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Attorney Launches Formal Campaign To Raise Florida’s Minimum Wage To $15 Per Hour
July 23, 2019
Orlando attorney John Morgan has announced the launch of formal campaign for a new constitutional amendment to raise the minimum wage in Florida to $15 per hour.
The Fair Wage Amendment backed by Morgan would increase the minimum wage by slightly over $1 an hour to $10 per hour in 2021, then increases the hourly pay by $1 per hour each year until it gradually reaches $15 per hour in 2026. After 2026, Florida’s minimum wage would increase with the rate of inflation, just as the state’s constitution currently requires. Florida’s current minimum wage is $8.46 per hour.
On Monday, Morgan announced the launch of a new website to advocate for the amendment.
“There is no doubt in my mind that is an uphill battle. But just like there were hundreds of thousands of families with sick children or parents that needed medical marijuana, there are hundreds of thousands of Floridians earning the minimum wage that cannot afford to live in Florida. We must fight so that all Floridians can have the dignity of earning a fair wage for a hard day’s work,” Morgan said.
In order to appear on the 2020 ballot, Florida for a Fair Wage needs to collect and verify 766,200 petitions from registered Florida voters. According to the Division of Elections, 363,157 petitions have been verified so far.
If the amendment appears on the ballot in 2020, it would need a 60 percent approval from Floridians to go into effect.
Comments
37 Responses to “Attorney Launches Formal Campaign To Raise Florida’s Minimum Wage To $15 Per Hour”
John Morgan will do anything to get his name out there. I would tell him to go back where he came from but I would be called a racist. The only folks that suffer from this kind of legislation is the folks that purchase the goods. The cost is always passed to the purchaser. Here is a link to the Orlando Weekly. He doesn’t even pay his own people 15 an hour.
https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2019/03/26/orlando-attorney-john-morgans-firm-still-relies-on-cheap-labor-despite-pushing-for-15-minimum-wage-in-florida
Just imagine how you’d feel if you’ve been at a place for 10 yrs and have worked yourself up to say $16hr and they hire an unskilled worker in for you to train at $15hr. I’m just curious do you think the employer is going to give you a raise? I kinda doubt it….
It’s sad when our paramedics cannot even get paid $15/he but people who work at McDonalds type restaurants want to be paid this! I grew up with parents who were paramedics. We struggled for most of my childhood because they barely made anything. They went to college, learned how to save lives and worked their butts off. In my opinion, if you cannot get my order right and it’s on a screen right in front of you and on the receipt j your hand, then you dont deserve $15/hour. I dont remember the last time I had an order correct.
If an employee can’t produce or compensate
an equal sum back to the employer an amount equal to
said employees compensation which includes all benefit
packages then why have said employee ? Acknowledging
there’s millions in government employment and services who
can’t and don’t meet that criteria but who earn relatively high
salaries and benefits. So where should the line be drawn?
only some aren’t required to produce as much as they receive
in pay and benefits? Seems we are eating our meals out
these days ( tv commercials) cause we’re too busy running
hither & yon chasing our tails. The restaurants and fast food
industry are now life givers but their employees don’t deserve
a living wage ? Should hospital employees be treated the
same ? My 1st job (weekends) was 40 cents per hour bagging
groceries! Learned a lot and moved to a better paying weekend
job ! Now, 60 years later still work most every day but pay
is zero which is LESS than where I started. I do get unbelievable
home cooked meals and desserts as compensation and I sleep
well knowing I earned my keep !
In the last election cycle where you could see who was backing which party with the liberal direction and for individuals that had minimal experience and even criminal charges pending against them, Morgan & Morgan was listed in the piggy bank of backers. Little surprise this work of art is pulling for this left-wing agenda.
Minimum wage jobs are not meant to be career jobs. They are not meant to pay the household bills. These jobs are entry level jobs providing job experience and the beginning of a work history. They are meant for teens and college kids to have a little pocket money.
Now I don’t mean to pick on McDonald’s but it doesn’t take a whole lot of brains to drop the fries in the fryer.
This is a bad idea. You don’t have to take my word for it. Look at Seattle as an example. Multiple layoffs. Businesses moving outside of the city.
Guess Morgan doesn’t take on minimum wage clients on accidents. NOT ENOUGH MONEY…. HE DOESNT LIKE MINIMUM WAGES
If the minimum wage increases, the value of his firms settlements will go up roughly 80% since much of the settlement determinations are based on lost wages…So a 100,000 settlement becomes 180,000, of which he receives 40% so his profit goes from 40,000 to 72,000 and that is capitalism at it’s finest.
There is nothing in state or federal law that prevents a company, city or county from paying any wage higher than the current minimum wage. The only entity that gains from and increase in the minimumwage is the government (increased tax revenues). Companies will pass the increase to the customer bring higher prices and layoffs.
This is intended for the same purpose as both the marijuana and convicted felon amendments were to get anti second amendment people to vote. Bribe them to vote with goodies.
Look @ Seattle WA when they went to $15 hour they (Worker) asked hours to be cut because it effected their social income.
Maybe that’s what they want is to get the $$ work half the hours????
Just saying… I will have no choice but to cut my staff in hailf…they now make $12 hr
I used to make a ton of money making minimum wage. It was from overtime and working on holidaays for those who didn’t want to work those days. I also had retirement and decent medical ins. At $15.00 one can kiss it all goodbye. Those with real money are thrilled to death keeping the poor poorer.
Morgan go back to where you came from we don’t need your type in Florida
$15.00 is way over the top for a minimum wage. Lesser amount would be better. That would help out the employee and keep the costs low for the employer.
All people for this increase, don’t complain when you can’t get great store service due to skeleton crews. Part-time will be the going thing, so benefits won’t dig into their profits. Maybe benefits will be offered without the business help and the employee will pay an astronomical amount for insurance.
Mom and Pop businesses will be working long hours with fewer employees. Hospitals, Physician Offices will raise their rates and health insurance will skyrocket. The current average salary rate for a Medical Office Assistant in this area is $12.00. So all of them are going to get $15.00??? This increase is a domino effect on everything.
I see the unemployment rate on the rise due to this increase.
Be careful for what you wish for.
As numerous noted economists have reported and studies have shown, this will have exactly the opposite effect as the stated intent. All minimum wage laws increase unemployment among the young and less educated, lead to automation, and increase the size of the welfare state. I am hopeful the majority of Floridians understand this and do not fall for this one.
I can only assume Mr. Morgan is attempting to increase his Democratic Party bonafides in preparation for a Governor or Senate run in 2020 or 2024.
Re: Common sense. You said exactly what I was going to say. Only you said it better.
Bad idea on every level.
Morgan and Morgan. For the Lawyers.
Minimum wage should be 0.
This man is obsessed with the word “dignity”- listen to his ads. It’s his buzzword. He knows better but is playing the people to advance his own interests (Governor, President, etc). The folks who yell about Scandinavian Minimum Wages are some of the ignorant. I challenge anyone reading to do a quick bit of research, and you’ll discover that the Scandinavian Countries do NOT have minimum wages. They have Unions. That’s how they negotiate better pay. $15 an hour in the next 7 years would throttle this State’s (booming) Economy. Don’t fall prey to this non-sense.
Even Mr. Bernie “Living Wage” Sanders cut his employees hours after raising their hourly wage to $15 last week.
Minimum wage is just that, the minimum job – when will people learn to want better than that for his or her self?
Use the minimum wage job as a stepping stone and move to higher wage jobs.
Socialism will be the death of America.
Raising the minimum wage to $15.00 an hour will only cause all the skilled workers and college boys to want more money. The only ones that will lose is all the retired people who have a fixed income. This is not good for America. If you don’t make more then minimum wage, you are probably not worth it to your employer or you need to look for another job. So $15.00 an hour will make skill tradesman want $30.00 to $40.00 and hour and your professional people even more. If you want to make more money, learn a trade, make yourself a valuable employee. This will never stop. $15.00 dollars will some bewill soon be $20.00 then $30.00, you get the picture.
Another reason to not like John Morgan. I was listening to a local radio program last year or so where a local attorney described how several Pensacola lawyers had an agreement with John Morgan. The agreement was that Morgan would not come to Pensacola and that these other lawyers would not do business in Orlando where Morgan is based. Some time later, Morgan opened a office here and is advertising all over the area. If he can’t stick to his agreements, how can you trust him?
I have worked minimum wage jobs in the past, so I understand what that’s like. But rasing it that high will mean small businesses will have to lay off some of there employees. Morgan is pushing this to make himself look good for his POLITICAL ambitions in the future. But those same people who will vote to raise the minimum will also vote to raise taxable income from the wealthy citizens.
You would think Mr. Morgan is an educated man, but obviously he doesn’t remember the principles from his Economics classes!
Raising minimum wage is a bad idea
To break it down to understand it better..
Let’s say milk costs a $1.00 and
you make $1.23 after TAXES you bring home $1.00
Right now you can afford 1 gallon of milk a day right?
Then you get a minimum wage increase to $18.45 a day AWESOME!! More money you think..
Well to stay in business the milk man has to pay his employees the same $18.45 wage..so now the milk goes to $15.00 a gallon ..still can afford it right?
Well..no you cant..see
Due to the minimum wage increase that everyone (everyone is a general consensus term used here)is begging for ..you have just moved up to a new tax bracket !! ..so instead of paying 23% interest..you now pay 29% interest
$18.45 – 29% = 13.10
You now no longer can afford the gallon of milk that you once could!!
The only winner here is the government
Look at areas where this “experiment” was instituted: scores and scores of layoffs, businesses which anchor the unskilled/minimum skill labor base relocate to other areas and, overall, both unemployment and multiple employment rises.
Here is how this is going to play out and Bernie Sanders is a good example. His campaign staff complaining they are only paid $8 an hour and not $15 an hour. So to fix this gap in pay, he cuts the hours so that the pay roll payout stays the same. Instead of 40 hours a week, it is now only 20 hours a week. The left is showing you how you can make $15 an hour and be happy. Oh, and in most cases by not working 40 hours a week is considered part time and you get no benefits. i.e. Health Care
@Common Sense Gone
You won’t have people working longer hours because according to the Affordable Heathcare Act if you work over 30 hours a week you are considered ‘full time’. Employers keep people under 29 hours so they don’t have to provide health insurance.
@JT, Morgan & Morgan is one of the biggest law firms in Florida. His employees are lawyers and legal secretaries that make much more than $15 an hour.
Bernie Sanders, a big advocate for 15 an hour min wage, just had to give his own staff a raise after they demanded he do what he preaches and guess what happened….he cut the hours they work every week. Jobs will be lost and small businesses will close.
@ Common sense gone
You summed this $15.00 per hour minimum mandated wage very well.
You hit each of the high (low?) points that we have been discussing here at home for several months.
May I add this: The $15.00 Minimum Wage will send the UNEMPLOYMENT Rates through the ceiling as more and more jobs are automated with such as Self-Checkouts and employers of smaller businesses having to cut positions.
Higher wages also mean Higher Income TAXES paid here and More Federal Deductions from your paychecks if in this newer “richer” group.
Where will those who lose work because of this Legislation go to live?
More on the street corners with cardboard signs?
“Common Sense” Lordy Mercy there sure is a shortage of that in Government any more.
God Bless the USA, our First Responders, School Bus Drivers and those in our schools trying to grow some Common Sense.
Even socialist Bernie Sanders stated on 7-22-19 that he would have to cut staff hours if he had to pay $15.00 an hour.
Minimum wage should be $0.00.
$15 per hour equals $600 per week ? 7.65%
equals about $45 per week for SS& Medicare
that’s deducted from paycheck. Then the employer
has to match the 7.65%($45) and send the $90 per
week to the govt ? Gas to get to work is $2.50 per
gal ? Car payment for that new SUV is $500 per mo ?
House payment,food , insurance , cell phone and
cable TV prolly $1500 per mo ? Doesn’t sound like
$15 per hour will be enough…even $20 might not !
Meanwhile, can employers afford an employee ?
JT, is asking the right question. Is THAT lawyer living by example and paying his employees $15 an hour? I think he needs to pay them $30 an hour, because cost of living is already high.
Of course a lawyer making millions doesn’t see the harm in $15/hour. The privately owned small businesses such as pharmacies, small town feed stores, etc, etc will be a thing of the past. This is just what national chains need to increase the self checkout aisles and send more people to the unemployment line. Middle America can’t afford a $15/hour minimum wage. Florida doesn’t need to be another California!
Is he paying all of his employees $15 an hour?
Raising minimum wage has proven to take jobs away. Wage goes up, costs for businesses go up so they have to charge more for services. People won’t spend as much at the business due to prices jumping so businesses wont hire as many people. So you’ll have skeleton crews working longer hours. No more flexible shifts for college or high school students because employers will have less employees that work all 40 hours. Have fun with that and don’t say we didn’t tell ya so! LOL