Minimum wage workers in Florida are about to get a bump in their paychecks.
Minimum wage in Florida is currently $13 an hour for non-tipped employees and $9.98 for tipped employees. On Sept. 30, it goes up another dollar.
Thanks to the “Fair Wage” constitutional amendment voters narrowly passed in 2020, minimum wage in the state will increase by a buck every year until it reaches $15 an hour in 2026.
That’s considerably more than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, which hasn’t budged since 2009 despite dramatic increases in the cost of living. The federal minimum wage also includes a lengthy list of exceptions for jobs where employees can be paid less.
What is the minimum wage in Florida?
As of Sept. 25, Florida’s minimium wage is $13 an hour for non-tipped employees and $9.98 for tipped employees.
When is minimum wge going up in Florida?
On Sept. 30, 2025, that will change to $14 an hour for non-tipped employees and $10.98 for tipped employees.
It will go up again in September 2026.
What will raising the minimum wage do to business owners?
The amendment was opposed by several business groups in Florida who said small businesses would suffer.
“Businesses, focusing mainly on small businesses which make up around 95 percent of our membership, only have a finite amount of money they can allocate to salaries and still make a profit,” James Miller, a spokesman of the Florida Retail Federation, said when the amendment was proposed in 2019.
“By forcing a retailer to pay an employee(s) more, you’re going to force that retailer to do one of two things to protect their bottom line, either pay the increased wages and pass those increased costs onto customers in the form of higher prices or pay select employees that wage and let others go altogether,” he said.
The push for the amendment was led by Morgan & Morgan founder John Morgan, the chairperson for the political committee Florida For A Fair Wage, who said that the gradual increase would help businesses adjust and larger paychecks would help them retain employees longer.
“I think in the quiet of the night, fair people go, ‘There’s no way to live on $8 an hour,’ ” Morgan said.
How is 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. That’s the allowable tip credit established in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 2003. So the direct wage employers must pay is the minimum wage, minus $3.02.
Did Trump eliminate tax on tips?
The final version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that President Donald Trump signed on July 4, among many other things, allows workers in traditionally and customarily tipped industries to deduct up to $25,000 in tips.
However, if a tipped employee’s adjusted gross income goes over $150,000 ($300,00 for joint returns), the tip deduction gets reduced by $100 for every $1,000 over.
The “lines of business” allowed in the bill are food or beverage service, barbering and hair care, nail care, esthetics, and body and spa treatments.
The tip tax deduction begins in 2025 and may be claimed on the 2025 tax return in 2026. However, the deduction is temporary. It expires Dec. 31, 2028, right before Trump leaves office.
What is the federal minimum wage?
The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour since 2009.
Most states, including Florida, have established higher minimum wages and 21 states raised theirs at the beginning of the year. Michigan passed a gradual wage hike similar to Florida’s.
Fourteen states pay the federal minimum rate of $7.25, Georgia, Montana and Wyoming pay less, and Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee have no state minimum wage law.
Where is minimum wage going up? These states and cities are due for hikes in 2025
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.
According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) living wage calculator, the living wage in Florida as of February 2025 is $23.41 an hour for one adult with no children, $38.72 for an adult with one child, $47.53 for an adult with two children and $59.64 for an adult with three children.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Minimum wage in Florida going up Sept. 30. here’s how much
