Bill Text: FL S1126 | 2020 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Employment Conditions
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2020-03-14 - Died in Governmental Oversight and Accountability [S1126 Detail]
Download: Florida-2020-S1126-Introduced.html
Florida Senate - 2020 SB 1126
By Senator Gruters
23-00195B-20 20201126__
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to employment conditions; amending s.
3 218.077, F.S.; revising, adding, and deleting defined
4 terms; prohibiting a political subdivision from
5 establishing, mandating, or otherwise requiring an
6 employer to offer conditions of employment which are
7 not otherwise required by state or federal law;
8 specifying that the regulation of conditions of
9 employment is expressly preempted to the state;
10 revising exceptions to the preemption; providing
11 applicability; providing an effective date.
12
13 WHEREAS, the needs and expectations of job applicants and
14 employees must be appropriately balanced with the needs and
15 expectations of employers, who are operating businesses that
16 must respond to the demands of a dynamic and rapidly changing
17 economy at the local, state, national, and international levels,
18 and
19 WHEREAS, promoting the economic growth and prosperity of
20 Florida residents is an important objective of state government,
21 and this economic growth and prosperity depends upon maintaining
22 a stable business climate that will attract new employers to
23 this state and allow existing employers to expand, and
24 WHEREAS, government should insert itself into the
25 relationship between employer and employee only if a need for
26 regulation has been clearly demonstrated, and
27 WHEREAS, allowing the multitude of local governments in
28 this state to each impose requirements on the employment
29 relationship could reasonably be expected to drive businesses
30 out of those communities and out of this state in search of a
31 more consistent and predictable operating environment, thus
32 disrupting Florida’s economy and threatening the public welfare,
33 and
34 WHEREAS, in light of these negative impacts, federal and
35 state governments must be relied upon to adopt uniform
36 regulations governing the employment relationship which strike
37 an appropriate balance between the needs and expectations of
38 employees and employers, and
39 WHEREAS, nothing in this act is intended to alter any state
40 law prohibiting employment discrimination or to affect any local
41 ordinance, order, rule, or policy prohibiting employment
42 discrimination, NOW, THEREFORE,
43
44 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
45
46 Section 1. Section 218.077, Florida Statutes, is amended to
47 read:
48 218.077 Wage and conditions of employment required benefits
49 requirements by political subdivisions; restrictions.—
50 (1) As used in this section, the term:
51 (a) “Conditions of employment” means those terms that form
52 the basis of the relationship between an employer and a
53 prospective or actual employee, including: preemployment
54 screening; job classification; job responsibilities; hours of
55 work; scheduling and schedule changes; wages; payment of wages;
56 leave; paid or unpaid days off for holidays, illness, vacations,
57 and personal necessity; and employee benefits, such as
58 retirement, profit-sharing, health, disability, death, and
59 insurance benefits.
60 (b)(a) “Employee” means any natural person who is employed
61 by an employer entitled under state or federal law to receive a
62 state or federal minimum wage.
63 (c)(b) “Employer” means any person who is engaged in any
64 activity, enterprise, or business and employs at least one
65 employee required under state or federal law to pay a state or
66 federal minimum wage to the person’s employees.
67 (d)(c) “Employer contracting to provide goods or services
68 for the political subdivision” means a person contracting with
69 the political subdivision to provide goods or services to, for
70 the benefit of, or on behalf of, the political subdivision in
71 exchange for valuable consideration, and includes a person
72 leasing or subleasing real property owned by the political
73 subdivision.
74 (d) “Employment benefits” means anything of value that an
75 employee may receive from an employer in addition to wages and
76 salary. The term includes, but is not limited to, health
77 benefits; disability benefits; death benefits; group accidental
78 death and dismemberment benefits; paid or unpaid days off for
79 holidays, sick leave, vacation, and personal necessity;
80 retirement benefits; and profit-sharing benefits.
81 (e) “Federal minimum wage” means a minimum wage required
82 under federal law, including the federal Fair Labor Standards
83 Act of 1938, as amended, 29 U.S.C. ss. 201 et seq.
84 (f) “Political subdivision” means a county, municipality,
85 department, commission, district, board, or other public body,
86 whether corporate or otherwise, created by or under state law.
87 (g) “Wage” means that compensation for employment to which
88 any state or federal minimum wage applies.
89 (2) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (3), a
90 political subdivision may not establish, mandate, or otherwise
91 require an employer to pay a minimum wage, other than a state or
92 federal minimum wage, to apply a state or federal minimum wage
93 to wages exempt from a state or federal minimum wage, or to
94 offer other conditions of employment which are provide
95 employment benefits not otherwise required by state or federal
96 law, the regulation of all such matters being expressly
97 preempted to the state.
98 (3) This section does not:
99 (a) Limit the authority of a political subdivision to
100 establish a minimum wage other than a state or federal minimum
101 wage or to require conditions of employment provide employment
102 benefits not otherwise required under state or federal law:
103 1. For the employees of the political subdivision;
104 2. For the employees of an employer contracting to provide
105 goods or services for the political subdivision, or for the
106 employees of a subcontractor of such an employer, under the
107 terms of a contract with the political subdivision; or
108 3. For the employees of an employer receiving a direct tax
109 abatement or subsidy from the political subdivision, as a
110 condition of the direct tax abatement or subsidy.
111 (b) Apply to a domestic violence or sexual abuse ordinance,
112 order, rule, or policy adopted by a political subdivision.
113 (4) If it is determined by the officer or agency
114 responsible for distributing federal funds to a political
115 subdivision that compliance with this act would prevent receipt
116 of those federal funds, or would otherwise be inconsistent with
117 federal requirements pertaining to such funds, then this act
118 does not apply, but only to the extent necessary to allow
119 receipt of the federal funds or to eliminate the inconsistency
120 with such federal requirements.
121 (5) This section does not prohibit a federally authorized
122 and recognized tribal government from establishing conditions of
123 employment for any requiring employment benefits for a person
124 employed within a territory over which the tribe has
125 jurisdiction.
126 Section 2. Any ordinance, regulation, or policy of a
127 political subdivision which is preempted by this act and which
128 existed before, on, or after the effective date of this act is
129 void.
130 Section 3. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.
