A few years ago, Floridians voted overwhelmingly to increase the state’s minimum wage, putting the hike into the Florida Constitution. Ever since then, this state’s business lobby and their toady politicians in the Legislature have tried to undermine that vote.
The latest attempt comes in the form of House Bill 221 where Republican lawmakers are advancing a proposal to let companies pay their employees less than minimum wage — as long as employers don’t call their jobs “jobs.”
They’d just have to call them things like “work-based learning opportunities.” Then employers would have the “opportunity” to pay employees less than the constitutionally mandated minimum wage.
The politicians think they’re being sly. But frankly, it doesn’t matter if they want to let employers call their workers rainbow-colored unicorns. Their scheme to subvert the state’s minimum-wage law would still violate both the voters’ will and probably the state’s constitution.
These big-business pawns want you to believe that companies can’t possibly afford to pay workers $14 an hour — the equivalent of $29,120 a year — for a full-time paycheck. And their motives are pretty clear:
“Because they like slave labor.”
Those are the words of John Morgan, the Orlando attorney who helped bankroll and pass the state’s minimum-wage amendment in 2020.
Morgan says lawmakers want to undermine the state’s minimum-wage amendment for the same reason they refuse to crack down on employers who routinely hire undocumented workers — so that Florida businesses don’t have to pay a living wage.
He’s right. And I’ll have more on the state’s ongoing efforts to give a free pass to companies that make illegal hires in an upcoming column. But for now, let’s look at the latest proposal to let companies pay workers as little as $7.25 an hour. It’s just the latest in a long line of legislative attempts to undermine constitutional amendments passed by citizens who voted for everything from smaller class sizes and ‘high quality” universal pre-K to Fair Districts and restored rights for former felons.
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To hear GOP legislators tell it, Florida corporations — who they normally claim thrive in the low-tax, “free state of Florida” — are struggling to make ends meet.
In fact, bill sponsor Ryan Chamberlin, R-Ocala, wrote in his bill’s summary that the minimum wage “has become a weight on Florida’s economy and a hindrance to workers seeking to improve their personal finances.”
Yes, we need to help people “improve their personal finances” by paying them less.
If that doesn’t make sense to you, then you’re apparently an idiot.
“I’m going to explain capitalism for dummies,” Republican Rep. Judson Sapp said in a recent subcommittee hearing before going on to paint an apocalyptic picture of companies closing their doors if forced to pay the minimum wage.
Keep in mind: The theoretical (and bogus) argument for this bill is that it’s only meant to apply to “learning-based” positions like apprenticeships. So it’s tough to understand how simply asking companies to pay apprentices a minimum wage would force them to shut down their entire operations … unless that isn’t really the plan.
Several Democrats called out the Republicans for revealing their true motives.
“This is the biggest amount of gaslighting I have seen in a long time,” said Jacksonville Democrat Angie Nixon. “This isn’t a bill to create learning opportunities. This is a way for people to get cheap labor … about pushing people into poverty.”
Democrats weren’t alone in their objections. Tampa Bay Republican Susan Valdes said she couldn’t go along with her party’s desire to pay employees as little as $290 a week, saying: “I have a working class community that I serve. I’m thinking of the citizens back home that I represent.”
Still, the bill, which is similar to one that Republicans tried but failed to pass last year, advanced last week on a largely party-line vote of 11-to-6 in the House subcommittee on industries & professional activities. Neither the full House nor Senate has yet to cast votes. (You can find your legislators’ contact info at www.leg.state.fl.us)
During the subcommittee hearing, several Republicans shared personal stories about how, when they were young and eager for experience, they considered it an honor to work for cheap or even free. I felt the same way when I was young. But here’s the thing: I could afford to feel that way. My family had money. Many of us, however, try to think about how public policies affect people other than ourselves.
One speaker tried to help committee members understand that, saying that when he started working as an electrician — in a position some might like to label a “work-based learning opportunity” — he had a family and a mortgage and couldn’t have possibly taken the job if it paid sub-minimum wages. But his story fell on largely deaf ears.
The bill has limits, saying sub-minimum wages could only be paid to employees who voluntarily work in “work-based learning” positions for up to nine months. But when Democrats asked what would prevent a company from simply hiring employees over and over again for nine-month stints or from coercing employees into taking those supposedly voluntary positions, Republicans didn’t have many answers, except to say they didn’t think that would happen.
There are some valid debates over the pros and cons of minimum wages. But those debates were hashed out six years ago, and the vast majority of Floridians so strongly favored increasing minimum wages that they put them into the Florida Constitution. It’s now settled law.
That was the main point stressed by Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, who said the bipartisan vote and Florida Constitution were quite clear: “We shouldn’t be creating avenues to pay people less.”
