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Push Underway To Raise Florida’s Minimum Wage To $15 An Hour
January 23, 2019
After spearheading efforts to pass a 2016 constitutional amendment that broadly legalized medical marijuana, Orlando attorney John Morgan said Tuesday he is moving ahead with a ballot drive aimed at gradually raising Florida’s minimum wage to $15 an hour.
Morgan said a group he leads has collected more than 120,000 petition signatures, far more than needed to trigger a Florida Supreme Court review of the proposed ballot wording. If the court approves the wording, backers of the proposal would ultimately need to submit 766,200 valid petition signatures to take the issue to voters in November 2020.
Morgan, the head of the firm Morgan & Morgan, said increasing the minimum wage would give people the right to “work with dignity” as he pointed to vast income inequality.
“Our belief is the single greatest issue for America and Florida today is a living wage,” he said during a news conference in Orlando.
But as in other parts of the country that have considered a $15 minimum wage, Morgan likely will run into opposition from business groups if the proposal goes on the 2020 ballot. The Florida Retail Federation and the Florida Chamber of Commerce, for example, said they do not favor placing such a mandate on businesses.
James Miller, a spokesman of the Florida Retail Federation, said a higher minimum wage could lead to “difficult decisions” for business owners, including the possibility of reducing jobs.
“Businesses, focusing mainly on small businesses which make up around 95 percent of our membership, only have a finite amount of money they can allocate to salaries and still make a profit,” Miller said in an email Tuesday. “By forcing a retailer to pay an employee(s) more, you’re going to force that retailer to do one of two things to protect their bottom line, either pay the increased wages and pass those increased costs onto customers in the form of higher prices or pay select employees that wage and let others go altogether.”
Morgan last year formed a political committee, known as Florida for a Fair Wage, which had received about $478,000 from his law firm as of Dec. 31, finance reports show. The committee had spent nearly $476,000, with almost all of that money going to petition-related expenses.
Under the proposal, the state’s minimum wage would go to $10 an hour on Sept. 30, 2021 and increase by $1 each year until it hits $15 an hour on Sept. 30, 2026. The state’s minimum wage this year is $8.46 an hour.
“I think in the quiet of the night, fair people go, ‘There’s no way to live on $8 an hour,’ ” Morgan said.
Florida voters in 2004 approved a constitutional amendment that increases the minimum wage each year based on inflation. By comparison, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.
But the Morgan proposal would go much further. The state Division of Elections website Tuesday did not list any petition signatures submitted by Florida for a Fair Wage, but Morgan said signatures will be mailed this week. A Supreme Court review is triggered by submission of 76,632 valid signatures.
During the news conference Tuesday, Morgan noted his experience with passing the medical-marijuana amendment, which narrowly failed in 2014 before getting overwhelming approval in 2016. He said it is better to propose such measures in presidential-election years, instead of in off-year elections.
“The good news is, I understand how to do this,” Morgan said.
Morgan said phasing in the higher minimum wage will help small businesses adjust, but he also said larger paychecks will help businesses retain employees longer. But business groups do not want employers to be required to pay higher wages.
“Nothing is more important to Florida’s business community than economic prosperity for all Floridians,” Edie Ousley, a spokeswoman for the Florida Chamber of Commerce, said in an email Tuesday. “Rather than adding another new mandate on local businesses, we should come together to ensure there’s a universal path to prosperity through job training that creates $50,000 careers for the less than 4 percent of Floridians earning a minimum wage full time.”
by Jim Saunders, The News Service of Florida
Comments
45 Responses to “Push Underway To Raise Florida’s Minimum Wage To $15 An Hour”
There are so many opportunities for post high education. Government grants, military benefits and school grants are readily available if you are willing to work hard for them and earn them. College educations aren’t for most people and will not guarantee a well paying job. We need skilled employees instead and you will make a livable salary. I am so tired of people complaining about that that can’t take care of their families on the monies that they make working at fast food restaurants. If you have been forced to work at a similar job to survive then you have probably made some bad life choices. No one forced you to have unprotected sex, use drugs or to collect a felony charge! No sympathy here because I have been at the bottom and still managed to rise above the minimum wage jobs!
Washington State or Oregon did this. Lots of layoffs.
How much is a dollar worth? Is it worth a seventh of an hour’s unskilled labor? Is it worth a fifteenth of an hour’s unskilled labor? Is it worth a thousandth of an hour’s unskilled labor?
How much is “a living wage?” Is it enough for one person working forty hours per week to remain alive. Is it enough
for one person working ten hours per week to keep a family of ten in comfort? Is it somewhere in between?
Does any of it change and if so, how?
David for a good safety net
Here is my thought on the matter, “Working at McDonald’s, Hardees, any fast food restaurant was never meant to support a family”! These are starter jobs for High School students. They were meant to put a little extra money in a teenagers pocket while teaching the value of a dollar and a good work ethic. Now these jobs have become a way of life for those that don’t want to strive for anything better.
Come on people lets get real about this, no one wants to pay $10.00 for a burger!
Get ready for local inflation! Business’ will shut down!
I work for the county and get paid around $13 and hour. I have a bachelor’s degree and two associate degrees. So, the entry level person working at the McDonald’s is going to get paid $15 an hour vs someone who’s been in the workforce for years and has education behind them?
This is not an amendment issue, but a legislative one. It has no business being proposed as an amendment. Have we reached a point where to change things we just propose a constitutional amendments? If so, what purpose does the legislative bodies serve any longer.
I have many friends who either own or manage fast food restaurants, and here’s what they say and what I’ve actually got to hear for myself. Employees that work part time refuse full time because it will affect their benefits they receive. More hours equals more money and a chance for overtime but they refuse it all. So if wages go up exspect to see hours work decline due to them refusing to work and wanting to maintain their benefits. I think that if an employee who receives benefits we all pay is offered full time or over time they should be reported to agencies that are providing these benefits. There is so much scamming going on it is literally bankrupting America. When driving through Century apartment complex’s take a look at all the Alabama tags , ever wonder why. Because they receive benefits in Florida and say they don’t own a car which would be considered an asset and reduce benefits. Florida dose not check in Alabama. I was at an apartment they other day where the tenant was living there free of rent and receives $150 utilities check, but drives a brand new car and owns several pair of high end shoes plus gambles often in Atmore.So until politicians and law makers fix things like this I don’t want to hear sad stories about what they think their entitled too, except get out and work hard as you can and sacrifice like everyone else.
If I had a business I would shut it down and I will vote against it in November
Wage scale, it ascends from the bottom. If you market widely abundant capabilities and accreditations, you can expect less. If you market rare skills and possess the accreditations pertaining to those skills, you can expect more.
Morgan and Morgan?
No one should expect to make a living wage when starting a minimum skill job. Workers become managers through hard work and deserve to be paid more.You are not forced to work at this job.Raise the minimum wage to push more people towards the poverty level.Better raise them taxes also. Firefighters worth $15.01..Fry guy $15.00.
This is a bad idea.
It will jack the Consumer Price Index, cause price increases for consumer goods and services, it will help those at the bottom little and make life more expensive for the rest of us. Heck, I am toward the bottom myself, I want an increase in military retirement, to offset the cost of that $15.00 minimum wage.
If you need more money, seek education/training for the good jobs, that we do not have qualified people to fill, having to recruit educated foreign nationals in some cases.
@ plain country & @ lawyer
Think you two are correct….lawyers be more respectable @$15 per hour
and seems when get around Tallahassee and south the crazy’s become
more plentiful.
“I understand the concept of paying people a living wage and would like to do it but it’s just not possible”
Do you pay yourself a living wage?
If YES, then it IS possible.
If NO, why are you doing what you are doing?
Well…..there goes the small businesses. Wal-Mart, Fex Ex and Target were a few of the larger corporations that put the recently passed corporate tax cut to use by increasing starting pay for their employees. A corporate tax cut that you can thank President Trump for. However, larger corporations can afford these changes due to the tax cut. Not so much for the smaller, locally owned businesses. Without the tax cut, the larger corporations would have just passed the minimum wage increase down to its customers by raising the price of goods. There in turn, just wiped away that pay raise you just got because now your paying more for your goods and services. This country is going to crap and fast. Way too many liberal socialist trying to run this country in the ground.
I believe that bunch in central and South Florida has lost their mind!!!!
I propose a Florida maximum lawyer fee of $15/hour because no one should have to pay more than this dignified rate.
Yes wages need to increase. Take a look how much the ceo’s pay increased over the years ever since ronnies “trickle down” economy.
I had morgan and morgan on my phone contacts list if I ever needed legal help.
Today, I deleted it. I cannot support his way of thinking.
If getting an education was that easy or cheap everyone would do it. Not everyone can afford to go to school, especially when they’re already trying their best to support their families. College is ridiculously expensive and the vast majority of degrees don’t allow you to get jobs that pay enough to be prosperous. I went to trade school after high school and could’ve been making plenty of money by now had the school not priced me out of my course. Tuition kept going up to the point where I couldn’t afford to pay it anymore. But the guidelines for financial aid didn’t change at all and I did not qualify for assistance. After two years of school and only 6 months left to complete, I was forced to quit and give up the dream that I had. This happens to people all the time who had the intentions to better themselves. My of you probably never had to
face that scenario and don’t know what it’s like to be basically denied a better life just because you didn’t have the money to start with. While I don’t think everyone deserves $15 an hour, I believe that businesses should be required to evaluate their employees on a regular basis and give raises accordingly. Business owners don’t care about their employees whether they’re small or large. The only concern is your bottom line because you know that if an employee quits due to not being paid well enough there’s a thousand more desperate people waiting to take their place just to try to survive. I started a previous job with no experience doing a skilled trade, learned everything I could and was running my shop in 6 months. I was always told that everything needed to be done better and faster but was never given anything for the experience I had gained or the ever increasing quality of work I produced. After 3 years of my coworkers and myself asking for a raise we were finally told that we weren’t getting one and to stop asking. That is the way business owners are allowed to treat their employees and THAT is what needs to change. If you as employers can’t afford to give raises to employees that have earned them, your business is obviously failing or you’re just too greedy and don’t care about anything other than the almighty dollar. If you had to go work a demeaning job just to support your family you would be singing a different tune.
to me morgan has his own agenda and it is not to help us but to bring us down. this is a bad idea.
What about cost of living raise for the rest of us????? Some of us have worked for years and gone to college to make $15.00 per hour. Will there be a cost of living raise for the rest of us to offset the raise in minimum wage??
Is this a joke? If you want $15 an hour, how about you work for it. Get an education, build your resume’, etc. So tired of people wanting handouts because they “deserve” it. Nobody owes you anything. If you cannot afford your rent, bills, etc. maybe you need to reevaluate your life choices, work more, cut back on unnecessary luxuries, etc. Socialism does not work!!! How are small businesses just scraping by going to be able to afford this? If you are 30 and working at Wendy’s due to poor life choices, you do not “deserve” $15 and hour….you deserve a swift kick in the rear to jumpstart some change in your life!!!
as a small business owner I don’t forsee how I can afford to pay someone $15 for a basic skill job. I understand the concept of paying people a living wage and would like to do it but it’s just not possible. This will further kill small businesses. Not to mention it will further drive manufacturing jobs overseas.
If this passes, which I’d say the odds are 50/50, you can count on part time jobs skyrocketing in FL. One would think that the Lawyer pushing for “dignity” would know better than to push an undignified bill like this. Poverty isn’t solved by pushing small businesses out of business. This is a bad idea, and all the power knows it.
Towns in Alabama and Georgia on the Florida border will see a mass exodus of workers.
AL & GA current min wage $7.25
FL current min wage $8.46
But $15 per hour? Work in say Atmore for $7.25 or Cantonment for $15? (Plus AL has state income tax) NO brainer. All low wage workers along the border in Alabama will quit and find jobs in Florida.
How about the people on fixed income? Is social security going to go up 100% ?????
This means the power, water, and gas are going up also. Because the ones making 15.00 an hour now want to make 30.00.
If an EMPLOYEE can’t produce to the EMPLOYER the equivalent of
their pay then why have them ? $600 per week ? Prolly cost the
Employer close to $700 after all tax match etc.
The ones that are really suffering are the ones on disability and social. They can’t afford to live off of what they get right now, so just imagine if the cost of living goes up and their checks stay the same? You will see more 80 year olds trying not to lose everything they have worked for.
>Under the proposal, the state’s minimum wage would go to $10 an hour on Sept. 30, 2021 and increase by $1 each year until it hits $15 an hour on Sept. 30, 2026. The state’s minimum wage this year is $8.46 an hour.<
I think some people are overlooking this part. The $15 an hour wouldn’t even start until almost 2027. No telling how much housing costs will be by then
And for the people saying “minimum wage wasn’t meant to be a living wage”, well yeah, when it was created it wasn’t, but times have changed. Our population has gotten so high now that there aren’t enough higher paying skilled jobs to go around for everyone. If every American went to college and got a degree about half would be useless since they’re won’t be enough jobs.
Raise the minimum wage, and you also raise the unemployment rate, so people will go from making 8$ an hour to nothing. The cost of living goes up and the quality of life goes down.
This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard yet. A kid who plays in the back of Burger King and says Ya Want fries too? Deserves $15 an he??? Really??? I don’t think so!! We all understand our economy stinks and this move towards more socialism will only serve to hurt us further. Just go ahead and prepare for the fall of the US Dollar!!
What I don’t understand, is why they cannot pass something that says what a minimum wage can be charged for. I understand that minimum wage jobs are suppose to be for unskilled and entry level positions. They primarily help youths and young adults get their feet under them in the job market. However, business models will build around a minimum wage based employee grid.
So instead of requiring minimum wage to be raised, how about putting a limit on the time a business can pay someone minimum wage. If you hire them at minimum wage, they must be re-evaluated in 90 days to determine if they elevate to the “next skill set”. Allow 1-90 day extension to allow additional training. If they cannot qualify for next pay level, they are fired or the business must increase their pay.
The problem is not the minimum wage, the problem is business failing to elevate personnel as their skills and learned job duties increase. They build their profit margin off the sweat and advancement of these employees, without rewarding them for becoming more profitable for the business. If a new McDonald employee takes 5 minutes to take and order and collect the funds, an employee that has worked for 6 months may take the same order in 2 minutes. Increase in productivity, increase in sales, increase in bottom line. Same costs for the burger, but now the employee can sell more of them. McDonalds should be required to pay more to the more productive employee, period. By allowing business to hire and keep people at a minimum wage rate, or barely above it, is detrimental to that person’s progression in the market. It is more expensive for McDonald’s to train new employees than it would be to provide raises.
Realistically at some point an employee will cap out for what McDonald’s can pay as wages for non management. At that point the employee should decide if they want to stagnate at the current pay rate or find another job that can provide more room for growth. That is kind of what the minimum wage limit was established for, not to guarantee a living to raise a family on.
It is sad that so many people find themselves working for less than they would like, I make way more than minimum wage, but I’d like to make more too. However, like everyone else if minimum wage goes up, I don’t get the same kind of pay bump. I’ve worked many years to improve my skills, education and understanding of my job, just so I can get where I am. So taking away the advancements I’ve made, because I prioritized my personal growth for advancement and someone else did not, how is that right or fair?
If you can’t take an order, grab a bag handed to you and verify the bag contains the correct items ordered, you do not deserve $15 an hour! But someone who works 40 plus hours a week, does online classes, takes any kind of training offered, applies for grants and does what ever possible to improve their knowledge and understanding of a job should be required to be paid more. Don’t reward anyone and everyone. Reward the ones who worked for and earned it. Require businesses to pay accordingly.
People make enough money to live on today’s wages but stupidly let the government use their money all year so they can receive a big tax refund. Kids in kindergarten need to be taught this fact.
$15? Why $15. Why not $30, $50, or $100?
No. Just no.
That number one combo with cheese will now be $17.99
Inflation here we come.
Economics 101 – increased minimum wage = increase in the cost of goods and services! This is not the right answer to the problem!
Well this is just great. I have worked at my job for over 20 years and if this goes through then people working for minimum wage will be making more then I do, Don’t get me wrong I think it is good but the painful fact is that every time minimum wage goes up my pay does not. I used to be middle class but now I will be under the “poor” class.
Socialism. Higher cost for everything. Basically means anyone still in the middle class will be priced into the lower class. Businesses will be faced with folding, cutting hours, cutting work force, or mostly, passing cost to its customers. Sounds great until you think about it for over 2 seconds. BTW you aren’t supposed to feed a family of 4 while working fast food
If I owned a business I’d stay now automating it. All highervwill do is make people but more expensive cause if the rate not to
Be enough. Most jobs in this pay scale are not for people supporting a family. It’s Burgkink and McDonald’s jobs. I know some are but $15.minimum will not be a good thing. As I said I’d shut my business down
Minimum wage was never meant to be a way to earn a living. These vast majority of jobs are non-skilled entry level positions; a way for people to get their feet in the door at the start of their working careers. People are then supposed to improve their skill set with experience, training, and education so they can move up the pay scale. This increase of course appeals to Morgan’s base, but will end up hurting those he is targeting the most by a loss of work hours. Job availability for young people to even get a first job will suffer. Take a look at MacDonalds and the kiosks that now in the lobby. They are ready to replace minimum wage jobs.
I completely understand the thought behind this. That raising the minimum wage would help all those working at that wage now. Here lies the problem, by raising the minimum wage, everything else will raise as well. The costs of rent, groceries, food at restaraunts, and so forth. The business owners are not going to take a hit of this caliber. The costs will be passed down to everyone else. Sad part is all those who have worked hard to get to that wage will not get raises and will still be at the minimum wage because this is not a fair costs of living raise for all. Simply put in order for business owners to stay competitive with pricing, they will Be forced to reduce their payroll one way or another. Look Out for the Robts and Kiosks, if this happens, you will begin to see more and more of them.
Here’s an idea, how about a Constitutional Amendment to take away having the states Constitution amended this easy. Far too often when a group isn’t happy that they didn’t get what they wanted in Tallahassee they get amendments added. Too many voters don’t take the time to research said amendments and blindly vote yes.
All this will do is drive all other costs up. This is not the answer people who have actual training and skillls willl not get raises and their 15 an hour they currently make will become worth less. That is how it works.