Florida
When will minimum wage go up again in Florida and how much? What is minimum wage in 2025?
Minimum wage hike to go into effect for some across US
Workers in several states and cities will see minimum wage increases go into effect on January 1, 2025, as they continue to battle with high prices.
Minimum wage workers in Florida, your paychecks will get another bump this year and the next on the way to $15 an hour.
That’s thanks to the amendment Floridians approved in 2020 to raise the wage incrementally, first from $8.65 to $10 in 2021 and then another dollar every year until it reaches $15 an hour for non-tipped employees and $10.98 for tipped employees.
It’s part of a growing trend for higher minimum wages. On Jan. 1, 2025. 21 states and 48 cities and counties raised theirs, according to a report provided exclusively to USA TODAY by the National Employment Law Project, a worker advocacy group. More states and a few more cities and counties will be raising their minimum later this year.
The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour and has been since 2009.
What will Florida’s minimum wage be in 2025?
Florida’s minimum wage will become $14 an hour for non-tipped employees and $10.98 for tipped employees.
When will Florida’s minimum wage rise again?
The minimum wage rates for both tipped and non-tipped employees will rise on Sept. 30, 2025, and will rise again in 2026.
Florida passes $15 minimum wage Amendment 2
Florida voters approve raising the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour.
Rob Landers, FLORIDA TODAY
Which states have the highest minimum wage?
Several states have passed minimum wage increases in recent years. The current highest minimum wages in the country, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, are:
- Washington D.C.: $17.50 an hour
- California: $16.50 an hour
- Washington state: $16.66 an hour
- Connecticut: $16.35
- New York (New York City, Nassau County, Suffolk County, & Westchester County): $16.50 an hour
- New Jersey: $15.49 an hour
- Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, rest of New York, Rhode Island: $15 an hour
Fourteen states pay the federal minimum rate of $7.25, as all states must do at a minimum for jobs covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Some have higher rates for businesses that meet certain conditions.
Georgia and Wyoming businesses pay $5.15 an hour, although in Georgia it only applies to employers of six or more employees. In Montana, businesses with gross annual sales of less than $110,000 pay $4 an hour.
Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee have no state minimum wage law.
What is the highest minimum wage in the country?
Burien, Washington will set its minimum pay at $21.16 for employers in King County with 500 or more workers.
What happens after Florida’s minimum wage hits the $15 cap?
The amendment was intended to get minimum wages more in line with current costs of living. After it reaches $15, the state will return to the previous method of calculating cost-of-living adjustments tied to the Consumer Price Index.
What is the living wage in Florida?
The minimum wage is different from a living wage, however, which tries to calculate how much a person needs to earn per hour to afford the necessities — housing, childcare, health care, food, etc. — where they live.
In February 2024, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) living wage calculator found that the living wage in Florida is $22.43 an hour for one adult with no children, $37.27 for an adult with one child, $45.36 for an adult with two children and $58.76 for an adult with three children.
How is the minimum wage for tipped employees calculated in Florida?
Employers of tipped employees must pay their employees minimum wage, but they can count the tips the employees receive toward it up to the maximum of $3.02, the allowable Fair Labor Standards Act tip credit of 2003. So the direct wage they must pay is the minimum wage minus $3.02.
The current minimum wage in Florida is $13 an hour, so the tipped minimum wage is $9.98. Both will go up a dollar each until they reach $15 an hour for non-tipped employees and $11.98 for tipped employees.
Do minimum wage laws in Florida apply to all employers?
No, there are certain occupations and situations where the Department of Labor allowed exemptions to the federal minimum wage law where employees may be paid less. These include, among others:
- Executive, administrative and professional employees
- Commissioned sales employees
- Farm workers
- Seasonal or recreational establishment workers
- Newspaper delivery people
- Federal criminal investigators
- Informal workers such as babysitters
- Minors under certain circumstances
- Student workers
- Employees with disabilities if the employer has a certificate from the Department of Labor allowing it (a measure to encourage more employers to hire people with disabilities)
- Nonprofit or educational organizations that have applied for an exemption, and others.
- Employees of enterprises with an annual gross income of less than $50,000
What was the minimum wage in Florida before?
Florida’s minimum wage was tied to the federal minimum wage created in 1938 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 which set the minimum hourly wage at 25 cents, banned oppressive child labor and capped the maximum workweek at 44 hours. But in 2005, Florida voters approved Amendment 5 to establish a state minimum wage over the federal standard. Florida has paid its minimum wage workers more than the federal minimum ever since.
Amendment 5 brought the hourly wage for non-tipped employees to $6.15, a dollar more than the federal minimum at the time, and required the Department of Economic Opportunity to calculate an adjusted state minimum wage rate based on the rate of inflation for the 12 months prior to Sept. 1, based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers. New adjustments were to take effect the following Jan. 1.
There have been several increases since:
- 2005: Raised to $6.15 an hour
- 2006: Raised to $6.40 an hour
- 2009: Raised to $7.21 an hour
- 2010: Raised to $7.25 an hour
- 2016: After 6 years, raised to $8.05 an hour
- 2017: Raised to $8.10 an hour
- 2018: Raised to $8.25 an hour
- 2019: Raised to $8.45 an hour
- 2021: Raised to $10 an hour to meet requirements from the 2020 amendment
- 2022: Raised to $11 an hour
- 2023: Raised to $12 an hour
- 2024: Raised to $13 an hour
Florida
Golf roundup: Austin Smotherman plays ‘boring, simple’ to expand lead in Florida
Austin Smotherman will carry a three-stroke lead into the weekend at the Cognizant Classic at The Palm Beaches.
Smotherman followed his opening 62 with a 2-under-par 69 on Friday at PGA National’s Champion Course in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. That brought him to 11 under, comfortably clear of Taylor Moore, who is in second after his second straight 4-under 67.
Cognizant Classic scoreboard
“Yeah, leading a PGA Tour event, come on, pretty awesome,” Smotherman said.
Smotherman, 31, is in fine position for his first win on the PGA Tour since turning pro a decade ago. He has won three times on the Korn Ferry Tour, including last June.
Afterwards, he credited himself with playing “Austin Smotherman golf.” When asked what that meant, he responded, “as boring and simple as it can be.
“That’s what I want to do out there. I feel like I ball strike it good enough to have that kind of boring golf, a bunch of fairways ideally,” he said.
He suffered three bogeys Friday after a bogey-free opening round, but the key stretch for him after starting on the back nine was between Nos. 17 and 3. He birdied four holes in that stretch, starting with a 54-foot bomb at the par-3 17th hole.
“Anything under par I thought would have been (good) following up a round like yesterday, which was a special one,” he said, “and try not to get too far ahead of myself thinking I’m going to make every long putt I’m looking at, like kind of was the feeling yesterday, and then today I still make a 55-footer on 17.”
Moore overcame a bogey in each half of his round with three birdies on either nine, more than counterbalancing the rough patches to earn his second straight solid score.
“I think very different 67s,” Moore said when comparing his rounds. “I didn’t hit many fairways yesterday, kind of grinded a lot, had a couple chip-ins, which obviously helps. I thought I struck the ball much better today. Drove it in the fairways on the par-5s, I felt like. Yeah, still had a few up-and- downs, obviously, with the tough windy conditions this afternoon, but overall I thought it was solid.”
Canadian A.J. Ewart had the round of the day, a 64 that powered him to 7 under for the week. He’s tied with Colombia’s Nico Echavarria (72), and Joel Dahmen is in fifth at 6 under after a second consecutive 68.
Ewart, who played for nearby Barry University in college, came in with some familiarity.
“We used to come and watch this tournament when I was at school. I think I came up here twice, maybe three times and watched,” Ewart said. “I had never actually played the golf course, but I felt like I knew it just from watching it.”
Irishman Shane Lowry, one of the most recognizable players in the field, is in a large knot for sixth at 5 under after posting a 67. Defending champion Joe Highsmith made the cut on the number at even par.
Notable players who missed the cut included Webb Simpson (1 over), Gary Woodland (2 over), Matt Kuchar (2 over) and Canada’s Adam Hadwin (3 over).
Kim maintains narrow lead in Singapore
Auston Kim maintained a narrow lead over three seasoned competitors with a 3-under-par 69 on Friday at the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore.
Kim carded five birdies and a double-bogey at the par-5 16th hole at Sentosa Golf Club to move to 9-under par, one shot ahead of major champions Minjee Lee of Australia (64 on Friday) and Thailand’s Ariya Jutanugarn (67) and three- time LPGA Tour winner Haeran Ryu of South Korea (68).
Lurking two shots back at 7-under in the no-cut event are Australia’s Hannah Green (66), Denmark’s Nanna Koerstz Madsen (68), Sweden’s Linn Grant (69) and England’s Mimi Rhodes (69).
Kim, an LPGA Tour member since 2024, has been knocking on the door of her first tour win. The American has eight finishes in the top 10 and was the runner-up at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship last season.
“I think just sticking to my process. I’m trying to earn each shot and win each shot and win each day,” Kim, 25, said of her strategy heading into the weekend. “I can put a hundred percent of my focus into every single shot and try my best to execute each time, I’ll do well.”
Lee soared into contention with an eagle at the par-4 second hole and six birdies in a bogey-free round.
“I think just I holed a few more putts out there,” Lee said of the difference between Friday’s play and her opening-round of 72. “I holed a few long ones and I also holed out for eagle on the second. That always helps the score.”
Jutanugarn had six birdies, including three straight from holes Nos. 5-7, and one bogey.
Ryu collected four birdies in a round free of bogeys, but not free from pain.
“Today, my neck was so bad and I cannot turn it around, it’s so hard, my neck,” Ryu said. “But yeah, golf is not perfect. I just think about it, just hit the fairway and the green. Yeah, that’s good for me. There’s a lot of birdies, and yeah, I’m so happy.”
Angel Yin matched Lee for the low round of the day with a 64 to move into a tie for ninth at 6-under.
Defending champion Lydia Ko of New Zealand (72) remained a 2-under posting four birdies and four bogeys.
World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand is tied for 33rd at 1-under after a round of 70.
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