Emerald’s Gem Box…

Florida signed a death warrant for small businesses

A death warrant for small businesses was signed with the approval of Florida Amendment 2 on last week’s ballot.
Amendment 2 (Raising Florida’s Minimum Wage) received 60.8% of the vote, narrowly securing the 60% majority required to amend the state’s constitution.
Florida is now only the eighth state to adopt a $15 minimum wage.
Currently, Florida’s minimum wage is $8.56 per hour. Now, with the passage of this amendment, wages will increase the minimum wage to $10 an hour on Sept. 30, 2021, and then increase it by $1 each year until Sept. 30, 2026, when it will be $15 per hour.
For workers who receive tips, the minimum wage is currently $5.54 per hour, plus tips. That will increase to $5.63 per hour on Jan. 1, 2021 and to $6.98 per hour on Sept. 30, 2021, increasing along with the full wage rate until it hits $11.98 per hour plus tips, in 2026.
Demographically speaking, it is factual to say that Floridians who live in large counties passed the increase, despite strong opposition from smaller counties. In fact, only 10 of Florida’s 67 counties reached the 60 percent threshold required to pass a constitutional amendment. The statewide vote tally was 6.4 million in favor vs. 4.1 million opposed.
According to Tampabay.com’s Florida interactive map, North Florida counties, minus five counties, all had majority (over 50%) votes of “no” on the amendment. However, Central Florida and South Florida, minus seven counties, all voted “yes” by the majority vote (over 50%.) In fact, Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Osceola, and Orange counties all had at least 70 percent of voters support the amendment. That’s nearly 2.5 million “yes” votes from just five counties.
The four counties most opposed… Baker (70% opposed), Lafayette (67% opposed), Gilchrist (67% opposed) and Calhoun (65% opposed.) But that translates to only 22,602 “no” votes. Expand the comparison to the 20 counties most opposed, and the “no” vote tally rises to only 207,000.
So, what happened was … a handful of densely populated big cities outvoted the majority of sparsely populated rural towns.
But the outcome is the same; thousands of businesses in the state will suffer because of Amendment 2.
A statewide $15 minimum wage is a blow to Florida’s small businesses. It mandates the same minimum wage for every job, regardless of experience or skill level. Most importantly, it discriminates against the size of the business. Even a “small business” in Miami or West Palm Beach is MUCH DIFFERENT than a small business in Madison, Monticello, Live Oak, Jasper or Mayo.
When you raise the minimum wage that much in these small rural counties several things can happen: businesses will not be able to maintain and thus will be forced to go out of business, or the small business will have to raise prices to compensate for having a bigger payroll expense (thus making prices too high for anyone to want to shop there; which will ultimately lead to having to go out of business for lack of income); or businesses will cut their staff to bare minimum in order to be able to “afford” to pay $15 an hour (thus many people will lose jobs.)
Any way you slice it…this is going to crush small businesses. The Florida Chamber of Commerce has reported the wage hike could cost the state up to 500,000 jobs.
Even though the majority of counties in North Florida were against the pay hike, THOUSANDS of people did vote “yes.” I could only presume that these “yes” voters are non-business owners and they might not truly understand the impact this will reap.
Next year the minimum wage will be $10 and then will continue to rise. Each year that it rises, to eventually be $15, the job market (business owners) will expect more for their money. Meaning, if a business owner has to pay someone $13 an hour or $15 an hour – they better be dang worth it. Either they won’t be hired or they will be let go, in order to help pay for the person that does know how to do the job better!
No skill levels? No knowledge in that particular business industry? No job experience? All of that will equal NO JOB!
This much of a pay hike will force people out of the job market that have low skill levels. This will make it almost impossible to get people into the workforce, including young people that are out searching for their first job. No first job equals no training and no experience in order to move forward. There will not be many businesses that will be willing to pay $15 an hour to train someone who has zero experience or has never worked in that capacity before. This will also hurt the people at the poverty level that are trying to find jobs because fewer businesses will be hiring.
An analysis by The Congressional Budget Office showed that for every person that will get out of poverty because they began to make $15 an hour - up to three other people will lose their job.
THAT’S A PRETTY BAD TRADE OFF!
So, make sure to support your local businesses now – for they desperately need your help coming out of the COVID business shut-down nightmare we’ve all been through; and I promise you – they are ALL wondering if they will be alive and thriving in another two-five years (especially with this new wage hike!)
And as a consumer, you better enjoy those dollar menu items and low prices now; for again…I promise you, in a few years it will all be gone, in order to pay for the $15 entry-level employees.