Teens could work up to 7 days a week as Senate panel advances bill

Historic Florida State Capitol Building with brightly colored striped awnings, classical style dome, and American and Florida State Flags in Tallahassee

A Senate panel approved a weakened bill that allows 16- and-17-year-olds to work a job seven consecutive days a week, beyond the six days currently allowed.

The Senate Rules Committee approved HB 49, which proposes changes to child labor laws, such as how many days a week 16- and-17-year-olds can work. However, the amended version of the bill did not go as extreme as lifting the restrictions that kept those young people from working longer hours on school days.

Current law says those 16- and 17-year-olds can only work between 6:30 a.m. and 11 p.m. The previous iteration of the Senate version of the bill had sought to change that to 5:30 a.m. to midnight, but its sponsor, Sen. Danny Burgess, said that had been removed to leave the status quo.

If students want to work more than 30 hours a week during the school week, they must get a waiver signed by their school Superintendent or parent under the bill.

Burgess said he envisioned home-schooled or online students taking advantage of the loosened work rules if the bill passed.

“The world’s changed quite a lot from 1986 when this law was first enacted,” said Burgess, a Republican from Zephyrhills, “This is a reflection of how there’s a lot more flexibility in time, there’s a lot more choice … so not everything is a one-size-fits-all product. … This is a reflection of that.”

But Sen. Victor Torres and other Democrats were not satisfied with Burgess’ explanation as they voiced concerns about students juggling homework and their jobs working seven days a week.

“The question I have is, why are we doing this bill?” Torres asked.

Burgess argued safeguards were still in place since students were capped at 30 hours a week without the waiver and couldn’t work more than eight hours a day when there’s school the next day.

The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) said Florida’s bills are part of a nationwide effort to weaken child labor laws. Florida was the 16th state to introduce bills in the past two years, according to the EPI, a nonpartisan think tank.

The original HB 49 had been drafted by the Foundation for Government Accountability, a conservative think tank from Naples that has been pushing to expand the workforce and fight against the Medicaid expansion, according to a More Perfect Union story co-written by former Orlando Sentinel investigative reporter Jason Garcia.

Not all the bills expanding child labor laws have gone through this Session.

A provision in SB 460 that would have otherwise allowed 16- and 17-year-olds to work on roofs at residential and commercial construction sites was later taken out. That was taken out and tweaked, so the bill bans teens from working on commercial sites and jobs with scaffolding, roofs and ladders over 6 feet.