Florida Republicans have advanced a bill that would allow minors as young as 14 years old to work overnight shifts, according to CNN, which reported that Senate Bill 918 would amend a previous law, deleting certain employment restrictions on minors.
If the bill is passed, it would allow children as young as 14 to work overnight shifts on school days, changing current Florida law, which restricts teens from working earlier than 6:30 a.m. or later than 11 p.m.
This bill has passed out of the Senate’s Commerce and Tourism committee and now heads to another committee for consideration before heading to the Senate floor, according to CNN.
Currently in Florida, minors aren’t allowed to work more than 30 hours in any one week when school is in session without a waiver, nor are they allowed to be gainfully employed during school hours unless they are enrolled in a career education program, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Child labor violations in Florida have tripled in recent years, according to the Department of Labor. Violations climbed from 95 in 2019 to 281 in 2022, the agency said.
Florida Gov. Rob DeSantis has floated the idea that teenagers be employed to fill a gap in “dirt cheap” workers left by undocumented residents deported by the Trump administration.
“Yes, we had people that left because of those rules, but you’ve also been able to hire other people. And what’s wrong with expecting our young people to be working part-time now? I mean, that’s how it used to be when I was growing up,” DeSantis said, according to USA Today.
The Florida Policy Institute says that adolescents working more than 20 hours per week are at greater risk of poor grades and dropping out of high school. Meanwhile, school absenteeism in Florida is at its highest level in 14 years, the group said.
In Connecticut, the minimum age for employment is 14, but there are limitations on the hours worked and the types of jobs available. For example, 14- and 15-year-olds in Connecticut can only work a set number of hours during the school year, and overnight work is prohibited for minors under 16.
