Florida law is federal-simple on hours but unusually sharp on wages: a constitutional minimum wage on a published escalator, and a private right of action that doubles what you owe. CDO's engine is built to California's standard — the strictest in the country — so in Florida it runs with headroom: GPS-verified punches, live break and overtime math on Florida's actual rules, bilingual EN/ES crews, and the minute-level record that decides wage disputes.
Florida adds little to federal hours law: overtime only past 40 hours a week and no required breaks for adults. Its minimum wage is $15.00 since September 30, 2026, and an underpaid worker can sue directly for the unpaid wages, an equal amount in liquidated damages unless the employer proves good faith, and attorney’s fees.
Florida sets no daily overtime, no meal breaks, and no rest breaks for adult workers. Hours are governed by the federal FLSA — 1.5× the regular rate past 40 in a workweek. Minors have their own break rules (Fla. Stat. §450.081), but adults have no statutory break entitlement at all. Florida also has no state heat-illness standard for outdoor workers, and since HB 433 took effect on July 1, 2024, local governments are barred from imposing their own heat requirements — which ended Miami-Dade’s proposed construction heat ordinance before it began.
Where Florida is not permissive is the wage itself. The minimum wage is set in the state constitution on a published escalator: $15.00 an hour since September 30, 2026, and indexed to inflation after that, with the first adjusted rate taking effect January 1, 2028. More importantly, Florida’s minimum-wage law carries a direct private right of action with liquidated (double) damages plus attorney’s fees — the doubling is avoided only if the employer proves good faith — requiring only a 15-day notice to cure and no agency filing first. An underpayment that would be a routine correction elsewhere is a doubled judgment here.
| Rule | Florida | For contrast: California |
|---|---|---|
| Overtime | Weekly only — 1.5× past 40 hrs (federal FLSA) | Daily past 8, double time past 12, 7th-day rules |
| Meal breaks | Not required for adults; minors have separate rules | Before end of hour 5; second before hour 10 |
| Rest breaks | Not required by state law | Paid 10 min per 4 hours, duty-free |
| Heat rules | No state standard — and a 2024 law preempts local mandates | Cal/OSHA §3395 — shade, water, cool-downs |
| Minimum wage | $15.00 since Sep 30, 2026; CPI-indexed from Jan 1, 2028 | State rate plus many higher local rates |
Summary as of October 2026 — rules move; verify current requirements with the Florida labor department and qualified counsel. The California column is there for scale, not because it applies to you: it's the regime CDO's engine was built to, which is why Florida's rules run inside it with room to spare.
On hours, Florida is federal-simple: overtime past 40 in a workweek, no daily overtime, no double time, and no state-mandated meal or rest breaks for adults. (A vestigial 1920s provision, Fla. Stat. §448.01, describes a ten-hour legal workday for manual labor, but its own carve-out for FLSA-covered employers renders it inapplicable to essentially every modern contractor.) Minors have their own rules (Fla. Stat. §450.081): those 15 and under need a 30-minute meal period after four continuous hours, and 16- and 17-year-olds when they work eight or more hours in a day.
The wage side is where Florida bites. The minimum wage sits in the state constitution (Art. X, §24) on a voter-approved escalator: $15.00 an hour since September 30, 2026, then inflation indexing, with the first adjusted rate taking effect January 1, 2028. Contractors bidding multi-year work should price the yearly adjustment, not discover it.
And the enforcement mechanism is unusually direct. Fla. Stat. §448.110 gives an underpaid worker a private right of action with liquidated damages equal to the unpaid amount — a doubling, unless the employer proves good faith — plus attorney’s fees, after only a 15-day notice to cure. There is no requirement to go through a state agency first. This is why Florida wage claims escalate fast: the plaintiff’s side starts with a fee-shifting statute and a presumptive doubling multiplier.
On heat, Florida moved deliberately in the other direction. HB 433, codified at Fla. Stat. §448.106 and effective July 1, 2024, prohibits local governments from requiring heat-exposure protections beyond state or federal law for private employers — killing Miami-Dade’s pending ordinance. No state standard replaced it. Outdoor crews in one of the hottest, most humid construction markets in the country are therefore covered by federal OSHA’s General Duty Clause and its 2026–2031 Heat National Emphasis Program, and nothing more prescriptive.
For a Florida roofing or field-services company, that combination points at one conclusion: your exposure lives in pay accuracy and hour records, not break penalties. Regular-rate errors, unpaid travel between sites, and rounding drift are what get doubled. CDO pays to the minute, never rounding down, and keeps a GPS-verified trail per punch; regular-rate math on nondiscretionary bonuses is the part to confirm with your payroll provider.
Florida’s minimum-wage statute isn’t just a rate — it’s a fee-shifting, damage-doubling private cause of action that a worker can file after a 15-day notice without ever contacting a state agency. Contractors treat a small underpayment as a payroll correction; under §448.110 it is the unpaid wages, an equal amount again in liquidated damages (unless you prove good faith), and the other side’s attorney’s fees. Combined with a minimum wage that now moves with inflation, a stale pay rate in your payroll system is a compounding liability, not a clerical error.
Wherever the rules land on the strictness scale, the constant is the same: disputes are decided by records. CDO's GPS-verified, minute-level, bilingual punch trail — reviewed by AI, with exceptions surfaced for human judgment — is the record that wins them. See why teams pick CDO
Fla. Stat. §448.106 takes effect, barring local governments from mandating heat protections for private employers beyond state or federal law. Miami-Dade’s proposed construction heat ordinance dies with it.
The second-to-last step of the constitutional escalator. Contracts priced at this rate had to carry the September 2026 step.
The final scheduled increase under the 2020 constitutional amendment. After this, the rate is indexed to inflation rather than raised by fixed steps; the first adjusted rate takes effect January 1, 2028.
The amendment calculates the first CPI-W adjustment on September 30, 2027, and the new rate takes effect January 1, 2028.
With state and local heat rules off the table in Florida, OSHA’s federal rulemaking is the only path to a prescriptive standard. It was proposed in August 2024 and not final as of October 2026; agenda targets point to late 2027 at the earliest.
Dated items reflect what was publicly on the books or scheduled as of October 3, 2026. Effective dates slip and rules get amended — confirm current status before you rely on any of this.
Overtime: Weekly only — 1.5× past 40 hrs (federal FLSA). Meals: Not required by state law.
See Texas rules Neighboring stateOvertime: Weekly only — 1.5× past 40 hrs (federal FLSA). Meals: Not required by state law.
See Arizona rules California guideDaily overtime, double time and the seventh-day rule — the benchmark the engine is built to.
Read the guide California guideThe fifth-hour meal window, the §226.7 premium, and waivers.
Read the guide CalculatorRun a shift against California overtime and double-time rules.
Open the calculator CalculatorTest a day against the §512 window and the premium it can owe.
Open the calculatorNot for adults. Florida has no statutory meal or rest break requirement for workers 18 and over. Minors have their own rules (Fla. Stat. §450.081): those 15 and under need a 30-minute meal period after four continuous hours, and 16- and 17-year-olds when they work eight or more hours in a day. Under federal rules, any break you do provide that runs under 20 minutes must be paid.
$15.00 per hour since September 30, 2026, the last fixed step under the constitutional amendment voters approved in 2020. After that, the rate is indexed to inflation; the first adjusted rate takes effect January 1, 2028. Because the schedule is constitutional rather than legislative, it does not depend on any further action to take effect.
No. HB 433, codified at Fla. Stat. §448.106 and effective July 1, 2024, prohibits local governments from imposing heat-exposure requirements on private employers beyond what state or federal law requires. Miami-Dade’s proposed construction heat ordinance was blocked by it, and Florida has no state heat standard of its own. Federal OSHA’s General Duty Clause and its Heat National Emphasis Program still apply.
Weekly only, under the federal FLSA: 1.5× the regular rate past 40 hours in a workweek. Florida has no daily overtime and no double-time requirement. The commonly cited Fla. Stat. §448.01 "ten-hour workday" is a 1920s provision whose own FLSA exception makes it inapplicable to essentially all modern employers.
Because Fla. Stat. §448.110 gives workers a direct private right of action with liquidated damages — effectively doubling the unpaid amount unless the employer shows good faith — plus attorney’s fees, after only a 15-day notice to cure and with no requirement to file with a state agency first. A modest underpayment carries a doubling multiplier and a fee-shifting provision from the outset, which is exactly the structure that attracts plaintiff-side filings.
CDO is in a pilot with one California roofing contractor. Florida exposure concentrates in pay accuracy rather than break penalties, which is what the product is built around: pay to the minute and never rounded down, GPS-verified clock-ins, compensable travel between sites kept on the record, and heat-recovery prompts even though Florida does not mandate them. Confirm how bonuses enter the regular rate with your payroll provider.
GPS-verified clock-ins, breaks and overtime computed live, and the exceptions that need a human — shown on a working crew in 20 minutes.
CDO is in a pilot with one California roofing contractor. Software, not legal advice.