Q: What is this bill, and what does it do?
Under current state law, local municipalities cannot pass minimum wage ordinances. But local governments can have them for businesses looking to take on public contracts. For example, they can require the businesses to pay a living wage. They can require a business to give a certain number of water breaks if there is a heat wave. And several cities and counties like Gainesville and Miami-Dade have those rules.
House Bill 433 would block any local governments from mandating those kinds of policies, and retroactively remove any on the books. It also has a section that preempts all labor rulemaking to the state. That means if any city or county wanted to pass an ordinance on any labor issue with contractors, like requiring maternity leave or certain vacation days, this bill would keep them from doing it.
Q: Do we know what effect this bill is going to have?
That was one of the issues raised by Democrats, we just don’t know. The bill sponsor, Republican Rep. Tiffany Esposito, said in committee they don’t have a list of all the ordinances it will impact, nor have they examined how many workers could have their salaries rolled back if her bill is passed. Democratic Rep. Ashley Gantt said that 30,000 workers could be affected in Miami-Dade alone, but a state-wide estimate has not been done.
Q: What has public comment looked like on this bill so far?
That’s the interesting thing, there hasn’t been any. The bill took two days to go through its first committee stop due to other high public interest bills on its agenda, but the committee’s chair, Rep. Tyler Sirois, cancelled public comment both times because the meeting was running past its scheduled time. This upset several people who came to speak at both meetings. Some people yelled during the meeting, but Sirois shut that down.
Q: Why is the sponsor putting forward this bill?
Rep. Esposito has argued that the best thing for workers Is to ensure that their employers can pay their bills. If they are successful, then they can pay higher wages, regardless of whether the government gets involved. To her, if they can’t keep the doors open, then they can’t pay anything.
But critics argue the bill could cause a decrease in pay for workers completing government contracts. They say that since the local governments are footing the bill, they should have the ability to enact labor protections for requirements of that money as they see fit.
