That's because, per a policy voters embedded in the state constitution in 2004, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity adjusts the minimum wage annually to correspond to the federal consumer price index, as the News Service of Florida noted on Friday,
Since the law's implementation, the lowest possible wage someone can earn in Florida (unless you work in hospitality or agriculture, industries that can pay even less) has gone up by a whole $2.10 an hour (34 percent).
But that doesn't necessarily mean minimum wage earners are rollin' in it, or are really even able to survive without some kind of assistance and/or a second/third job. In early 2017, according to MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning Living Wage Calculator, a livable wage for a single person with no children in Florida is $11.15 an hour. And that doesn't necessarily account for differences in cost of living among the state's regions (i.e. a one-bedroom apartment in, like, Waldo is much cheaper than one in, say, Miami Beach or downtown St. Petersburg). It's more of an average, really.
In Florida, though, it is illegal for cities and counties to pass their own local minimum wage based on the local cost of living due to a state law preempting local minimum wage increases.
Miami Beach, where — as we mentioned — it's hella expensive to live, passed an ordinance defying the state law. It would have raised the city's minimum to $10.31 an hour in 2018, after which it would go up a dollar a year until 2021, when it would reach $13.31 an hour. Of course, the Florida Retail Federation, the Florida Chamber of Commerce and the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association all sued to have the law overturned. The city appealed, and on Friday asked the Florida Supreme Court to consider the case, the News Service of Florida reported Friday.
But, if it makes you feel any better, it's more than the federal minimum wage, $7.25 an hour.
Needless to say, groups like Fight for $15 Florida will probably continue the fight for better pay for all low-wage earners.
“You can’t survive out here on $8.50 or $9.00 an hour. By the time you get done paying child care and all of your bills, you have no money left over. I struggle from paycheck to paycheck," Marianna Rainey, a fast food worker and activist, told MSNBC in 2016. "I’ll pay the minimum on the light bill. The minimum on the water bill. It’s a struggle.”
This article appears in Dec 28, 2017 – Jan 4, 2018.
