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.