The governor of Florida is proposing lowering the legal age for employment to 14 and allowing other teens to work longer hours with no mandatory breaks. 

This would let teens work from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. and that would put a mental and physical drain on their bodies. Kids that age should be focused on school and getting their education. How can they do that if they are working till 4 a.m. and school starts at 7? 

State laws should aim to protect children in the workplace by setting restrictions on age, types of jobs, working hours, and conditions, ensuring their safety, well-being and educational opportunities.

The governor’s proposal would remove all regulations on how late and how long 16- and 17-year-olds can work. It would also remove their guarantee of a meal break and would waive time restrictions on 14- and 15-year-olds if those teenagers are homeschooled or attend virtual school.

Currently, teens ages 16-17 years old can work more than 30 hours a week if a parent, guardian, or school superintendent fills out a waiver. But the new law takes the parent and school out of the decision-making. 

This will allow employers to take advantage of kids and exploit them to get more cheap labor.

This will have a greater impact on poorer families who might feel the need to push their students to make more money, but it will hurt their futures because they are missing out on their education.

Florida has been working for years to crack down on employers that hire undocumented immigrants. But that presented a problem for businesses in the state that are desperate for workers to fill low-wage and often undesirable jobs.

I agree with the regulations now but they are proposing to change them. And, they are making kids do more work and more overtime. Due to the lack of adult workers from deportation. 

Having teens start working at the age of 14 would have a massive impact on their minds and bodies and working that young could make them focus less on their education and they could start to fail classes and it would cause great impacts on their person.

People should speak up about this and spread awareness of this before it spreads from just Florida and it contaminates the rest of the states.