Lazaro Aleman
News@greenepublishing.com
If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again, seems to be the motto among some legislators.
A case in point is House Bill 221, which Republican Representative Ryan Chamberlin filed on Friday, Oct. 17, and which is largely a replica of HB-541, which he filed last year and it died in committee.
Chamberlin is quoted saying that the minimum wage hike was “enacted with good intentions,” but would lead to fewer work opportunities.
HB-221, titled “Minimum Wage Requirements,” would allow employers to pay certain employees less than the state’s mandatory minimum wage. The bill would make it so that employers would not be subject to the state’s minimum wage requirements for those in a structured work-study, internship, pre-apprenticeship program or other similar work-based learning opportunity, and who voluntarily opted out of receiving the minimum wage. The measure would prohibit an employer from coercing an employee into opting out of the state’s minimum wage, and it would also prohibit work-based learning opportunities from lasting longer than nine months or two full-time semesters consisting of a minimum 15 credit hours each.
The bill would essentially authorize employees to opt out of the state minimum wage requirements for a specified timeframe, provided that they sign a waiver and acknowledge that they are knowingly and voluntarily choosing to receive a lesser wage than the mandatory minimum. For employees who are younger than 18 years of age, according to the bill, a parent or guardian must agree to the arrangement and sign the waiver on behalf of the minor at the latter’s request. The waiver would then be good for nine months, after which time the employer must pay the employee at or above the state minimum wage, “regardless of his or her position or job title with the employer,” states the bill.
Florida’s current minimum wage is $14 hourly for non-tipped employees and $10.98 for tipped employees, the amounts having gone up from the previous year on Sept. 30. The goal, per the constitutional amendment that voters approved in 2020, is for the minimum wage to reach $15 hourly for non-tipped employees and $11.98 for tipped employees by September 2026.
Critics of the new bill argue that employers could potentially abuse the law by labeling all entry-level jobs as “apprenticeships” or “internships.”
Meanwhile, the federal minimum wage remains at $7.25 an hour, where it’s been since 2009, not withstanding inflation and increases in the cost of living.