Faced with the difficulty of finding workers willing to fill low-paid jobs with poor working conditions, Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis and the state legislature are proposing a controversial solution: relaxing child labour laws.
The bill under debate would allow children as young as 14 to work night shifts. Currently, state law prohibits minors from working before 6:30 a.m. or after 11 p.m.
DeSantis has been outspoken in his support for President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration policy, despite warnings from economists about the risk of higher inflation and labour shortages.
Reports from organisations such as the Chamber of Commerce warned that, as early as 2024, the US was facing a labour shortage crisis, with Florida being one of the hardest hit states, with only 53 available workers for every 100 job openings.
These shortages were seen in sectors such as construction, agriculture and other jobs traditionally held by migrants.
Keep in mind that, in 2023, a law was enacted in that state, requiring employers to verify the immigration status of their workers through the federal E-Verify database. Failure to comply with this law carries fines of a thousand dollars a day.
The new legislation would also remove restrictions on hours for 14- and 15-year-olds who are home-schooled, and abolish mandatory meal breaks for 16- and 17-year-olds.
Statistics from the US Department of Labor reveal that violations of child labour laws in Florida have nearly tripled in recent years.
This is a clear setback, considering that it was only 35 years ago that the Convention on the Rights of the Child recognised children as subjects of rights and duties.
UNICEF bases its work on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most ratified international treaty in history. Law 32: No to child labour, states that children have the right to be protected from economic exploitation by another person.
In addition, there are international standards promoted by the International Labour Organisation (ilo). Convention 138 states that the minimum age for admission to employment should not be lower than the age at which compulsory schooling ends.
Most signatory countries have set the minimum age for employment at 15 years. This convention has been ratified by 175 countries, but the United States is not among them.
