Getting ready to hire employees in Florida? When you’re building it, don’t forget the Florida employee handbook requirements, where you’ll need to include certain federal and state laws—then choose from over 50 optional policies, as needed.
Employee handbooks are a good way to describe your company policies, including mandated state and federal policies. It also provides a framework for employee expectations, conflict resolution or more. Whether you’re hiring remotely, or all your workers are located in Florida, your state-specific handbook needs to cover all the bases. Not only does this protect your employees’ rights, but it ensures that you’re compliant whenever a conflict may arise.
“Florida approaches employment law with a special eye towards burdens that they place on small employers,” said Connor Christensen, Legal Product Counsel at SixFifty. “But no matter the size of your business, you’ll need to pay special attention to stay on top of changes in the law.”
Researching state-specific employment laws, creating your handbook, and keeping it updated is a monumental task. Plus, if you’re hiring remote workers, you’ll need to do this for each state in which you hire. That can be time consuming and expensive, especially if you don’t have your own legal team.
SixFifty makes it easy to create and update employee handbooks in all 50 states. Read on to learn about required and optional Florida employee handbook policies—then find out how we can do the heavy lifting for you.
Required Federal Employee Handbook Policies (Updated 2026)
Federal law supersedes state law. Each of the required policies must be included in all employee handbooks, no matter in which state you’re hiring. These policies cover critical worker rights, such as certain types of leave, sexual harassment policies and anti-discrimination policies.
That’s the easy part: since they’re the same across all 50 states, it’s easy to include them in all of your state-specific employee handbooks. Keep in mind that whenever there’s a change to federal employment law, you’ll need to make the appropriate changes in all of your state employee handbooks.
Each of the following policies must be included in your employee handbook:
- Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) (15+ Employees)
- Employment and Anti-Discrimination Policy
- Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Policy (50 Employees)
- Jury Duty Leave
- Military Service Leave
- Sexual Harassment Policy
- Lactation Accommodation Policy
- Religious Accommodations Policy
Required Florida Employee Handbook Policies (Updated 2026)
In addition to the five required federal policies, Florida also has six required state employee handbook policies. You might notice that both federal and state policies include a jury duty policy: while federal law supersedes state law, states are allowed to create additional rules, requirements, rights, and obligations on behalf of their citizens.
The state also makes provisions for meal and rest breaks for minors, voting policies and certain types of leave. Even if these policies don’t currently apply to your employees—for example, if your company doesn’t hire minors—you must include them and keep them updated.
Florida employee handbooks must include these additional state policies:
- Civil Air Patrol Leave (15 Employees)
- Domestic Violence Leave (50 Employees)
- Equal Employment Opportunity
- Immigration Law Compliance (25 Employees)
- Jury Duty Leave
- Meal and Rest Breaks (minors only)
- Voting Policy
- Whistleblower
- Witness Duty Leave
“Not all of Florida’s employment laws have employee thresholds; all employers need to provide their Florida employees with unpaid leave to serve jury duty and to respond to a subpoena to testify in court,” said Christensen.
Optional Florida Employee Handbook Policies
The 11 policies above are required in every Florida employee handbook. However, you may wish to include additional policies as necessary.
Not all of these policies will fit every business—you should pick and choose the optional policies that make sense for your company model and specific challenges. Most companies will include dress codes, at-will employment policies, holiday policies, and wage policies.
Other policies should be added as needed. For instance, if your employees drive as part of their job duties, you may want to include policies that address drug and alcohol abuse and using electronic devices while driving. Other companies might want to address telecommuting, videoconferencing and whether employees are entitled to use the premises when off-duty.
Here are over 50 Florida state-specific optional employee handbook policies:
- Affinity Group Policy
- Anti-Bribery and Anti-Corruption Policy
- Arbitration Policy
- At-Will Employment Policy
- Background Check Policy
- COBRA Policy
- Cell Phone Policy
- Code of Conduct Policy
- Business Expense Policy
- Company Property Policy
- Confidentiality and Trade Secrets Policy
- Desk Hoteling Policy
- Direct Deposit Policy
- Dress Code Policy
- Drug and Alcohol Abuse Policy
- Electronic Devices While Driving Policy
- Employee Benefits Policy
- Employee Classification Policy
- Employee Dating Policy
- Employee References Policy
- Employment of Relatives Policy
- Exit Interview Policy
- Gifts Policy
- Health and Safety Policy
- Home Office Reimbursement Policy
- Job Duties Policy
- Key or Access Card Policy
- Holidays
- Immigration Law Compliance
- Leave Policies, including: Paid Sick Leave; Parental Leave; Bereavement Leave; Organ, Bone Marrow, and Blood Donor Leave; Crime Victim Leave; Activity Leave
- Cannabis Policy
- Off-Duty Use of Facilities
- Outside Employment Policy
- Overtime Policy
- Payment of Wages Policy
- Payroll Deductions Policy
- Performance Review Policy
- Personnel Files Policy
- Pets in the Workplace Policy
- Progressive Discipline Policy
- Public Relations Policy
- Punctuality and Attendance Policy
- Record Retention Policy
- Remote Working Policy
- Salary Pay Policy
- Smoking Policy
- Social Media Policy
- Solicitation and Distribution of Literature Policy
- Technology Systems Policy
- Temporary Relocation Policy
- Timekeeping Policy
- Vacation/Paid Time Off
- Video Conferencing Policy
- Weapons in the Workplace
- Workers’ Compensation Policy
- Workplace Violence Policy
- Workplace Visitor Policy
- Workweek and Work Schedules Policy
SixFifty Helps Employers Meet Florida Employee Handbook Requirements
Staying on top of these policies can be a full-time job in and of itself. Not to worry: SixFifty wants to make it easier for you.
We’ve combined the convenience of automation with real legal expertise from some of the nation’s top lawyers. With our proprietary legal technology, you can automatically generate and update your Florida employee handbook in just a few clicks with our employee handbook tools.
SixFifty’s tools save you both time and potentially thousands of dollars in billable hours. Just answer a few questions about your company and download the generated handbook—we’ll let you know when state or federal laws change, and your company will stay protected in all 50 states.
Want to see how it works? Schedule a free demo with SixFifty today! Looking to create an employee handbook for a different state than Florida? View our interactive map for required employee handbook policies by state.
See how it works
In just 2 minutes, create an employee handbook or state addenda with required and optional state-specific policies.
