The only idea worse than raising Florida's minimum wage is Gillum’s plan to raise business taxes by 41%
Excerpt: The Florida Influencers generally believe Florida’s minimum wage should be raised, but many aren’t willing to go as high as $15 an hour, as some on the left are pushing. Florida needs to set a higher minimum wage to help workers struggling to make ends meet, according to a panel of the state’s leading voices. But there was little consensus on how high it should go.
The Florida Influencers, a group of 50 prominent political and policy voices, gave mixed reviews to a proposal championed by on the left: raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. In a new survey, 43 percent supported the idea, 28 percent opposed it and 30 percent said they weren’t sure about it.
Still, many of the Influencers were in agreement that Florida’s current minimum wage of $8.25 an hour was insufficient.
Bottom Line: I’m shared my skepticism about these “Influencers” and this series from the Miami Herald previously but now I can put a finer point on it. At a minimum 43% of these “Influencers” have no business influencing – at least when it comes to economics and business. This minimum wage argument is utter BS. As I recently broke down for you using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only .6% of Americans earn minimum wage. What’s more is that 99% of those who earn minimum wage are under the age of 25. And to the extent that the minimum wage is legitimate, Florida gets it right as we’ve indexed it to inflation – so it automatically adjusts proportionately annually.
So, living wage, who actually earns it etc., is all based on a false premise that apparently these Influencers are ignorant about and/or they’re motivated by other factors. For example, many unions advocate for minimum wage increases, even though no union workers earn minimum wage, because there are automatic increases they receive if minimum wages increase.
Ironically those hurt most by artificially high minimum wages are those who’re most in need of opportunity. Often young, inexperienced and without advanced education. For these individuals having an opportunity to work and grow is paramount – yet they’re denied those opportunities when businesses need more productivity due to mandated higher wages.