Just one of twenty states to see an increase in minimum wage on New Year’s Day, Florida’s lowest paid workers will see their hourly pay climb to $8.05 an hour.
The 12-cent increase will benefit 364,000 low-wage workers and will bring an estimated $38.7 million boost to the economy, as the raise in wage will hope to increase consumer spending. The order comes from a state constitutional amendment approved in 2004 that binds an increase in pay with the rising cost of living. The adjustments following an increase in cost of living will continue to be made annually on the first of January.
Tipped workers have not been left out; those employees will see their wages grow to $5.03 an hour.
Florida joins 19 other states with the advance in pay – Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia. Alaska made plans to implement the increase on New Year’s Day, but moved the date to February.
Several cities will increase salaries as well, including Washington D.C. The boost will assist 3.2 million workers nationally.
“We’ve seen a historic number of states increasing their minimum wages,” said David Cooper, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, which researches minimum wage issues. “People’s understanding of where the wage floor should be has changed a lot, and in part caused by strikes and protests.”
Federal minimum wage remains at $7.25 an hour, much lower than the proposed $10.10 from President Obama in previous years. The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013, drafted to account for inflation, stalled in the Senate when members of Congress withheld a vote on the bill, blocking a debate. Despite the failed bill, over half of U.S. states have wages above the federal minimum and several cities and states have plans for hourly wages above $10 and up to $15 an hour.
Forty hour per week workers can expect $250 more a year with the increase.
