On Jan. 1, the Agency for Workforce Innovation increased Florida’s minimum wage by 12 cents per hour. Employees who do not receive tips will now make $8.05 per hour, and tipped employees will make $5.03 per hour.
Florida is one of 20 states that increased minimum wage at the beginning of 2015. This year will be the first time that a majority of the states — 29, as well as the District of Columbia — have a state minimum wage that is higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25. If a state has a minimum wage that is higher than the federal, employers must offer the state’s rate to employees.
Florence Neymotin, associate professor in the Division of Finance and Economics at the H. Wayne Huizenga Schools of Business and Entrepreneurship, said, “Over time, we look at cost of living and how it changes. Usually, minimum wage is supposed to change, but it’s not an automatic adjustment.”
However, Florida’s increase is a result of the state’s 2004 constitutional amendment that requires the state wage to be readjusted each year based on the Florida’s rate of inflation. The amendment was created under Article X and states that Florida’s Agency for Workforce Innovation will calculate and adjust the minimum wage rate every year. The wage is calculated by looking at the rate of inflation during the 12 months prior to Sept. 1 using the consumer price index, a list of prices that people pay for general goods in a certain period of time, for urban wage earners and clerical workers.
Neymotin said that when there in an increase in minimum wage, it becomes more expensive for businesses to hire workers, so they either have to fire their employees or increase the price of their products to compensate.
“You can’t predict 100 percent what will happen beforehand; [the impact of the wage increase] will be combined with other factors that are happening at the same time,” she said. “A large portion of people working at the minimum wage are students, and that’s part of the argument as to why minimum wage isn’t really affecting families as much as it is students.”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in 2013, 50.4 percent of people who earn federal minimum wage were between the ages of 16 and 24.
Matthew Lohwater, freshman biology major, has held a minimum wage job for the past three years and financially supports himself through college. He said that worrying about how he’s going to support himself is the biggest issue he is facing and that it is extremely crippling, especially when he’s trying to focus on his education and what is important in his life.
“When you’re going through school, what you should really be worrying about is grades and focusing on your studies, but for me, I have this constant nagging in the back of my head saying ‘What if I don’t have enough money to continue my education?’” he said.
Lohwater also said that the new raise in Florida’s minimum wage will allow him to offset some of his student debt and give him a little more peace of mind.
