DeSantis Has a Solution to Florida’s Labor Shortage: Teenagers
Florida, like some other states, is pushing softer child-labor laws to help businesses struggling to fill jobs and shifts
Florida is the latest in a string of states to revamp or try to change child-labor laws in recent years. Some have extended the hours teens can work while school is in session, or, like Arkansas, have scrapped work permits. Others, like Ohio, have lowered the minimum age they can serve alcohol, while Iowa allowed 16- and 17-year-olds to take jobs they were previously barred from, such as demolition operations and brick manufacturing, for work-training programs.
What’s that they say about take an inch, then take another inch, then…
Last year, DeSantis signed into law a bill that loosened some restrictions on construction work for 16- and 17-year-olds. He signed a separate bill that extended the hours that minors could work—a measure he apparently thinks fell short.
DeSantis hasn’t said much publicly on the current bills. But in one of a batch of emails recently released by the Florida Senate, his deputy director of legislative affairs said the bill didn’t go far enough to “relieve the burdens of employment for this group” and proposed language for a new measure. It called for eliminating all restrictions on the hours 16- and 17-year-olds could work—permitting, for instance, overnight shifts during school weeks, which isn’t allowed under current law.
