Wage theft ordinances have recently become an issue in Florida. While nobody supports wage theft, local ordinances to deal with the issue have the potential to impose costs on Floridians greater than their benefits. Both employees and employers would be better off if Florida dealt with wage theft at the state level, preventing local ordinances and creating a uniform and state-enforced mechanism for dealing with the issue. Compromises in labor market freedom are costly to Florida’s economy. Rough estimates are that Florida’s minimum wage law lowers state employment by about 1.4 percent, and that forcing private employers