A.G. Gancarski
Momentum continued to build in May for a citizen’s initiative that could lift Florida’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026.
The sponsoring political committee (Florida for a Fair Wage) garnered over $812,000 in new money, all from the firm of Orlando lawyer and entrepreneur John Morgan.
The latest haul was more than a third of the close to $2.3 million raised by the committee thus far, suggesting a summer ramp-up of the petition drive.
It’s not yet clear what effect a new law will have on the effort; it places “new rules and restrictions on the ballot measure process” for citizen-driven constitutional amendments.
Of the 766,200 valid signatures required, the wage initiative already has over 239,000 of them.
The amendment would raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour on Sept. 30, 2021, then increase by a dollar every year through 2026.
The state’s minimum wage currently is $8.46 an hour.
In the last month, the committee has nearly doubled its number of valid petitions; back in May when we last covered the drive, just over 120,000 petitions had been secured.
Polling shows the measure nearing 60 percent support. A survey released by St. Pete Polls shows just over 58 percent of respondents support the amendment, with 35 percent opposed and 7 percent on the fence.
Republican support is the issue. Just 39 percent of those polled support the measure.
The survey was exhaustive, conducted May 6-June 1, with responses from 3,790 registered general election voters collected.
2 comments
Cogent Observer
June 11, 2019 at 9:40 am
Truly idiotic, unless Florida wishes to see skyrocketing unemployment–particularly of young and relatively unskilled people. It’s called the law of unintended consequences. Think this through, people and tell your representatives to get their heads out of the re-election sand.
Some jobs are just not “worth” $15/hour. A rational employer will not fill them or will add them to the duties of another employee. It is not an issue of a euphemistic “living wage”; it is basic economics. Let’s stop forcible social engineering through a free market. A free market works just fine (if allowed to do so).
If an employer cannot find someone to fill Job X at $Y/hour, it will have to increase the wage to $Z. But, if that someone chooses not to work (who is not physically disabled) or feels that the job is “below” him/her, he/she is making a conscious choice and is not entitled to either tax dollars or additional money from a prospective employer for having made that choice.
It is really not that complicated an analysis.
Lisa Blanck
June 11, 2019 at 6:14 pm
with the “booming economy” that the GOP trumpet, and the “decreased number of unemployed”, raising the minimum wage to an actual living wage is a no-brainer. Originally naysayers claimed workers would suffer. However, that has proven to be not the case at all. With fewer bodies available for, what the GOP claim is a growing number of jobs, employers must increase wages to attract workers. If naysayers claim it will “hurt” the worker or the economy, then their claim that the economy is “booming” is a fallacy. Can’t have it both ways. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/22/business/economy/seattle-minimum-wage-study.html
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