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.
Where workers are getting a raise: Minimum wage set to rise in 23 states next year as $15 an hour, and beyond, picks up steam
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
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