Florida Republicans Want to Gut the State’s Minimum Wage Law
In Florida, the GOP-dominated state legislature is rapidly advancing a suite of bills allowing employers to underpay sub-minimum-wage workers — including children.

People protest to demand McDonald’s Corporation to raise workers’ pay to a $15 minimum wage on May 23, 2019, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
The Florida legislature is rapidly advancing a suite of bills allowing employers to underpay sub-minimum-wage workers — including children.
One measure proposes undoing key child labor restrictions, like rules regulating maximum hours per week, banning overnight shifts, and guaranteeing teens get meal breaks. Another bill would permit employers to misclassify full-time workers as interns and apprentices to circumvent the state’s new minimum wage law.
Both bills are part of the business lobby’s long war to decimate labor rights in the state; proponents are citing ongoing labor market disruptions caused in part by the Trump administration’s mass deportation program.