Lawmakers Could Carve Minimum Wage Exemption

By Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida

TALLAHASSEE — A Florida Senate committee Monday backed a proposal that would give employers a way to sidestep the state’s minimum wage if they can classify positions as job training.

The Republican-controlled Commerce and Tourism Committee voted 5-3 along party lines to approve the measure (SB 676), which would provide an exemption to the voter-approved minimum wage when employees are involved in “a structured work-study, internship, pre-apprenticeship program, apprenticeship program or other similar work-based learning opportunity.”

A 2020 state constitutional amendment required gradual increases in Florida’s minimum wage. It is $13 an hour now, will increase to $14 an hour on Sept. 30 and will go to $15 an hour on Sept. 30, 2026. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.

Senate bill sponsor Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, said that because “the minimum wage is so high” the proposal is aimed at helping people gain skills through entry-level work experience. Such experience is not available to unskilled workers in many areas at $13 an hour, he said.

“I think this opens up opportunities for those trying to get more experience, more job training,” Martin said.

Martin said more-affluent people might be able to take unpaid internships, but many others entering the workforce don’t have time or money to pay for schooling or training needed to gain experience.

But Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, argued that employers will simply redefine entry level jobs as “internships.”

“We have a constitutional minimum wage in Florida. It’s $13 an hour,” Smith said. “This proposal is an attempt to circumvent it. It’s an attempt to exploit workers of all ages.”

Smith said the proposal is an attempt to challenge the 2020 constitutional amendment and a 2011 court ruling that workers cannot waive their rights to a minimum wage.

A Senate staff analysis of the proposal said that “if an employee signs a waiver stating that they opt out of minimum wage requirements, the employer is still bound by the minimum wage requirements of the state Constitution.”

But Martin, an attorney, said he expects the state Supreme Court would back the bill if it becomes law.

Martin’s proposal would require employees to check a box on application forms to opt out of minimum-wage requirements or provide written acknowledgements that they understand state law and are opting for the “work-based learning opportunity.” For workers under age 18, the waiver would have to be signed by parents or guardians.

“Internships, apprenticeships, all by definition, are temporary,” Senate Commerce and Tourism Chairman Tom Leek, R-Ormond Beach, said. “You’re not committing yourself to a life of a low wage. But what we are doing is allowing that person to make the decision on their own, that they would like to have a marketable skill more than they’d like to have 15 bucks an hour. And that’s a fair trade.”

For tipped employees, the state’s minimum wage is $9.98 an hour. The federal minimum for tipped employees is $2.13 an hour.

Employers in Florida are allowed to pay sub-minimum wages to certain workers, such as people ages 19 and younger during the first 90 days of employment and to students working part-time in vocational training programs.

A 2023 law pushed by Martin created an exemption to the state’s minimum-wage law for professional baseball players. The law requires players to receive an in-season weekly salary equal to the minimum wage for a 40-hour work week.

Rep. Ryan Chamberlin, R-Belleview, has filed a nearly identical bill (HB 541) to the Martin proposal that cleared the Senate committee Monday.

In a Feb. 18 statement, Chamberlin called the state’s minimum wage “a weight on Florida’s economy and a hindrance to workers.”

“This bill will give both employers and employees more flexibility to work out compensatory agreements that are unshackled by the heavy hand of government,” Chamberlin said in the statement.

But House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, said the proposals move “in the wrong direction” the 2020 amendment, which was approved by 60.8 percent of voters.

“We should not be trying to solve for any workforce shortage by treating workers with anything less than what they deserve,” Driskell told reporters on Monday.