Minimum Wage Workers Getting A Raise

December 29, 2012

On January 1,  Florida’s minimum wage will increase 12 cents to $7.79 an hour for the estimated 210,000 minimum wage workers across the state.

Under a 2004 constitutional amendment, Florida’s minimum wage is recalculated every year and is tied to the inflation rate. Florida is among 10 states that will increase the threshold next week. The number of minimum wage jobs is a small percentage of the 7.5 million people employed in the Florida workforce.

The increase is expected to increase annual incomes of minimum wage workers by about $370 a year, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington D.C.-based think tank that focuses on low-income wage issues.

Ninety percent of the low-wage workers are over age 20; 85 percent work 20 hours per week or more; 46 percent have at least some college education, the institute indicated.

Comments

10 Responses to “Minimum Wage Workers Getting A Raise”

  1. David Huie Green on December 30th, 2012 3:08 pm

    REGARDING:
    “All the rich people in the white house can’t decide weather or not to keep us in livable conditions or just let us all just go down to poverty level. ”

    The White House is occupied by the president and those who work for him. He will be out of office in four years and among the rest of us. The decisions you are talking about are made elsewhere by the House of Representatives and the Senate. As such, if your future depends on them, you have pinned your hopes on the wrong body.

    David for less dependence on the undependable

  2. Marie on December 30th, 2012 1:45 pm

    Say goodbye to the 12 cents and then some when we fall off the fiscal cliff. All the rich people in the white house can’t decide weather or not to keep us in livable conditions or just let us all just go down to poverty level. Why should they care they will not have to deal with the problems.

  3. Dixie Chick on December 30th, 2012 11:28 am

    Dang! They will be making more than teacher aides who have to be highly qualified with a 2 yr degree! Might as well flip hamburgers!

  4. Chris C on December 30th, 2012 7:40 am

    A bit more than $.12 for members of the U.S. Congress as Obama Orders Pay Raise For Congress, Federal Workers, Joe Biden

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/28/obama-pay-raise-congress_n_2377714.html

  5. Jane on December 30th, 2012 6:10 am

    The water, sewer, and electricity have gone up much more than that so I am assuming they are not counting utilities in the equation. So how are they calculating this? Just curious.

  6. That's Fantastic on December 29th, 2012 8:49 pm

    So minimum wage workers, who are mostly part time, get a 12c per hour raise.

    Then part time hours get cut down to 26 per week so the bosses who hire part time minimum wage employees can get around the healthcare mandate.

    Yeah, that sure helps.

  7. David Huie Green on December 29th, 2012 5:58 pm

    Since high minimum wage is a wonderful thing, I believe we should raise minimum wage to a hundred dollars per hour and just watch the joy and peace flow out of the vast wealth it would generate.

    David waiting expectantly

  8. Trish on December 29th, 2012 3:29 pm

    It is a no win situation for anyone other than being able to say you got a 12 cents an hour raise. I have not had a raise of any kind in over 5 years so anything would be nice to me. I am happy for them, at least it may help some.

  9. me on December 29th, 2012 1:37 pm

    Pay raises are great, but everytime a pay raise happens, insurance, groceries,rent, utilities, gas etc etc etc goes up so basically the wage earner loses money everytime . Just saying

  10. bmr on December 29th, 2012 1:15 pm

    Would like to see the brainless behind this one try to live off of minimum wage in this economy, and as far as keeping up with inflation, now that is really a kick in the face, they need to try and live off of that and then see how it works for them, guess what they won’t .