Lawmakers Increase State Minimum Wage, Restaurateurs Yawn
Florida lawmakers announced yesterday that the state's minimum wage will increase 12 cents to $6.79 per hour as of January 1, 2008. It's about a 1.8 percent increase. Tip earners will see a greater increase as percentage of their salary, from $3.65 to $3.77 per hour.
The interesting thing is that business owners, including restaurateurs, in Southwest Florida aren't even paying attention, since the market dictates a higher base salary over there:
According to that survey, the median wage for housekeepers — typically among the lowest paid workers in the work force — was $8 an hour in Southwest Florida. Dishwashers, another typically low-paying, entry-level job, earn a median wage of $7.15 an hour.We imagine it's a similar scenario in southeast Florida, and we know that it's definitely the case in Monroe County, where workers who have to be bussed into the islands each day have been earning far more than the minimum for years.Joe Murgalo, general manager of the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort & Spa in Estero, said the competitive market sets the pay in Southwest Florida, not the minimum wage laws.
"We couldn't hire anyone at minimum wage," Murgalo said. "It's been decades since it mattered what the minimum wage was here."
Florida's minimum wage will be $6.79 [News-Press]
