Hysterical Headlines (Funny or Absurd) for June 1st – Florida minimum wage mumbo jumbo
Bottom Line: Your daily doses of nonsense in the media and my takes on them...
Floridians find minimum wage too low, study finds - Sun Sentinel
Excerpt: Floridians in a recent survey were pretty good at knowing the current minimum wage here, but they also thought it should be considerably higher.
Only the residents of 13 other states were closer to being right than Floridians’ 21-cent difference between their guess of $8.46 and the state’s minimum wage of $8.25 in a study published recently by Credit Loan. But when asked what the ideal minimum wage here would be, Florida respondents’ average was $11.99, $3.74 more than is paid now. And the answer might not be too far from what’s needed here. Credit Loan’s study also looked at Florida’s living wage; according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it stands at $11.75, or $3.50 more than the current minimum wage.
Hot Take: And here we go... Once again, the argument that a minimum wage is supposed to be a living wage is being advanced. Aside from the failed premise absent from this story is perhaps an important detail. How many Floridians even earn minimum wage?
According to the most recent data from 2016, only 4.5% of hourly employees in Florida earn minimum wage. Of those who're working full-time (averaging 30 or more hours per week), that falls to 1.8%. And in the context of Florida's total fulltime workforce you're talking about 1.3%. In other words, this is a manufactured issue and those most hurt by policies meant to address these fabricated inequities are those with the least experience and are simply trying to enter the workforce at the entry level. Look to Seattle if you have any questions. Additionally, to the extent that there's validity to a minimum wage Florida gets it right. Ours is indexed to inflation so it rises in lock step with inflation annually.
Who's Going to Apologize to the FBI? Josh Campbell, CNN
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