HR guides for Florida employers

What makes Florida different

Florida is strongly employer-friendly on termination and unusually prescriptive on hiring — a combination that catches people coming from either direction.

• There is no general wrongful-discharge tort. Florida declines to recognise a broad public-policy exception to at-will employment (DeMarco v. Publix Super Markets, Inc., 384 So. 2d 1253 (Fla. 1980)). Protection comes from specific statutes — the Florida Civil Rights Act, the private Whistleblower Act, workers'-comp anti-retaliation — not the common law.
• E-Verify is mandatory at 25+ employees. Private employers over that threshold must use it (§448.095) — a real obligation that many Florida employers still treat as optional.
• The minimum wage is in the constitution. It is voter-set and indexed, so it moves on a schedule the legislature does not control.
• Domestic-violence leave attaches at 50 employees. Up to three days under §741.313 — separate from, and additional to, FMLA.

Two live points worth knowing: the 2025 CHOICE Act reshaped Florida's non-compete landscape, and the Stop WOKE Act's restrictions on mandatory workplace training (Fla. Stat. § 760.10(8)) are permanently enjoined on First Amendment grounds. The Eleventh Circuit affirmed on March 4, 2024 (Honeyfund.com Inc. v. Governor, 94 F.4th 1272), and on July 26, 2024 the district court converted its preliminary injunction into a permanent one — unopposed by the State — so this is settled, not a provisional posture. Florida employers may run DEI training. Florida has no state mini-WARN Act.