Florida lawmakers to consider weakening century-old child labor laws

A proposed GOP bill to loosen child labor laws in Florida is part of a national trend of repealing or weakening protections in place for generations.

A proposed Republican bill to loosen child labor laws in Florida is part of a national trend aimed at repealing or weakening workplace protections for young people that have been in place for more than 100 years.

The bill could worsen graduation rates and hurt lower-income families, experts said, and could also be a way to replace some immigrant labor as Florida and other GOP-led states continue to crack down on undocumented workers.

“Are we willing to return to a world where we accept that children of the poorest families are working more than full-time jobs under hazardous conditions?” said Jennifer Sherer, director of the Economic Analysis and Research Network at the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute.

State Rep. Linda Chaney, though, said in a statement that her bill “intends to provide teenagers with the flexibility to work whatever hours they deem fits best with their schedule and financial goals.”

“Families are struggling in the worst economy in decades and I want to do what I can to help by providing opportunity,” said Chaney, R-St. Petersburg. “Government should not be in the way of people wanting to learn skills and make a living.”

The bill (HB 49) would remove all work guidelines for 16- and 17-year-olds, including the current requirements that they can’t work more than eight hours on school nights and more than 30 hours a week during the school year.

It also prevents local governments from passing ordinances stricter than state law.

In addition, the measure includes what Sherer called a “confusing” change to the language about 14- and 15-year-olds.

Where the current law states 14- and 15-year-olds “shall not” work before 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m. for more than 15 hours a week during the school year, or more than three hours per day on school days, the bill would replace “shall not” with “may not.”

Sherer said it was unclear whether the proposed language revision was meant to make work standards for younger teens “optional” rather than mandated.

Terri Gerstein, a fellow at the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School who testified before Congress earlier this year about child labor, said she couldn’t see any other reason to change it.

“To me, as a normal human being, ‘shall not’ and ‘may not’ sound like the same thing, right?” Gerstein said. But, she added, “‘shall’ is obligatory and ‘may’ is optional. … I can only infer that there’s something nefarious [going on], because otherwise, why would you change the language? It makes no sense.”

In her statement in response to questions from the Orlando Sentinel about the language of the bill, Chaney said her bill “does not make any changes to work hours for [14- and] 15-year-olds.”

The bill, she said, “intends to match Florida law to federal law [and] … will offer 16- and 17-year-olds the flexibility to work if they would like to.”

No companion bill had been filed in the state Senate as of Thursday for the regular session that starts in January.

‘An arbitrary burden’

Child labor laws were one of the premier achievements of the Progressive Era of the early 1900s, when presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson helped usher in major changes to social and public policy at the state and national levels.

Florida passed laws at the time to protect children working in cigar factories and in agriculture. But now, it’s the 16th state in the past few years to have legislation filed to roll back those protections, Sherer said.

“Those are state laws that have often been in place for over a century,” Sherer said. “States began regulating child labor before the federal government did. And they play a really important role in regulating certain aspects of child labor protections that the federal government doesn’t cover.”

The most notable rollback was in Arkansas, where Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee signed the Youth Hiring Act that repealed a Progressive Era law requiring employers to verify a child’s age, acquire a permit and get parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds to work.

“The Governor believes protecting kids is most important, but this permit was an arbitrary burden on parents to get permission from the government for their child to get a job,” Sanders’ communications director Alexa Henning told NPR.

Iowa also passed “what is probably the most extreme bill on child labor,” Sherer said, weakening guidelines on which work is considered too dangerous for minors.

“We know that certain jobs have proven dangerous and even fatal more often for youth and teens,” Sherer said. “That’s why those restrictions were put in place decades ago. So it’s a real slippery slope.”

The changes came as the Federal Labor Department has reported a significant increase in child labor violations over the past five years, Gerstein said, including minors working the night shift or being employed at places such as poultry processing plants and construction sites.

A meat-processing plant in Minnesota paid $300,000 in penalties after an investigation showed it employed children as young as 13, while a Michigan meat plant owner pleaded guilty to employing a 17-year-old in a dangerous job. The boy’s hand was severed by a meat grinder.

Even in “mainstream” jobs such as fast food, Gerstein said, Massachusetts found violations at multiple Chipotle restaurants, including minors working without valid work permits or for too many hours.

“It’s bad for their physical, emotional, and academic development, and it prevents them from being able to focus on their primary responsibility as a kid, which is to go to school,” Gerstein said.

The Florida Education Association, the state’s largest teacher’s union, said it had no position yet on the proposed bill.

Immigration law impact

The loosening of child labor laws has been tied to labor shortages partially caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but another reason could be the crackdown on undocumented workers, especially in the agriculture industry in Florida.

Earlier this year, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed what he called “the most ambitious anti-illegal immigration laws in the country,” which greatly expanded the number of businesses required to screen employees’ immigration status using the federal E-Verify system.

“These issues are very closely intertwined,” Sherer said. “The anti-immigrant legislation that Florida has put in place is jeopardizing the workforce in particular industries [such as agriculture and hospitality] where employers have long relied on those workers. There’s definitely a correlation there.”

State Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, said the immigration bill has left the state with “major workforce shortages, more than I think Republicans expected.”

“We should be welcoming immigrants who are adults, who wish to contribute to our community and put food on our plates, not replace them with children,” Eskamani said. “… All of our kids deserve the right to quality education that puts them on the path of lifetime financial success, but this policy would set them up for exploitation.”

She also said the bill could also be an attempt to subvert the state’s minimum wage amendment, which raised the required hourly wage to $12 this year and mandates a $15 wage by 2026.

“Underpay a child, [and] a lot of children might not have the efficacy or the resources to fight back,” Eskamani said. “Florida is one of the worst states for wage theft in the country. So you’re making a bad situation worse.”

Think tank support

Many bills make a splash in the months before the legislative session but end up going nowhere. But Eskamani said this was one she expected to become a priority for Republicans.

“I do think it’s going to be pushed through,” she said. “There are conservative think tank dollars behind this. … They’re definitely trying to win the message narrative pretty early, which is never a good sign.”

Sherer said support for the bill was coming from several directions, including restaurant and lodging organizations as well as the Florida-based nonprofit group Foundation for Government Accountability, which has backed many similar bills across the country.

“They’ve really prioritized trying to roll back those standards at the state level, with a strong interest in eventually trying to weaken federal standards as well,” Sherer said.

The FGA, based in Naples, did not return requests for comment.

In the end, Gerstein said the proposed changes in Florida and around the country were a shortsighted solution to the labor situation.

“If employers are having a hard time attracting people, they should try to provide better working conditions before they turn to 15-year-olds. “… Once you weaken laws in response to some temporary situation, it’s not likely that they’re going to be switched back.”