up to speak.
Esposito herself could not say how many workers across the state would be affected by the preemption, which broadly ties the hands of local government leaders. So the full scope of the preemption, while standing to affect thousands of airport workers and other contracted workers in South Florida alone, is still unclear.
The preemption of heat safety mandates for working Floridians, on the other hand, was a direct attack on a local ordinance being considered in Miami-Dade County last year.
That ordinance sought to require construction and agriculture companies, specifically, to take steps to protect their employees from heat exhaustion. For instance, ensuring they have access to water and giving them 10-minute, shaded breaks every couple of hours when the heat index is at least 95 degrees.
Following industry backlash, that ordinance was delayed for a vote last fall until mid-March — after session had already ended and House Bill 433 passed the state legislature. The bill was filed for consideration by lawmakers this year just a week after the vote on that local ordinance was delayed last fall.
Miami-Dade County was the only municipality in Florida considering such an ordinance, which has been proposed at the state level by Democrats but has failed to garner enough interest from the Republican majority to make much progress.
As it is, there is no federal or state standard in Florida for heat exposure protections in the workplace. Just a few states — California, Washington, and Oregon — have their own state laws requiring certain workplace heat safety measures.
Colorado also regulates heat exposure requirements for farmworkers, while Minnesota has heat standards for workers indoors. As any warehouse worker can tell you (we heard this from UPS workers here in Orlando, for instance) — it’s not just those laboring outside who stand to suffer from Florida’s scorching heat.
And it’s only getting hotter in Florida. Opponents of the bill argued that failing to act on workplace heat safety protections could be costly due to lost productivity. An agricultural worker in Apopka told us the bill is “unjust” and “unfair.”
“This cruel and shameful action by Governor DeSantis, our Republican-led Legislature, and a small group of powerful industry lobbyists will endanger the lives of our working families and cause preventable deaths,” Oscar Londoño, co-executive director of the immigrant advocacy group WeCount! Shared in an email newsletter on Friday.
The bill passed the Republican-dominated state legislature on the final day of Florida’s legislative session last month, largely along party lines. Four Republicans joined Florida Democrats in opposing the bill in the state Senate, while four Republicans similarly crossed party lines to vote it down in the Florida House.
GOP House member Mike Beltran, who voted in opposition to the bill, explained his vote by stating he only opposed the heat safety preemption provision.
“Due to Florida’s unusually hot climate, the variation thereof throughout the state, and the diverse economy, I believe that local regulation may be appropriate," he said.
The preemption on regulating workplace heat exposure and scheduling goes into effect July 1, while the preemption on wage and benefit mandates will go into effect Sept. 30, 2026.
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