Florida Teens Set To Benefit From Trump’s Workplace Enforcement

Florida Republicans are reforming statutes covering teenaged employees. The object is to address fears that enforcing immigration law will create a labor shortage. Rather than resulting in sweatshops out of a Charles Dickens novel, expect the changes to benefit employees, businesses, and the Sunshine State.In December, your columnist cited President Trump’s border tsar, Tom Homan, who aimed to “enforce the law” on businesses employing on the books “people without authorization to work.” Mr. Homan warned that “worksite enforcement is coming back in a big way.”The Trump administration, with help from Floridian authorities, is making good on that pledge. They’re enforcing laws not just out of duty, but to protect non-citizens from exploitation. “Let’s remember,” Mr. Homan told CNN’s Kaitlin Collins, “it’s illegal to hire an illegal alien.”Mr. Homan said that unscrupulous employers prefer hiring people under the table because “they can work them harder, pay them less, and undercut their competition” who have American citizen employees. Some of those being cheated are American teens, who apply for the same entry-level, low-skill jobs.Many Democrats and business groups say worksite enforcement and deportations will result in fewer people available to fill positions. In part, it’s the paternalistic notion that there are “jobs Americans won’t do,” and that, therefore, labor laws ought to be ignored to serve the bottom line.Rejecting that premise, Governor DeSantis and Republicans in Florida’s legislature are moving to fill the gap. They want to extend the hours teenagers can be on the job, adjusting last year’s law limiting 16- and 17-year-olds to 30 hours a week during the school year.Florida’s existing law gives parents, guardians, or school superintendents the option to waive the 30-hour limit. One measure in the state legislature, SB 918, would lift that ceiling for everyone. Sixteen- and 17-year-olds could also work more than eight-hour shifts on school days.Fourteen- and 15-year-olds who graduate high school, are home-schooled, or attend remote classes would also be free to take extra hours. The state senator sponsoring the bill, Jay Collins, told the the Senate commerce committee that the legislation would mirror federal regulations.“We’re talking about them working at Publix,” Mr. Collins said, and other “jobs within the industry,” not meatpacking plants. A Democratic colleague, Senator Carlos Smith, disagreed, warning that the law would “lead to exploitation of minors” and “children.”It would be an injustice if the new law were to replace the exploitation of undocumented employees with exploitation of American young people. However, there are upsides to allowing teens to take on the full responsibilities of adulthood if they’re ready.The pandemic lockdowns cost teenagers years of socialization and learning; those life lessons will now have to be made up on the job. Expanding the number of positions available can help them get that education in real-world environments, protected by labor laws that don’t shelter non-citizens.The sooner young people enter the workforce, the sooner they start to develop the skills that employers often find they lack. Well-to-do teens can afford to take unpaid internships, often obtained through family connections. Jobs with paychecks are the only option for working-class kids.A high school or college diploma is no longer a guarantee of readiness to start a shift. “Business leaders,” U.S. News & World Report reported on Thursday, “are concerned that recent college graduates are unprepared for the workforce and lack professionalism.”In 2023, ResumeBuilder surveyed 1,000 managers and business leaders. Seventy-four percent said that Generation Z, born between about 1997 and 2012, were “more difficult to work with than other generations.” The resulting bias makes it hard for a young applicant to get a foot in the door.“Some bosses,” U.S. News wrote, say that Generation Z “is unprepared for the workforce and can’t hack the workload. Others find that Gen Zers lack motivation and effort. Some bosses say that once on the job, Gen Z employees seem unprofessional.”Florida’s youngsters can gain the skills they need to compete by picking up some of the slack created by worksite enforcement. Do it right, and everyone will benefit, while the horrors of Dickensian sweatshops — for American teens and non-citizens alike — will stay in the Victorian Era where they belong.

Florida Teens Set To Benefit From Trump’s Workplace Enforcement

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