It's almost 2015, which means minimum wage workers are getting a raise. Thanks to a state amendment passed by voters in 2004 that ties the minimum wage to inflation, starting on January 1 the minimum wage in Florida will now be $8.05 an hour.
That's a $0.12 raise from last year's wage of $7.93. It's the first time Florida's minimum wage will top $8 an hour. The federal minimum wage is just $7.25.
To put it in prospective, a minimum wage worker who puts in 40 hours a week for 50 weeks a year (which, really isn't the status quo for minimum wage workers, obviously) would now earn $240 more a year (before taxes).
Tipped employees like waiters and bartenders will also see their minimum wage upped to $5.03.
Florida will join 14 other states whose minimum wage is over $8 an hour.
Democrats in the state legislature would like to see those wages raised even higher to $10.10 an hour, but that's unlikely to happen with Republicans in control of the House and Rick Scott in power.
President Obama has similarly called for the federal minimum wage to be raised to $10.10, but, again, with Republicans in control of Congress, that's probably not going to happen anytime soon.
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