Misinformation and distortions by businesses and some politicians, echoed by media, are blaming the unemployed for staying home to live on government checks. The evidence says otherwise, though belittling workers and lampooning government is part of the continuing war against better wages and stronger worker-safety protections.
minimum wage
Between Employer Wage Theft and Political Meddling, Florida’s Minimum Wage Boost to $10 Is Struggling
The Florida Legislature is looking to tinker with the amendment that raises the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026, and advocacy groups for higher wages are concerned about employers who violate the law by paying some employees below the minimum wage, ripping off employees.
Essential Workers Deserve $15 an Hour
I’m one of America’s millions of essential workers. We’re working in your children’s schools, at your grocery stores, and at drive-through windows. We’re cleaning your homes. And we’re struggling so hard to make ends meet.
Productivity Math: A $15 Minimum Wage Is Still $9 Short of Where It Should Be
The weakening and undermining of unions, tax policy, urban and suburban planning and minimum wage standards no longer adjusted for inflation have left an obscene gap between worker productivity and poor and working class wages and benefits.
Who’s Afraid of a $15 Minimum Wage?
Forget assumptions. Forget fear-mongering PR releases chambered in baseless claims that a $15 minimum wage will cost jobs. When the most extensive analysis on the subject shows 20 times more people will live better than lose jobs, it’s case closed.
Amendment 2 Would Gradually Raise Florida’s Minimum Wage to $15 By 2026. GOP Leaders Want It Defeated.
If approved, the proposal, known as Amendment 2, would increase the state’s minimum wage — currently $8.56 an hour — to $10 on Sept. 30, 2021, and incrementally increase the rate each year until reaching $15 on Sept. 30, 2026.
DeSantis Criticizes Proposal to Raise Minimum Wage to $15, Saying It’ll Hurt Restaurant Owners
Florida For A Fair Wage is seeking voter support to increase the state’s minimum wage to $10 an hour on Sept. 30, 2021 and increase it by $1 each year until it hits $15 an hour on Sept. 30, 2026.
Benefits of a $15 Minimum Wage: The Non-Partisan Evidence
The report from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office finds that a $15 minimum wage would increase the wages of millions of low wage workers, increase the average incomes of low and lower-middle-income families, reduce poverty, shift money from corporate profits to the wages of low-wage workers, and reduce inequality.
Time for $15 an Hour and a Union
After years of idling lawmakers, the idea now has more traction in Congress thanks to the recently introduced Raise the Wage Act, which would set a national minimum pay of $15 an hour by 2024.
Florida’s More Conservative Supreme Court Rejects Considering Minimum Wage Case
Tuesday’s actions could signal how the new majority will come down on future business-related disputes and could spark state lawmakers, whose annual session begins in March, to consider business-backed legislation to address issues that the old court had foiled.
New Year Raises Florida’s Minimum Wage To $8.46 and Lowers Workers Comp Rates
Minimum-wage workers will start earning $8.46 an hour Tuesday, up from $8.25 an hour in 2018 — and more than a dollar above the $7.25 federal minimum wage.
Showdown Over Local Control as State Aims to Stop Miami Beach From Raising Minimum Wage
Attorney General Pam Bondi claims a state law bars Miami Beach from gradually increasing its minimum wage to $13.31 an hour in 2021. The case also has drawn attention from local governments, which have sided with Miami Beach.
A Better Way To Fight Homelessness: Decriminalize It
Law enforcement is often used as a first response to address homelessness. Many communities criminalize it instead of connecting the homeless with essential services, assuming they’re available.
Florida Chamber of Commerce and Business Groups File Suit Against Plan to Raise Minimum Wage
The chamber of commerce joined a retail and a restaurant association to fight a groundbreaking living wage plan adopted in Miami Beach, which could serve as a model for other local governments.
Chain Restaurants Hurt the Economy, Pollute, And Pay Poverty Wages. Eat Local Instead.
It’s time for big chains to strengthen local economies by keeping food purchases local and ending worker exploitation. But they don’t. Meanwhile, writes Anna Meyer, look for locally owned restaurants that source local and support raising the minimum wage for all workers.
Disney’s CEO Makes $248 a Minute as Some of His Employees Go Homeless on $8.03 an Hour
Even after a raise to $10 an hour, Disney employees can only expect to take home about $20,000 over the course of a year, not enough to live decently in Orlando. A $15-an-hour wage is more critical, argues Scott Klinger.
Do the Math: You Couldn’t Live On Minimum Wage
Imagine living on $290 a week before taxes. It’s not a wage you can live on, Mark O’Brien, a minimum wage earner for a time recently, argues, challenging opponents of raising the minimum wage to try it for themselves.
If It’s Economic Growth You Want, Raising the Minimum Wage Crushes Wall Street Bonuses Every Time
If the $26.7 billion Wall Streeters pulled in on their bonuses last year had instead gone to minimum wage workers, our economy would be expected to grow by about $32.3 billion — more than triple the $10.4 billion boost expected from the Wall Street bonuses.
Where Fast Food Workers Make Twice the US Minimum Wage, and Have Benefits
Critics say a living wage of around $15 an hour would drive fast-food restaurants and other retail firms out of business — and millions of their employees out of work. Australia’s experience, where workers make $15 an hour, shows why that argument is bunk, argues Salvatore Babones.
Florida’s Minimum Wage Rising by 12 Cents, to $7.79/hr, on Jan. 1
Florida’s minimum wage on Jan. 1 will increase 12 cents to $7.79 an hour for the estimated 210,000 minimum wage workers across the state, in line with a 2004 constitutional amendment requiring the annual adjustment.
For a Few Cents Less: Legislature Moving to Slow Required Minimum Wage Increases
Voters approved a constitutional amendment linking the minimum wage to inflation. Florida lawmakers would also reduce the rate of growth based on a different way of calculating inflation.