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DeSantis Has a Solution to Florida’s Labor Shortage: Teenagers

Florida, like some other states, is pushing softer child-labor laws to help businesses struggling to fill jobs and shifts

By Arian Campo-Flores and Tali Arbel, WSJ

April 24, 2025 5:30 am ET

Florida is considering a bill to ease restrictions on working hours for 16- and 17-year-olds, driven by labor shortages.

The bill has support from business groups, who say it will help meet labor needs and give teens experience.

Critics argue current laws are sufficient and the changes could lead to exploitation and detract from schoolwork.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to get more work out of teenagers to address the state’s labor shortage.

His office has drafted and pitched bill language for the current legislative session that would cut restrictions on the hours that minors can work. The proposals are moving through the legislature with the support of small-business groups and opposition from unions and advocates for the poor.

Florida is the latest in a string of states to revamp or try to change child-labor laws in recent years. Some have extended the hours teens can work while school is in session, or, like Arkansas, have scrapped work permits. Others, like Ohio, have lowered the minimum age they can serve alcohol, while Iowa allowed 16- and 17-year-olds to take jobs they were previously barred from, such as demolition operations and brick manufacturing, for work-training programs.

The bills are partly a response to a shortage of workers for employers such as supermarkets, retailers and theme parks. Supporters, including small-business groups, chambers of commerce and restaurant and lodging associations, say the changes help businesses meet their labor needs and give teens valuable life experience. Critics say current laws already allow young people to work and that paring back restrictions could detract from students’ classwork.

“What’s wrong with expecting our young people to be working part time?” said DeSantis, a Republican, at an immigration roundtable last month, alluding to the state’s resorts and other employers. “Why do we say we need to import foreigners, even import them illegally, when, you know, teenagers used to work at these resorts?”

In Florida, a 2023 law cracking down on illegal immigration prompted some workers to leave the state and made filling jobs harder for some small businesses—though specific data on the effect of the law isn’t available. But the state’s labor market continues to be tight. Florida’s unemployment rate was 3.6% in February, compared with 4.1% nationally, and the job-openings rate in Florida was 4.8% of employment in January, compared with 4.6% nationally.

Gov. Ron DeSantis speaking at a meeting.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has supported changes in child-labor laws. Photo: Rebecca Blackwell/Associated Press

Last year, DeSantis signed into law a bill that loosened some restrictions on construction work for 16- and 17-year-olds. He signed a separate bill that extended the hours that minors could work—a measure he apparently thinks fell short.

DeSantis hasn’t said much publicly on the current bills. But in one of a batch of emails recently released by the Florida Senate, his deputy director of legislative affairs said the bill didn’t go far enough to “relieve the burdens of employment for this group” and proposed language for a new measure. It called for eliminating all restrictions on the hours 16- and 17-year-olds could work—permitting, for instance, overnight shifts during school weeks, which isn’t allowed under current law.

DeSantis’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment about his new proposals.

Under federal child-labor standards, people under 18 are largely barred from certain occupations, such as mining or meatpacking operations. Those under 16 can work only limited hours—for example, no overnight shifts. Children 13 and under can work only a few jobs.

Many states have laws that are stricter than the federal standards. But Arkansas, Iowa and more than a dozen other states have pared back child-labor laws since 2021, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank. Lawmakers, nearly all Republicans, have sponsored bills loosening restrictions for teen workers in at least eight states this year, EPI said.

Among those boosting the bills are conservative advocacy groups such as the Foundation for Government Accountability, a Naples, Fla.-based organization that has lobbied for such legislation in several states. They often cast the issue as one of parental rights, arguing that families, not the government, should decide whether teens work and what jobs they do.

“I really wanted to give the power back to the parents,” said Republican state Rep. Monique Miller, sponsor of the Florida House version of the legislation. It would let 16- and 17-year-olds work more than eight-hour shifts on school nights and scrap the 30-hour weekly limit while school is in session. The measure this week advanced to the full House, with a vote expected Friday. Its Senate counterpart has passed just one committee vote, leaving the bill’s future uncertain. Florida’s legislative session is scheduled to end on May 2.

A construction worker near the top of a concrete-block house he is building.

Florida last year loosened some restrictions on construction work for 16- and 17-year-olds. Photo: cristobal herrera-ulashkevich/EPA/Shutterstock

Greg Mathers, who has a 17-year-old stepdaughter and two older daughters who worked as babysitters when they were young, said entry-level positions that are sometimes hard to fill are perfect for teens.

“A kid can learn a lot from a job, especially at an early age,” said Mathers, 60, who supports the bills and lives in Tallahassee. “It helps in their development. It helps in their understanding of capitalism.”

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Critics argue the changes could make teens more vulnerable to exploitative conditions and note that federal child-labor violations have been rising in recent years. They say the measures are geared more toward the needs of employers than those of teens.

“This is, at its root, an attempt to find a lower-cost source of labor,” said David Weil, a professor at Brandeis University and a former Labor Department official under the Obama administration. “It’s as simple as that, even if it’s dressed up as something more virtuous.”

Elly Kennedy, an Orlando mother of a 16-year-old, said heavy work schedules can harm a child’s ability to learn and that employers freed from restrictions could force young employees to work later than they should.

“When you’re not mature enough to advocate for yourself, it’s an easy situation to be manipulated and bullied,” said Kennedy, 49, who opposes the legislation. Her own daughter wants to focus on studying rather than getting a job, she said.

Kim Barlag, chief executive of the Pickerington Area Chamber of Commerce outside Columbus, Ohio, backs a state bill that would allow 14- and 15-year-olds to work until 9 p.m., instead of 7 p.m., on school nights. Companies face “debilitating workforce issues,” she said, and cited two local businesses, a soda fountain and an ice cream shop, that rely on teen workers and are open later than 7 p.m.

Ohio’s Senate this month approved both the bill and a resolution urging Congress to change the federal law that prohibits children those ages from working until 9 p.m. during the school year. The measures are now in the state House.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds speaking to reporters.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill extending the hours minors could work. Photo: Associated Press

In 2023, Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law a bill that extended the hours minors could work and loosened restrictions on certain activities if a state agency approved—allowing, for instance, 15-year-olds to do light assembly work and 16- and 17-year-olds to perform roofing operations.

Reynolds Cramer, CEO of Fareway Stores—a grocery-store chain based in Johnston, Iowa—supported the law, which he said benefited both employers and teens. More than 20% of the workers at his company’s roughly 140 stores are ages 14 to 17, he said, and managers are now more likely to give young people opportunities.

“If I know that employees can work 15 hours this week…and they’re happy, then I feel like the investment I’m making in their wage will help me take care of customers,” Cramer said.