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Lawmakers in Florida are currently considering a bill that would significantly roll back child labor protections, in an effort to make it easier for employers to hire for roles previously filled by undocumented immigrants.
Senate Bill 918 would allow companies to hire teenagers to work longer hours. It passed through a state senate committee earlier this week, and if voted into law, children as young as 14 would be permitted to work overnight shifts, even on school days. Certain work restrictions would be removed for minors over 16 years old, including prohibitions from working for more than eight hours per day, and more than 30 hours per week. And companies will no longer be required to provide minors over 16 with a designated 30-minute meal break.
The proposal also removes employment restrictions for homeschooled children, those who attend virtual school, or those who are underage but have graduated high school or received an equivalent degree.
“A lot of agriculture and tourism jobs in Florida are held by individuals who have either special visas or are being employed unlawfully, and they’re losing their jobs due to stricter enforcement of existing immigration law,” says Stefanie Camfield, an attorney as well as associate general counsel and director of HR services at Engage PEO, a Fort Lauderdale-based company that offers third-party human resource services. “Employers are going to struggle to figure out how to fill those spots.”
The bill has yet to be voted on by the Florida legislature, but if it passes, it will almost certainly be signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has already made his support clear. “Why do we say we need to import foreigners, even import them illegally, when you know, teenagers used to work at these resorts, college students should be able to do this stuff,” DeSantis said last week at a panel discussion first reported by the Tampa Bay Times.
This isn’t the only bill introduced this year in Florida focused on employing minors. A separate and even more controversial proposal would allow companies to pay workers less than minimum wage if they “opted in,” and would include minors if their parents signed off. But Camfield says that while this bill is likely to pass, it will almost certainly be challenged and is unlikely to go into effect.
Several states have done away with work restrictions for teenagers over the past few years. Since 2023, three states have rolled back laws requiring minors to get youth work permits, including Iowa, Arkansas, and Alabama, according to research from the Economic Policy Institute. In 2024, Kentucky lawmakers voted on a bill to increase the total number of hours 16 and 17-year-olds can work per day and per week. And at the start of this year, Indiana passed a law that allows minors over 16 to work as many hours as they want and even removed the parental permission that was previously required for them to do so.
Brit Morse
brit.morse@fortune.com
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