On the Issues
Workers’ Rights & Stronger Unions
Better Jobs and Fairer Treatment for Workers
Carlos is a champion for working families and he understands that Floridians deserve a real living wage, good benefits like earned sick time and access to affordable medical treatment and lifesaving care. He will always stand up for workers and hold corporations accountable who treat employees unfairly.
Worker's Rights
We will never achieve full equality until every Floridian has the opportunity to earn a fair living wage. Florida’s minimum wage currently stands at a meager $8.56 per hour due to failed leadership in Tallahassee. More than ½ of all black workers and more than 60% of Latino workers make less than $15 per hour.
While Orlando may be the #1 tourist destination, we are dead last in wages. In Orlando, nearly 40% of all workers are paid less than $25,000 annually. This culture of poverty in Central Florida is costing taxpayers big time. The failure of the tourism industry to offer living wages and fair benefits, swells our welfare rolls and overflows our ER rooms — but the top 1% are content to live comfortably off the fruits of their labor.
We can fix this so that Floridians who work 40 hours a week don’t have to live in poverty! Increasing the minimum wage to a statewide living wage will put more money in hard working people’s pockets where they’ll spend it, which grows the economy and creates jobs, while saving taxpayers who won’t be forced to subsidize low wages with food stamps, Medicaid, and low-income housing.
Protecting Outdoor Workers from Heat Illness
As the sunshine state, Florida should be leading the nation in protecting outdoor workers who are at high risk for heat illness. That’s why Carlos introduced bipartisan legislation to protect outdoor workers from intense heat in Florida. All employers should adopt common sense procedures to ensure their workers have access to cool water, shade and short breaks during periods of intense heat. That includes worker and supervisor training on how to identify symptoms of heat stress and how to administer first aid to affected workers on the job.
