Frequently Asked Questions

Cited answers to the questions Florida employers ask most — including the exceptions that change what you owe. Drawn from 45+ years of hands-on HR experience. General HR information, not legal advice.

What is the Florida minimum wage right now, and when does it go up again?

Florida's minimum wage is $14.00 an hour, and $10.98 an hour for tipped employees in addition to tips, through September 29, 2026; it rises to $15.00 on September 30, 2026, so update payroll at the end of September, not on January 1. The constitution caps the tip credit at "the allowable FLSA tip credit in 2003" rather than printing a dollar figure — the Department of Commerce's last two posters both work out to a $3.02 credit ($14.00 minus $10.98, and $13.00 minus $9.98), which would put the tipped cash wage at $11.98 from September 30, 2026, but that figure is not yet published and you should confirm it against the Department's 2026-2027 poster before you run payroll. Who is covered comes from federal law rather than state law: art. X, § 24(b) takes 'Employer,' 'Employee' and 'Wage' from the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, and § 448.110(3) makes only those individuals entitled to the federal minimum wage eligible for the state one and expressly incorporates the FLSA's ss. 213 and 214 exemptions, so an employee who is exempt federally sits outside the state wage too — and the tip credit is available only for tipped employees who meet the FLSA's own tip-credit requirements, which brings with it the advance-notice condition in 29 U.S.C. § 203(m)(2)(A), the $30-a-month tip threshold and the federal tip-pooling rules. Only the Legislature can change that credit, and only in the employee's favor: art. X, § 24(f) lets it reduce the tip credit, not enlarge it. September 30, 2026 is the last of the fixed dollar increases — the first inflation adjustment is calculated on September 30, 2027 and takes effect the following January 1, so the next rate change is January 1, 2028 — and you should ignore the $6.15 still printed in the statute, because the constitutional rate is what you owe. Underpaying is expensive, but the employee has to give you a chance to fix it before suing: the claimant must first serve written notice identifying the minimum wage claimed, the dates and hours worked and the total alleged unpaid amount, and you then have 15 calendar days after receiving that notice to pay the total or otherwise resolve the claim, with the limitations period tolled meanwhile and any later suit confined to what the notice stated. If it is not resolved, the recovery is the unpaid wages plus the same amount again as liquidated damages plus reasonable attorney's fees and costs, a good-faith defense can eliminate the liquidated damages, the Attorney General may separately seek $1,000 for each willful violation, and the claim may be brought as a class action within four years, or five years where the violation was willful (Fla. Const. art. X, § 24(b), (c), (e), (f); Fla. Stat. §§ 448.109, 448.110(3), (6), (7), (9); 29 U.S.C. § 203(m)(2)(A)).

Can I fire an employee in Florida without giving a reason or a warning?

Usually yes — Florida is a strong at-will state: where the term of employment is indefinite, either party may terminate it at any time for any reason, and Florida's district courts of appeal have expressly refused to create a common-law public-policy wrongful-discharge tort, holding that defining public policy is the Legislature's job. Because the limits are statutory, each carries its own headcount and "we are too small" is rarely safe: the Florida Civil Rights Act starts at 15 employees, the private Whistleblower Act at ten persons employed, workers'-compensation retaliation reaches any employer covered by chapter 440 — which for non-construction private work should mean four or more employees, because § 440.02(20)(b)2 puts smaller employers outside "employment" altogether, though no Florida decision has applied that floor to a retaliation claim, so treat it as the better reading rather than a settled one — and it is unlawful at any size to fire someone solely for refusing to authorize direct deposit of wages. Several more limits carry no headcount at all, which is the part small employers miss: the public-sector half of Florida's whistleblower law, § 112.3187, defines an agency's independent contractor to include a private business that contracts with a state, county, municipal or school-district agency or as a Medicaid provider, and defines 'employee' to include anyone performing services for that contractor, so a private employer of any size holding a government or Medicaid contract is covered, with reinstatement, front pay, lost wages and attorney's fees available; it is unlawful for an employer or any other party to take adverse action against any person in retaliation for exercising minimum-wage rights, including for informing others of those rights; and time away from work is protected at any size, because you may not penalize a National Guard member for state active duty, may not dismiss a juror because of the nature or length of jury service or a subpoenaed witness because of the testimony or the resulting absence, and discharging or threatening to discharge someone over voting is a third-degree felony. Local law closes the gap further, and it is a pattern rather than a pair of counties: many Florida counties and cities run their own human-rights ordinances that reach employers well below the Civil Rights Act's fifteen and cover classes state law does not, such as sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and victim status for domestic or dating violence. Miami-Dade defines 'employer' at five or more employees in the county in four or more calendar weeks of the current year, and Broward at five or more for each working day in twenty or more calendar weeks, with Broward separately protecting political affiliation and its Human Rights Section stating that it handles employment complaints in those local-only classes regardless of how many employees you have — but those two are examples, not the whole set, thresholds and class lists both vary by jurisdiction and do not travel together, so check the ordinances of the county and the city where the employee actually works. Document a legitimate, non-retaliatory reason before every termination (Hartley v. Ocean Reef Club, Inc., 476 So. 2d 1327 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985); DeMarco v. Publix Super Markets, Inc., 384 So. 2d 1253 (Fla. 1980); Fla. Stat. §§ 760.02(7), 448.101(3), 440.205, 532.04(2), 112.3187, 448.110(5), 250.482, 40.271, 92.57, 104.081; Fla. Const. art. X, § 24(d); Miami-Dade County Code § 11A-25(2); Broward County Code §§ 16½-3, 16½-33).

Do I have to give my employees meal breaks or rest breaks in Florida?

Not for adults as a matter of Florida law: Florida requires no meal or rest break for employees 18 and over. One federal mandate applies here precisely because there is no state rule to displace it, so do not read that as no break duty at all — 29 U.S.C. § 218d requires you to provide a nursing employee reasonable break time to express breast milk for one year after the child's birth, and a place to do it other than a bathroom that is shielded from view and free from intrusion, and the break time is compensable if the employee is not completely relieved from duty; an employer with fewer than 50 employees is excused only where those requirements would impose an undue hardship, which is a defense you have to establish rather than an automatic exemption. Florida's own § 383.015 is a public-accommodation right to breastfeed and creates no employer duty, so there is no state overlay to add on top of the federal rule. Florida law does require a break for some minors — a minor 15 or younger may not work more than four hours continuously without a 30-minute meal interval, and minors 16 and 17 get that interval only on a day they work eight hours or more — but the hour rules do not apply at all to a minor in domestic service in a private home or employed by a parent, at any age, nor to a 16- or 17-year-old who has graduated or holds an equivalency diploma or is in a home-education or approved virtual-instruction program, nor to a minor holding a superintendent's certificate of exemption or a hardship waiver, and the Department of Business and Professional Regulation can waive the restrictions besides. A separate, still-unrepealed provision requires stores and similar businesses whose clerks and salespeople must stand or walk while working to furnish suitable chairs, stools or sliding seats attached to the counters or walls and to let them be used for necessary rest — and it is a criminal statute rather than a civil one, because failing to furnish the seats, or refusing to permit employees to make reasonable use of them, is a misdemeanor of the second degree punishable under ss. 775.082 and 775.083. Beyond the nursing-employee mandate, if you do give breaks, federal rules govern them: a rest break of about 5 to 20 minutes is paid working time, and a meal period is unpaid only if the employee is completely relieved from duty, ordinarily for 30 minutes or more (Fla. Stat. §§ 450.081(4)-(6), 448.05, 383.015; 29 U.S.C. § 218d; 29 C.F.R. §§ 785.18, 785.19).

Do I owe overtime in Florida if someone works more than 8 hours in a day?

Not at eight hours — Florida has no state overtime statute and no daily-overtime premium, so overtime is the federal rule: 1.5 times the regular rate for hours worked over 40 in a workweek. The white-collar exemption generally needs both a salary of at least $684 a week ($35,568 a year) and a qualifying duties test, but the salary requirement does not reach teachers or licensed lawyers and doctors actually practicing, the Department of Labor states it also does not apply to outside sales employees, and a computer employee may instead be paid $27.63 an hour — a job title or a salary alone never makes anyone exempt. That $684 figure is what the regulation itself now says, not only what a court ordered: after the Fifth Circuit dismissed the appeals in May 2026, the Department of Labor's technical amendment at 91 FR 27833, effective May 15, 2026, conformed 29 C.F.R. part 541 to the 2024 vacatur of the higher salary levels. One old Florida statute does address daily hours: § 448.01 makes ten hours a legal day's work for a person "employed to perform manual labor of any kind," and entitles that person to extra pay for work required beyond ten hours a day unless a written contract signed by both the employee and the employer sets different hours. It is an 1874 provision with no multiplier and no enforcing agency, and it is unrepealed, so for manual-labor roles put the agreed schedule in a signed writing rather than assuming Florida has no daily-hours rule at all — and treat it as live rather than a museum piece, because § 448.08 lets a court award the prevailing party in an action for unpaid wages its costs and a reasonable attorney's fee, which is what makes even a modest unpaid-wage or daily-hours claim worth a lawyer's time (29 U.S.C. § 207; 29 C.F.R. § 541.600; 91 Fed. Reg. 27833; Fla. Stat. §§ 448.01, 448.08).

How quickly do I have to give a departing Florida employee their final paycheck, and do I owe unused PTO?

Florida sets no deadline for a final paycheck and has no statewide payday schedule for private employers, so pay final wages on the regular payday for the period worked; accrued PTO is not a wage under Florida law, which makes your written policy, contract or consistent past practice the whole question. Florida is not silent on how you pay, though — chapter 532 requires any check, draft, note or payroll debit card issued for wages to be negotiable and payable in cash on demand without discount at an established place of business named on the instrument, with sufficient funds for at least 30 days; it permits direct deposit only where the employee has authorized it in writing and designated the institution; and it forbids terminating anyone solely for refusing direct deposit. Six counties change the picture further: Miami-Dade, Broward, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Alachua and Osceola run administrative wage-recovery programs, and Pinellas is the most prescriptive — it presumes wages are due no later than 14 calendar days after the work unless your established pay schedule says otherwise, counts earned paid time off, leave, vacation and sick pay inside the recoverable wage rate, and directs its special magistrate to award two times the unpaid amount, rising to three times if you do not comply within 30 days, on claims of at least $60 and no more than $15,000 — although that 30 days is really 30 plus a further 14 that the county's Office of Human Rights must grant, once, if you ask for it, and § 70-306 describes the award as up to three times while § 70-308 sets out the two-times-rising-to-three structure, so expect a claimant to quote the more generous phrasing. Most prescriptive is not the same as largest exposure, though: the $60 to $15,000 band is Miami-Dade's as well, while Broward, Hillsborough, Osceola and Alachua use a $60 floor with no ceiling at all. Check the ordinance where the employee actually worked before you treat a forfeiture clause as the end of the matter, and price the fight realistically, because § 448.08 lets a court award the prevailing party in an action for unpaid wages its costs and a reasonable attorney's fee — and where the dispute is a termination for refusing direct deposit the fee award is not discretionary, since § 532.04(3) says the court shall adjudge a reasonable sum as fees for the employee's attorney, may add injunctive relief, and shifts fees back to you only if the suit was ill-founded or brought for purposes of harassment (Fla. Stat. §§ 532.01, 532.04(2)-(3), 448.08; Pinellas County Code §§ 70-305, 70-306, 70-308(a)-(b); Miami-Dade County Code ch. 22; Broward County Code ch. 20½; Hillsborough County Code ch. 51; Alachua County Code ch. 66; Osceola County Code ch. 25).

Does my Florida business have to use E-Verify, or is the Form I-9 enough?

If you have 25 or more employees, Florida requires you to verify every new employee through E-Verify within three business days after their first day working for pay, keep the documentation at least three years, fall back on the Form I-9 with documented proof of the outage if E-Verify is unavailable for three business days, and certify your compliance on your first return each calendar year to your tax service provider when you pay into the reemployment assistance system. Below 25 employees the Form I-9 is not the whole story, because § 448.095 imposes Florida duties with no size threshold: subsection (2)(a) requires every employer to verify eligibility within three business days of the first day worked, (2)(d) requires the same three-year retention, (2)(e) bars continuing to employ anyone you know is unauthorized, and (3)(a) requires you to produce that documentation on request to the Department of Law Enforcement, the Attorney General, the state attorney, the statewide prosecutor or the Department of Commerce. Size stops mattering altogether if you do business with government: a public agency must require E-Verify registration and use in any contract, and no party may enter into one unless every party registers and uses the system, so a six-person firm with a city contract must E-Verify. The Department of Commerce runs the compliance track — notice of noncompliance and 30 days to cure, then a mandatory $1,000-per-day fine on a third determined failure within any 24-month period plus grounds to suspend every license you hold from a chapter 120 licensing agency — and the two 2026 bills that would have extended E-Verify to all private employers both died in Senate committee on March 13, 2026. Three definitions decide how far all of this actually reaches: § 448.095(1)(b) limits 'employee' to an individual filling a permanent position and excludes independent contractors, so casual and contract labor sits outside both the headcount and the duty; § 448.095(2)(f) leaves the verification duty with a licensed employee leasing company by default and lifts it off the PEO only where a written agreement or understanding with you places the primary obligation on your company — so if you lease staff, the writing is the whole question, and no writing means the PEO, not you, is responsible; and § 448.095(4) gives an employer that verifies through E-Verify a rebuttable presumption that it did not knowingly employ an unauthorized alien in violation of § 448.09, which is the reason a business under 25 employees might enroll voluntarily (Fla. Stat. §§ 448.095(1)(b), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), 448.09).

What paperwork do I have to complete when I hire someone in Florida?

Federal Form I-9 for everyone, E-Verify on top of it if you have 25 or more employees, a federal W-4 — there is no state withholding form because Florida has no income tax — and a reemployment-tax account with the Department of Revenue. Report every newly hired or rehired employee to the State Directory of New Hires within 20 days of the hire date, and note the part most employers miss: you must also report an independent contractor you pay $600 or more in a calendar year, within 20 days after the earlier of the first payment or the date the contract is entered into. Post the Florida minimum-wage notice, the Florida Commission on Human Relations discrimination notice and the Department of Revenue's RT-83 reemployment-assistance poster that the Department of Commerce lists in the required state set; if you carry workers'-compensation coverage, § 440.40 requires two posted notices, not one — the coverage notice naming your carrier and the policy expiration date, on a form the department prescribes, and the Department of Financial Services Anti-Fraud Reward Program notice — while for an employer with fewer than four employees that lawfully carries no coverage, § 440.055 reads as a duty to post at each worksite that people working there are not entitled to chapter 440 benefits — put that notice up as prudent practice rather than treating it as settled law, because the only Florida decision on the point goes the other way, holding that a non-construction employer with fewer than four employees is by legislative definition not an "employer" under chapter 440 and that § 440.055 therefore does not require it to post; the court expressed considerable doubt and decided the case in the alternative on estoppel, so this is persuasive reasoning from one district court of appeal rather than a square holding, and the notice costs you nothing. In Pinellas County add a county step at the time of hiring: a written notice of pay rate and basis, any allowances claimed, the regular payday, and your business name, address and phone, signed and dated by both of you and kept for a year, plus a wage-theft poster and written notice of any change within seven calendar days (Fla. Stat. §§ 409.2576(3)-(4), 448.095, 448.109(2), 760.10(11), 440.40, 440.055; Larry K. Meyer, P.A. v. Kimberly, 765 So. 2d 951, 952 (Fla. 1st DCA 2000); Pinellas County Code § 70-306(b)-(e)).

I only have a few employees — does my Florida business need workers' compensation insurance?

Florida buries the threshold inside the definition of "employment" rather than in a section about who must buy insurance, which is why it is hard to find: every private employer with four or more employees needs coverage, and in construction it is one or more. Five kinds of service sit outside "employment" altogether — domestic servants in private homes, certain agricultural labor, professional athletes, court-ordered community service, and state prisoners or county inmates — and the agricultural carve-out is narrower than it sounds: a bona fide farmer with five or fewer regular employees and fewer than 12 other employees at one time for seasonal agricultural labor that is completed in less than 30 days, provided that seasonal employment does not exceed 45 days in the same calendar year. If you have fewer than four employees and lawfully go without coverage, § 440.055 reads as an affirmative duty to post written notice at each worksite that people working there are not entitled to chapter 440 benefits, and § 440.185(1)(c) ties the defense that an injured worker reported the injury late to having posted it — but the one Florida decision on the point rejects both propositions for precisely this employer, holding that a non-construction employer with fewer than four employees is by legislative definition not an "employer" under chapter 440 and so is not required by § 440.055 to post. Post it anyway as prudent practice, and do not treat that decision as settled either: the court voiced considerable doubt and decided in the alternative on estoppel, so it is persuasive reasoning from a single district court of appeal rather than a square holding. Guessing wrong about whether you needed coverage at all is the expensive error — the department treats non-compliance as an immediate serious danger to public health, safety or welfare and may serve a stop-work order within 72 hours requiring the cessation of all business operations, effective on service and posted on the Division's website for at least five years, with $1,000 a day for working in violation of it, plus an assessment equal to twice the premium you would have paid over the preceding 12 months, or $1,000 if that is greater, reaching back 24 months where the violation is a repeat or payroll was concealed; if you cannot produce payroll records the department imputes payroll at 1.5 times the statewide average weekly wage for each employee; and separately, whatever your records look like, it may assess $5,000 for every worker you represented as an independent contractor who was not one. Coverage makes workers' compensation your exclusive liability, subject to two statutory exceptions: failing to secure coverage when required, which lets the injured worker elect to sue at law and strips your fellow-servant, assumption-of-risk and comparative-negligence defenses, and an employer intentional tort, which the employee must prove by clear and convincing evidence (Fla. Stat. §§ 440.02(20)(b)2 and (20)(c), 440.055, 440.185(1)(c), 440.11(1)(a)-(b), 440.107(7)(a), (c)-(f); Larry K. Meyer, P.A. v. Kimberly, 765 So. 2d 951, 952 (Fla. 1st DCA 2000)).

Do I have to give Florida employees paid sick leave or PTO?

No — Florida requires no paid sick leave or PTO, and it bars cities and counties from requiring employers to provide paid or unpaid days off for holidays, sick leave, vacation or personal necessity, with narrow exceptions for a subdivision's own employees, for an employer receiving a direct tax abatement or subsidy, and, only until September 30, 2026 when a 2024 amendment deletes it, for an employer under contract with the subdivision. Florida does have one leave mandate tied to headcount: an employer with 50 or more employees must let an employee of three or more months take up to three working days of leave in any 12-month period for domestic or sexual violence, paid or unpaid at your discretion, and the leave is available where the employee or a family or household member of the employee is the victim, not only where the employee is — but the statute reaches only five listed uses (seeking an injunction, obtaining medical care or mental-health counseling, obtaining victim services, securing the home or seeking new housing, and seeking legal assistance or attending court proceedings), and except in cases of imminent danger you may require advance notice under your policy plus sufficient documentation of the act, and require the employee to exhaust annual or vacation, personal and sick leave first. Two duties travel with that leave and are routinely missed: you must keep all information relating to an employee's leave under the section confidential, and you may not interfere with, restrain or deny the exercise of the right or retaliate against someone who exercises it. Note too that the section borrows its definitions of 'employee' and 'employer' from chapter 440, so the workers'-compensation exclusions — non-construction independent contractors, casual labor, volunteers, commission-only real-estate licensees and comp-exempt corporate officers — govern both who counts toward the 50 and who may take the leave. The preemption expressly does not apply to a local domestic-violence or sexual-abuse ordinance, and Miami-Dade uses that opening: an employer with 50 or more employees working in the county owes up to 30 work days of unpaid domestic leave in a 12-month period to an employee with at least 90 days and 308 hours of service, who must first exhaust paid vacation or personal leave. If you write one PTO policy for Florida, write the Miami-Dade leave into it separately. Do not read the 50-employee rule as the only leave protection, though, because that is true only of general-purpose leave: four more Florida statutes protect specific absences at any size, with no employee threshold at all. A National Guard member on state active duty may not be discharged, reprimanded or in any other way penalized because of the absence, must be reinstated with seniority as though continuously employed, may not be discharged except for cause for a year afterward and may not be required to use vacation or PTO for the service period, with the employer carrying the burden on every exception and damages of the actual loss or $500, whichever is greater, plus fees — and USERRA does not reach state active duty, which is what Florida activates the Guard for during hurricanes. No juror may be dismissed from employment because of the nature or length of jury service, with compensatory and punitive damages and attorney's fees available and threats punishable as contempt. A witness under subpoena may not be dismissed because of the nature of the testimony or because of absences resulting from complying with the subpoena, again with fees and punitive damages. And discharging or threatening to discharge someone for voting or not voting is a third-degree felony — although there is no Florida right to time off to vote at all, paid or unpaid, despite how often that is repeated (Fla. Stat. §§ 218.077(1)(d), (2), (3), 741.313(1)-(5), 440.02(18)-(19), 250.482, 40.271, 92.57, 104.081; Miami-Dade County Code §§ 11A-60, 11A-61).

Do any Florida cities or counties have their own employment rules I need to follow — minimum wage, paid leave, scheduling, wage claims, or discrimination?

On pay and hours, mostly no: Florida preempts local minimum wages, locally required employment benefits including paid leave, local predictive-scheduling rules, and local workplace heat-exposure requirements. Two things change on September 30, 2026 — a 2024 amendment deletes the carve-out that let a county or city set wages for its contractors' employees, and it bars a subdivision from using its purchasing and contracting, or bid preferences, to control a vendor's wages — though contracts entered into before that date are expressly not impaired. What survives is a shorter list than people assume but longer than three items: a subdivision may still set wages and benefits for its own employees and for an employer taking a direct tax abatement or subsidy from it; the preemption never applied to a local domestic-violence or sexual-abuse ordinance; it yields where compliance would cost the subdivision federal funds; and it does not stop a federally recognized tribal government from requiring employment benefits within its jurisdiction. What preemption does not touch at all is the part most employers miss — six counties (Miami-Dade, Broward, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Alachua and Osceola) run wage-recovery programs that adjudicate unpaid-wage claims and multiply the award, and their exposure is not uniform: Miami-Dade and Pinellas cap a claim at $15,000, while Broward, Hillsborough, Osceola and Alachua set a $60 floor with no ceiling at all. Local human-rights ordinances survive preemption too, and they are a pattern rather than a pair of counties: many Florida counties and cities run their own, reaching employers well below the Florida Civil Rights Act's fifteen and covering classes state law does not. Miami-Dade defines 'employer' at five or more employees in the county in four or more calendar weeks of the current year, and Broward at five or more for each working day in twenty or more calendar weeks, with Broward's ordinance separately protecting political affiliation and its Human Rights Section stating it takes those local-only class complaints regardless of employer size. Treat those two as examples rather than the set: thresholds and class lists both vary from one jurisdiction to the next and the two features do not travel together — some ordinances add classes the state act omits while keeping a fifteen-employee threshold, some use a two-pronged headcount rather than a flat number, and at least one large Florida city has no ordinance at all and refers its employees to the county — so check the ordinances of both the county and the city where the employee actually works. There is no general preemption to fall back on here, because the Florida Supreme Court has read the Legislature to have left this area open to local regulation (Fla. Stat. §§ 218.077(2)-(5) and the note recording s. 2, ch. 2024-80, 448.077, 448.106; Laborers' Int'l Union Local 478 v. Burroughs, 541 So. 2d 1160, 1161 (Fla. 1989); Miami-Dade County Code chs. 11A and 22 and § 11A-25(2); Broward County Code chs. 16½ and 20½ and §§ 16½-3, 16½-33; Pinellas County Code ch. 70 art. IV; Hillsborough County Code ch. 51; Alachua County Code ch. 66; Osceola County Code ch. 25).

Should I run background checks on Florida applicants, and do they actually protect me?

They are not required, and Florida is explicit that electing not to investigate raises no presumption that you failed to use reasonable care. What the statute offers is narrower than its shorthand: an employer that completed a qualifying pre-hire investigation which turned up nothing reasonably demonstrating the person's unsuitability is presumed not to have been negligent in hiring — but only in a civil action for the death of, or injury or damage to, a third person caused by an employee's intentional tort, not in negligence claims generally. To qualify, the criminal component must be a check the employer requests and obtains from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement of the information reflected in the Florida Crime Information Center, so a commercial-database report is not what the statute names; the statute also lists a reasonable effort to contact references and former employers, an application form asking about convictions and about prior intentional-tort suits, a driver-license check where relevant, and an interview. Certain care, education and licensed roles are separately required by the statutes governing those industries to run fingerprint-based Level 2 screening, and chapter 435 supplies the standards for that screening rather than imposing the duty. If you use a screening company instead of going to the Department of Law Enforcement yourself, the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act runs the whole process, and its formalities are where employers actually get sued: the disclosure that you may obtain a consumer report must be clear and conspicuous, in writing, and in a document that consists solely of that disclosure, with no waiver, no policy language and nothing else on the page; the applicant must authorize it in writing; and before you take adverse action based on the report you must first give the applicant a copy of the report and a written description of their rights under the Act. A willful violation carries statutory damages of not less than $100 and not more than $1,000 per consumer with no proof of any harm, plus punitive damages and fees, which is why the standalone-disclosure requirement is the standard class-action vehicle in employment screening. A check you request and obtain directly from the Department of Law Enforcement — which is what § 768.096(2) actually requires — is probably outside the Act on the reasoning of a 1998 FTC staff opinion letter, but that letter is non-binding, was addressed to another state's agency, has no Florida authority behind it, and the analysis flips the moment a vendor sits anywhere in the chain. Separately, the EEOC's position under Title VII is that a facially neutral criminal-history screen can still be unlawful through disparate impact, so keep any screen job-related and consistent with business necessity (Fla. Stat. §§ 768.096(1)-(3), 435.01(1)(a), 435.04(1); 15 U.S.C. §§ 1681b(b)(2)(A), 1681b(b)(3)(A), 1681n(a)(1)(A)).

Can I still use non-compete agreements in Florida, and what does the CHOICE Act change?

Yes, and since August 15, 2025 the CHOICE Act makes garden-leave and noncompete agreements of up to four years fully enforceable against a "covered employee" — someone earning, or reasonably expected to earn, a salary greater than twice the annual mean wage of the Florida county where your principal place of business sits, or the county where the employee lives if your principal place of business is outside Florida, excluding licensed health care practitioners; salary for that test means annualized base compensation plus the fair market value of any non-cash benefit, and excludes health benefits, severance, retirement, expense reimbursement, and tips, bonuses or commissions. Two threshold questions decide whether the Act reaches your agreement at all: it applies to an agreement with a covered employee who maintains a primary place of work in Florida, regardless of any choice-of-law provision, or to an agreement with a covered employer whose principal place of business is in Florida that is expressly governed by Florida law — so a Florida employer signing a remote out-of-state worker gets nothing from the Act unless the agreement selects Florida law in terms. A covered employee is also defined as an employee or an individual contractor, so the Act reaches contractors and not only payroll staff. Enforcement is strong but not automatic, and the two instruments do not carry the same defenses: on your application a court must preliminarily enjoin the employee under either one, and may modify or dissolve that injunction only on clear and convincing evidence drawn from nonconfidential information — but for garden leave there are exactly two grounds, that the employee will not perform similar work or use your confidential information or customer relationships during the notice period, or that you failed to pay the promised salary or benefits after a reasonable chance to cure, while a noncompete adds a third, that the new employer is not engaged in a similar business within the area covered by the agreement. Against a garden-leave injunction that third ground belongs to the hiring business rather than to the employee. The Act also lets you obtain a second mandatory injunction against the hiring business itself, often the more valuable remedy, and it shifts attorney's fees in either direction, so an application that fails costs you. The formalities are where employers lose the protection — give the proposed agreement at least seven days before the offer expires, advise the right to seek counsel in writing, obtain the employee's written acknowledgment, provide in the noncompete for a day-for-day reduction for any nonworking portion of a garden-leave notice period, and for garden leave include all four required terms (no services required after the first 90 days of the notice period, nonwork activities permitted during business hours, other employment permitted with your consent, and the notice period shortenable on at least 30 days' written notice). Budget for garden leave before you draft one, because the pay does not stop: a covered garden leave agreement is one in which you agree to retain the employee for the duration of the notice period and to continue paying the same salary and providing the same benefits the employee received in the last month before the notice period began, with 'benefit' defined narrowly as health, life and disability insurance at the same cost to the employee — so a four-year notice period is four years of payroll for someone who need perform no services after the first 90 days, and non-payment after a reasonable chance to cure is one of only two ways the employee can dissolve the injunction. Anything that does not meet the Act's definitions is governed by § 542.335, where a restraint over two years against a former employee is presumed unreasonable — but only if it is not predicated on protecting trade secrets, for which a restraint of five years or less is presumed reasonable (Fla. Stat. §§ 542.43(2)-(3), (5)(c), 542.44(1), (2)(c), (5), 542.45(1), (5), 542.335(1)(d)-(e)).

An employee filed a discrimination charge against my Florida company: what happens now?

Your first deadline is procedural, not legal: the Florida Commission on Human Relations must send you a copy of the complaint within five days of filing, and you may file a verified answer within 25 days of the date the complaint was filed with the commission — calendar that from the filing date stamped on the face of the complaint, not from the day it reached you. The employee had 365 days from the alleged violation to file, a dual filing with the EEOC or a local fair-employment-practice agency counts and the earliest filing date controls, and the commission then has 180 days to determine whether there is reasonable cause; if it finds cause, the employee elects either a civil action or a chapter 120 administrative hearing, and that election is the exclusive procedure. Chapter 2026-116, effective July 1, 2026, tightened the outer deadlines: a civil action must be commenced no later than one year after the earlier of the commission's reasonable-cause determination or the issuance of an EEOC right-to-sue notice, and if neither issues within 180 days after the complaint was filed, no later than 18 months after filing. Preserve the personnel file, payroll records and relevant messages immediately, because back pay can reach two years before the complaint was filed and the $100,000 ceiling applies only to punitive damages — compensatory damages, expressly including damages for mental anguish, loss of dignity and other intangible injuries, are uncapped and are usually the larger number, and the right to trial by jury is preserved. Being under 15 employees puts you outside the Florida Civil Rights Act but not outside discrimination law: 42 U.S.C. § 1981 reaches race and ethnicity claims at any size, with a four-year limitations period and no damages cap, and the federal Equal Pay Act and USERRA carry no employee threshold either. Local law is the other half of it, and it is a pattern rather than a pair of counties — many Florida counties and cities run human-rights ordinances that reach employers well below fifteen and cover classes the state act omits, with Miami-Dade defining "employer" at five or more employees in the county in four or more calendar weeks and Broward at five or more for each working day in twenty or more calendar weeks, and Broward's ordinance expressly reaching political affiliation. Those two are examples rather than the set: thresholds and class lists vary from one jurisdiction to the next, so check the county and the city where the employee actually worked rather than assuming those two are typical (Fla. Stat. § 760.11(1), (3)-(5), (9), as amended by ch. 2026-116, Laws of Fla.; Fla. Stat. § 760.02(7); 42 U.S.C. § 1981; 29 U.S.C. § 206(d); Miami-Dade County Code § 11A-25(2); Broward County Code §§ 16½-3, 16½-33).

How much family or medical leave do I have to give a Florida employee?

Florida has no state family-leave statute, no state paid family leave insurance and no state sick-leave mandate, so the federal FMLA at 50 or more employees is the only job-protected family or medical leave. Keep its two tests apart: the employer is covered at 50 employees within 75 miles, while the individual qualifies only after 12 months of employment and 1,250 hours in the preceding year. Below 50 there is no state substitute. Florida adds exactly one leave of its own, and it is narrower than employers assume: an employer with 50 or more employees must give up to three working days of leave in any 12-month period to an employee who has worked at least three months, where the employee OR a family or household member is the victim of domestic or sexual violence, for purposes the statute lists — seeking an injunction, obtaining medical care or counselling, securing housing, or attending court. It may be paid or unpaid at your discretion, you may require the employee to exhaust other available leave first, and you owe a confidentiality duty over anything you learn. Note the definitional trap: that section borrows employee and employer from chapter 440, so the workers'-compensation exclusions govern both the 50-count and who is eligible. Accommodation is the other track, at 15 or more employees under the Florida Civil Rights Act, where a finite leave can be the reasonable accommodation for a disability — which is how a medical absence becomes owed by an employer well below the FMLA threshold. Everything else is your own policy, and a handbook promise is enforceable on its own terms (FMLA, 29 U.S.C. § 2601; Fla. Stat. § 741.313; Fla. Stat. § 760.10).