Restrictions on work hours for 16- to 17-year-olds in Florida would be relaxed under a measure proposed by state Rep. Linda Chaney (R-St. Pete Beach), mirroring similar legislative efforts in other states.
House Bill 49 would remove state restrictions on work times allowed for these older teens, allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to work the same number of hours as those 18 and older, according to the Legislature’s staff analysis of the bill, which would take effect on July 1 if signed into law.
Current state prohibitions restrict 16- and 17-year-olds from working more than six consecutive days in a single week, according to the analysis. And Florida law also bars these teens from working four hours continuously without a break of at least a half hour for a meal period.
HB 49 would also lift hourly work restrictions now on the books for any 16- or 17-year-old who has graduated from high school or obtained a diploma that’s equivalent to those given to high school graduates.
The measure does not alter protections accorded to children under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which bars minors from jobs that are considered hazardous.
Groups such as the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) support giving 16- and 17-year-olds more flexibility to enter the workforce.
“Delaying the hiring process for teenage workers with unnecessary permits cuts off a critical source of a state’s workforce,” the FGA said in a recent blog post. “Removing this burden can modernize the workforce and help fill the nearly 10 million open jobs across the country.”
The teenage workforce participation rate shot up in the summer of 2021, according to the FGA, as unemployment among teens aged 16 to 19 dropped to under 10%, the lowest rate since 1953.
Under proposals such as Chaney’s, “teens would be expected to give priority to their education, while simultaneously gaining more opportunities to learn by doing,” the FGA said.
Not all public policy organizations support the measure, however. The Florida Policy Institute sees the measure’s relaxation of labor standards as a step backward.
“Florida’s Department of Education and Department of Business and Professional Regulation both emphasize that the state’s current child labor laws are meant to protect children’s health, workplace welfare and education,” the institute said in a blog post. “Yet, HB 49 would undo decades of these vital protections for Florida’s children and allow for the increased exploitation of child workers in the Sunshine State.”
Alexis Tsoukalas, policy analyst for the institute, acknowledged that teens would still be barred from hazardous occupations under HB 49. But the Legislature is considering other bills that would further erode labor protections, according to Tsoukalas.
“While youths would still be barred from certain hazardous occupations, another set of bills, Senate Bill 460 / HB 917, threatens this with its proposed scaffolding / ladder law changes,” she told the Florida Record in an email. “Moreover, even non-hazardous jobs that no longer allow breaks or have limits on start and end times and hours worked – as HB 49 proposes – would harm teens.”
Tsoukalas said that under HB 49, teens would still be subject to the state’s minimum wage law, unless they are designated independent contractors. None of the bills related to child labor would exempt an employer from paying the state’s minimum wage of $12 per hour to teen workers, she said.
A total of 16 states, including Florida, have tried to repeal or have repealed child labor laws that have safeguarded children for decades, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute.