Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a bill into law that will allow minor league baseball players to be paid less than the state's minimum wage after the measure passed the legislature.
DeSantis, a Republican, signed the bill known as SB 892 on Monday following the legislation's unanimous approval in the state's Republican-controlled senate, while all but one Democrat in the Florida House opposed the measure.
Florida's governor has officially entered the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and his approach to governing the state is likely to come under increased scrutiny as he campaigns for the White House.
SB 892's passage means that Florida remains in line with a federal exemption to the minimum wage that was approved by Congress when it renewed the the Fair Labor Standards Act in 2018.
At the time, Major League Baseball (MLB) was granted an exemption from the federal minimum wage when it came to playing minor league players.
The act was signed into law by then President Donald Trump, who is currently seen as the frontrunner for the GOP's 2024 presidential nomination and has repeatedly criticized DeSantis.
The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 an hour. However, in 2020 the state of Florida passed a constitutional amendment that raised the state's minimum wage to $10 and hour and raised the rate by $1 per year until 2026, when the state's minimum wage will reach $15 an hour.
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