TALLAHASSEE, FL — On Tuesday, the Florida House Commerce Committee voted to advance House Bill 49 (HB 49), which removes child labor protections meant to protect young people working in Florida, disproportionately impacting marginalized communities. The bill also permits employers to schedule 16 and 17-year-olds for unlimited hours, without breaks, and for more than 6 days in a row without regard to school schedules.
The ACLU of Florida opposes this bill and its companion bill, Senate Bill 1596 (SB 1596).
Kara Gross, legislative director and senior policy counsel at the ACLU of Florida, responded with the following:
“Removing protections meant to ensure the health and safety of young people in Florida is bad policy and disproportionately harms marginalized communities.
“HB 49 allows employers to schedule 16 and 17-year-olds for unlimited hours, without breaks, and for more than 6 days in a row without regard to school schedules. Our government should not burden minors with the difficult decision of having to sacrifice their education in order to put food on their family's table.
“The state should be supporting young people’s commitment to education and their well-being instead of prioritizing employers that seek to exploit the labor of minors for their own commercial gain.
“It is often marginalized communities who enter the labor force at a young age, and these young people deserve to be protected while trying to build a life in Florida. The majority in the legislature often touts the need to ‘let kids be kids’ and yet they push bills like this that do the opposite.
“We’ve said this before, and we’ll say it again: if our state government wanted to prioritize children during our legislative sessions, they would be doing everything in their power to expand Medicaid access, protect minors from unsafe labor conditions, and ensure access to affordable housing for families.”
