Do you want to make less money? Florida lawmakers have the perfect bill for you. | Opinion

The minimum wage in Florida is under attack — and this time in a very dishonest way. 

After years of purposeful inaction by state lawmakers, Florida voters took matters into their own hands five years ago by passing a constitutional amendment that raised the minimum wage in the state.

The voter initiative increased the then-paltry minimum wage of $8.56 per hour for non-tipped workers, by putting it on a schedule of yearly increases that tops out at $15 per hour by the year 2026. This year, this graduated minimum wage is $13 per hour in Florida.

The constitutional amendment passed despite a well-funded opposition led by several business groups, including the Associated Builders and Contractors of Florida, the Associated Industries of Florida, the Florida Farm Bureau, the Florida Home Builders Association and the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association. 

And it didn’t sit well with the Republican-led state legislature either, who apparently have decided to disregard the state’s constitution and the will of the voters expressed through that referendum.

It took state lawmakers five years to find a new way to circumvent the voter’s wishes. What they’ve come up with is a real doozy.

New bill lets employers pay below minimum wage. Yes you read that right.

A bill (SB 676) working through the Florida Legislature this session rewrites labor laws in the state to allow workers to voluntarily request to get paid less than the minimum wage.

Yes, I know. It sounds crazy. 

Who goes into a job asking to be underpaid? Or hopes to get a job that makes an instant pay cut sound like an exciting new opportunity?

I guess the conversation will go something like this: “Good news! You’re hired. Now, just sign here on the line that says you have agreed to participate in our floor-sweeping apprenticeship opportunity at $7.25 an hour.

“If you do well there, you’ll be eligible for a French fry work-based learning opportunity as soon as you complete your restroom internship.”

Under this bill, reclassifying low-wage jobs as “internships, apprenticeships or work-based learning opportunities” would allow employers to sidestep the state’s minimum wage law by hiring workers willing to sign away their absolute right to a minimum salary.

The bill’s sponsor in the Senate, Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, tried to make this Dickensian dystopia sound like a noble gesture by calling it “trading pay for a marketable skill.”

By Martin’s reckoning, Florida is full of people who don’t deserve to be paid a day’s pay for a day’s work.

The bill doesn’t define what a “skill” is. There’s also no definition in state law that defines an “internship.”  

Tellingly, the bill purposefully allows the sub-minimum pay to apply to workers of all ages — not just teenagers. And it is being forwarded despite clear language in the Fair Labor Standards Act and Florida case law that employees can’t waive their rights to minimum pay. 

Floridians need fair wages. This bill is a step in the wrong direction.

In the end, this bill is just a legally flawed gift to businesses looking to cut labor costs at the expense of their poorest, unskilled workers. 

“If we think that $13 an hour is what a bag boy at a grocery store should be making in rural Florida, then I think we have a misconception of either what’s reasonable or we’re not relating that to the cost of goods and services anymore,” Martin said. 

Reality check: A living wage in Florida for an adult with no children is $23.41 an hour, according to MIT’s Living Wage Calculator. And there are about 1.5 million Floridians working in jobs that pay less than $15 per hour, according to data compiled by the Florida Policy Institute.

The problem in Florida isn’t that wages are too high and corporate profits are too low. 

This bill is a monumental step in the wrong direction. It lends a hand to those who need it least at the expense of those who are most in need.

Here’s how Jackson Oberlink, the legislative director for the social justice group, Florida For All, put it:

“Let’s be honest, no worker truly opts out of fair wages. There is zero protections in this bill against coercion, fraud, or employer intimidation, meaning bad actors can and will exploit it,” he told lawmakers at a committee meeting earlier this month.

“Under this bill, a fast-food worker, a grocery store cashier or a construction apprentice, could suddenly find themselves reclassified as an intern, making far less than the legal minimum wage.”

“If this bill becomes law, it won’t just hurt individual workers. It will drive down wages across entire industries as more and more businesses push workers into these bogus exemptions to cut costs,” Oberlink said. 

“All we’re asking for is fair pay for a hard day’s work without loopholes, without carve-outs and without games,” he said.

Is that too much to ask? We’ll soon find out.

Frank Cerabino is a news columnist with The Palm Beach Post, which is part of the USA Today Network-Florida Network. He can be reached at fcerabino@gannett.com.