Florida’s minimum wage to rise to $8.25 in 2018
By Jeff Ostrowski, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
The minimum wage for Florida workers will increase to $8.25 on Jan. 1, up from this year’s minimum of $8.10 an hour, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity said.
If you’re scoring at home, that’s a 2% increase. Work full-time for that amount and you’ll make $330 a week or $17,160 a year.
With the annual boost in the state’s minimum wage, Florida’s lowest allowable pay rate is $1 higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25.
Even so, proponents of a higher minimum wage say $8.25 is too little. “What a sick joke Florida is playing on working people struggling to survive,” tweeted; Fight for 15 Florida, a group pushing for a $15-an-hour minimum wage.
Last year it was a nickel. This year; 20 cents; what a sick joke Florida is playing on working people struggling to survive.
Opponents of the minimum wage argue that it’s competition for labor, not regulation, that boosts wages, and that employers are forced to hire fewer low-wage workers when the minimum rises.
The District of Columbia has the nation’s highest minimum wage, at $12.50, followed by Massachusetts’ $11.
