Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
Florida’s minimum wage will automatically increase at the end of this month, thanks to a constitutional amendment that voters approved last November.
Come September 30, the state’s new minimum wage will be $10 per hour for hourly employees and $6.98 plus tips for tipped employees such as waitresses, bartenders and others who earn more in tips than in hourly wages.
Amendment 2, which Florida voters approved in November 2020, amended the state constitution to gradually increase the state’s minimum wage to $15 hourly by 2026, after which year the wage will be adjusted annually for inflation, as it has ever since 2004.
The minimum wage went up to $8.65 hourly on Jan. 1, 2021, from $8.56 hourly the previous year. And after Sept. 30, per the amendment, the minimum wage is set to go up dollar each Sept. 30 thereafter for five years. So that it will be $11 in 2022, $12 in 2023, $13 in 2024, $14 in 2025, and $15 in 2026.
Employers in both the public and private sectors are required to pay the minimum wage rate, regardless of the size of the company or the number of its employees.
For tipped employees, who currently earn $5.63 hourly plus tips, the increases on Sept. 30 are as follow: $6.98 hourly plus tip in 2021; $7.98 hourly plus tips in 2022; $8.98 hourly plus tips in 2023; $9.98 hourly plus tips in 2024; $10.98 hourly plus tips in 2025; and $11.98 hourly plus tips in 2026.
Employers must comply with the law and can’t retaliate against employees who exercise their right to receive the minimum wage. The law allows an employee to bring civil suit in court against an employer to recover back wages plus damages and attorney’s fees if the employer fails to correct the problem after 15 days upon notification.
An employer who is found liable for intentionally violating the minimum wage requirements is subject to a fine of $1,000 per violation, payable to the state.
Florida is the eighth state in the country, and the first in the South, to raise its minimum wage to $15. The other states that have the $15 per hour minimum wage are California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York. Florida is the first state to raise the minimum wage as high as $15 hourly by citizens initiated ballot rather by lawmakers.
Florida’s minimum wage hike is expected to affect 2.5 million workers in the state, according to estimates from the Florida Pay Institute, a self-described “independent, nonpartisan and nonprofit organization that is dedicated to advancing policies and budgets that improve the economic mobility and quality of life for all Floridians.”