Cracking down on employers hiring undocumented workers has been a priority for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration for years. But the policy has led to lots of low-wage or undesirable jobs standing vacant. CNN reports that the state legislature and Gov. DeSantis’ solution to filling these vacancies is making its way through the state senate in the form of harmful child labor law rollbacks. Rollbacks, which are detrimental to child workers, making them more vulnerable to exploitation and modern slavery.
“Teenagers should be able to do this stuff”
Florida is one among several U.S. states that have been dangerously rolling back child labor protections over the last few years. Just last year, Florida’s state legislature passed a law allowing home-schooled 16- and 17-year-old teens to work any hour of the day. Now they have advanced a bill that would even further loosen child labor laws.
The CNN article states:
“If the new law is passed, children as young as 14 years would be able to work overnight jobs on school days.”
Currently, state law prevents children from working earlier than 6:30am or later than 11pm. The new law would change all that as well as other risky rollbacks. Those include the elimination of working time restrictions on teenagers aged 14 and 15 if they are home-schooled. The legislation also ends guaranteed meal breaks for 16- and 17-year-olds.
Violations going up—protections going down
The bill has already passed the Florida Senate Commerce and Tourism committee. It needs to pass through two other relevant committees before being put to a vote with the full Florida Senate. Frighteningly, these proposed changes are coming at a time of increased need for protection for child workers, not decreased.
CNN points out:
“The number of child labor violations in Florida has nearly tripled in recent years, according to US Department of Labor statistics.”
According to the Florida Policy Institute, if school schedules no longer matter to employers, young people trying to complete school while holding down a job will have an impossible choice. They will have to accept the hours their boss schedules them and risk flunking out of school or risk losing the job and the money that comes with it. It also puts them at greater risk of modern slavery, particularly youth living in poverty, as quitting their job simply isn’t an option.
When less is NOT more
Unsurprisingly, the new law has Gov. DeSantis’ full support, recently telling the Tampa Bay Times:
“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.”
Economists have warned the crackdowns on illegal migrant workers in Florida could backfire, sparking further inflation and labor shortages. Given the already shockingly high number of child labor violations, it seems certain this law will harm children working in the state of Florida.
Freedom United is committed to helping prevent exploitative child labor by amplifying the demand for stronger protections, not weaker, and you can help. If you haven’t already, add your voice to those calling for a stop to harmful rollbacks to child labor laws wherever they are happening and help protect children from exploitation.
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WHERE ARE THE PARENTS OF FLORIDA’S CHILDREN WHY ARE THEY NOT PROTESTING AND FIGHTING THIS. IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE PARENTS TO PROTECT THEIR CHILDREN!