Jonathan Martin’s minimum wage bill advances committee

The Senate Committee on Commerce and Tourism advanced a measure Monday that focuses on minimum wage requirements for certain employees in Florida.

Fort Myers Republican Sen. Jonathan Martin filed the bill (SB 676). While making its way through committee, Martin introduced an amendment that clarifies that an employee must knowingly and voluntarily give up their right to receive minimum wages. If that individual is under the age 0f 18, it requires that the individual’s parent or legal guardian signs off on their choice.

“The Florida Constitution requires that employers pay a certain amount, currently set at $13 an hour for employees,” Martin said. “But it does not require employees to accept that amount if they choose to waive that right. This bill would allow employees, through a framework, to waive that right if they so choose. We need this bill to ensure that there is a framework to ensure that employees are knowingly and voluntarily giving up that right.”

The bill would exempt employers from being required to pay the minimum wage to employees who participate in structured work-study, internship, pre-apprenticeship, apprenticeship programs, or similar work-based learning opportunities.

Kissimmee Democratic Sen. Kristen Arrington questioned why an employee would want to waive their rights to receive minimum wage.

Martin responded by saying that often if someone wants to learn a trade, they will likely need to go to a learning institution, take out loans, and wouldn’t make any money while they were a student.

“This gives an individual the freedom to at an employer’s place of business, and say ‘hey, I’m willing to sweep floors and learn the job, I’m willing to be a hand while you’re working on engines and hold a flashlight for you, I’m willing to learn your business’ in exchange for experience and skills they could then transfer into the workplace,” Martin said.

Martin added that he has spoken to individuals who want an opportunity to learn on the job, especially for young people.

“There’s missed opportunities for teenagers, for people who grew up like we did, they could go down to the store, they could make some money to supplement what their parents are already making, and those opportunities don’t exist anymore because of the high hurdle to enter the workforce,” Martin said.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was enacted in 1938 to prescribe federal standards for minimum wage, overtime, recordkeeping and child labor. States were prohibited from paying less than $7.25 an hour to nonexempt employees as of 2009. The FLSA includes several exemptions from the federal minimum wage that are not legally required to be paid the minimum hourly wage. Employers are able to pay subminimum wages for certain classes of workers under the FLSA.

This includes, but is not limited to — youth employees under 20 for their first 90 days of employment, student employees who receive a special certificate from the Department of Labor to work part-time in a vocational training program, full time students with a special certification who are employed in retail/service establishments, agricultural occupations, institutes of higher education, individuals with disabilities who have an impaired earning capacity due to their disability, and employees who receive tips as part of their job.

Sarasota Republican Sen. Joe Gruters said the bill was a “slippery slope”, but he was willing to still support the bill.

“I think it’s a slippery slope … I think its admirable to try to set up a situation to where people that are under the age of 18 for these work-studies and apprenticeships that they can do that, and the companies are willing to hire more of these people, but I think it’s tough,” Gruters said, adding that some additional guardrails may need to be added.

The bill passed by a vote of 5-3 along party lines and will now move to the Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee.

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