If you run a multi-state workforce, you spend real effort tracking city ordinances — paid sick leave here, fair-workweek scheduling there, a local minimum wage somewhere else. Florida is the state where that effort goes to zero, and it is worth understanding exactly why, because the preemption has edges.
The short version: Florida law reserves wages, employment benefits, scheduling and heat rules to the state. A Florida handbook needs no city supplements. The longer version — the actual statutory text and its three carve-outs — is below, from the 2026 Florida Statutes read in full.
Quick facts
| What's preempted | Statute | The operative language |
|---|---|---|
| Local minimum wages above the state/federal floor | § 218.077(2)(a) | A political subdivision "may not establish, mandate, maintain, or otherwise require an employer to pay a minimum wage, other than a state or federal minimum wage" |
| Local employment-benefit mandates | § 218.077(2)(a) | ...or "to provide employment benefits not otherwise required by state or federal law" |
| What counts as a benefit | § 218.077(1)(d) | "health benefits; disability benefits; death benefits; group accidental death and dismemberment benefits; paid or unpaid days off for holidays, sick leave, vacation, and personal necessity; retirement benefits; and profit-sharing benefits" |
| Local scheduling rules, including predictive scheduling | § 448.077 | A local government "may not adopt or enforce any ordinance, resolution, order, rule, policy, or contract requirement regulating scheduling, including predictive scheduling, by a private employer" |
| Local heat-exposure requirements | § 448.106(2)(a) | A political subdivision "may not establish, mandate, or otherwise require an employer... to meet or provide heat exposure requirements not otherwise required under state or federal law" |
Sick leave is preempted by name
The question we hear most: "Does any Florida city require paid sick leave?" No — and not because no city has tried, but because the statute closes the door twice. Section 218.077(2)(a) bars political subdivisions from requiring "employment benefits not otherwise required by state or federal law," and subsection (1)(d) defines employment benefits to include, expressly, "paid or unpaid days off for holidays, sick leave, vacation, and personal necessity."
Two things follow for policy work:
There is also no statewide mandate — with a caveat. We found no private-employer paid sick leave requirement in the Florida statutes' labor chapters we read (chapters 448 and 450). We have not searched every chapter of Florida law, so we state it that way rather than as an absolute. Offering paid sick leave in Florida is a company choice, and if you offer it, your own written policy is what governs it.
The contracting route is closed too. Cities sometimes regulate indirectly, through procurement — pay this wage or offer these benefits if you want city contracts. Section 218.077(2)(b) and (c) block that route as well: a subdivision may not "through its purchasing or contracting procedures seek to control or affect the wages or employment benefits" of its vendors and contractors, nor award bid preferences on that basis.
Scheduling and heat: the 2024 additions
Chapter 2024-80, Laws of Florida, added two more preemption sections, both now in the 2026 statutes:
Section 448.077 preempts local regulation of "scheduling, including predictive scheduling, by a private employer," except as authorized by state or federal law or federal grant requirements. If you have built fair-workweek compliance machinery for other markets — advance notice, predictability pay, clopening rules — none of it is required by any Florida locality.
A sourcing note, because it is a live trap: at least one compliance site in circulation cites this provision as "section 448.007" with a September 30, 2026 effective date. Both details are wrong. The enrolled act and the current statute text put it at 448.077, enacted by chapter 2024-80. If a vendor's summary cites 448.007, their research pipeline copied an error.
Section 448.106 preempts local heat-exposure requirements — and its definition shows how broadly: "heat exposure requirement" covers standards on monitoring, water, cooling, acclimatization, notices, training, first aid, anti-retaliation protections, and recordkeeping. A county cannot impose any of it on private employers. (Whether to run a heat program anyway is a separate question — federal OSHA duties and plain risk management still apply to outdoor work in Florida heat; the preemption only removes the local mandate layer.)
The three carve-outs
Preemption statutes get overstated, so here is what section 218.077 does not reach:
- A government's own workforce. A city or county may set any wage or benefits "for the employees of the political subdivision" (§ 218.077(3)(a)1.), and § 448.106(3) preserves the same for heat rules. A city living-wage policy for city workers is lawful; it just cannot be exported to private employers.
- Subsidy strings. A subdivision may condition "a direct tax abatement or subsidy" on wage or benefit terms for the recipient's employees (§ 218.077(3)(a)2.). If you took local incentive money, read the agreement — obligations can attach there that no ordinance could impose.
- Domestic-violence ordinances. The section does not apply to "a domestic violence or sexual abuse ordinance, order, rule, or policy adopted by a political subdivision" (§ 218.077(3)(b)). Separately, state law itself (§ 741.313) gives employees of 50-plus-employee employers up to 3 working days of leave in 12 months in domestic or sexual violence situations — a state rule, untouched by any of this.
There is also a federal-funds escape valve: if compliance would cost a subdivision federal money, the preemption yields to the extent necessary (§ 218.077(4), § 448.106(4)). That concerns the subdivision's funding, not private employers' obligations.
What this means for your handbook
A Florida handbook is a state-law handbook. The compliance surface is the state constitution's minimum wage, the state statutes, and federal law — no city packs, no local poster hunt, no ordinance tracker. Where we maintain city-level policy supplements for states that allow local mandates, our Florida library carries none, with the preemption statutes on file as the reason. The effort you save on Florida localities is better spent on the state-level items that do move: the minimum wage schedule and the E-Verify rules, both covered in companion posts.
Sources
- Florida Statutes (2026), § 218.077, flsenate.gov, accessed October 12, 2026 (primary; read in full).
- Florida Statutes (2026), §§ 448.077, 448.106, flsenate.gov, accessed October 12, 2026 (primary; read in full).
- Chapter 2024-80, Laws of Florida (CS/CS/HB 433, enrolled), laws.flrules.org (primary; creation of §§ 448.077 and 448.106 and amendment of § 218.077).
- Florida Statutes (2026), § 741.313, flsenate.gov, accessed October 12, 2026 (primary).
This article explains public law and how our tools handle it. It is not legal advice and has not been reviewed by an attorney.