...On April 11, 2024, Governor DeSantis signed House Bill 433 into law, set to go into effect on July 1, 2024. Among other actions, the legislation prevents city and county governments from requiring that employers, including government contractors, provide heat protections for outdoor workers outside of those required under state or federal law. These protections include requiring water breaks and other cooling measures for outdoor workers. The law also bans local governments from giving preference to employers based on their heat exposure policies. In response to the legislation, county commissioners in Miami-Dade withdrew their pending proposal to provide heat protections standards to outdoor workers in the county. Florida is the second state after Texas to enact a policy that prevents local ordinances from mandating certain heat protections, including water breaks…

In Florida, Hispanic and noncitizen immigrant workers make up disproportionate shares of outdoor workers who will be impacted by the law. Hispanic workers make up 40% of the nonelderly adult outdoor workforce compared with 30% of the total nonelderly adult workforce, and noncitizen immigrants make up nearly twice the share of outdoor workers compared to their share of the workforce…