What is Florida's minimum wage in 2024? You may see a bump in your paycheck this month

C. A. Bridges, USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida
·6 min read

If you're making minimum wage, your paycheck is about to get bigger again.

Florida's minimum wage will be rising again this month for the fourth year in a row, thanks to an amendment Florida voters approved in 2020. Under the amendment, the state's minimum wage was bumped up from $8.65 to $10 in 2021, with another dollar raise to come every year until it reaches $15 an hour for non-tipped employees and $10.98 for tipped employees.

The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour and has been since 2009. The minimum wage for tipped employees is $2.13.

What is Florida's minimum wage in 2024?

Florida's minimum wage is $12 an hour for non-tipped employees and $8.98 for tipped employees.

After this year's raise, minimum wage will become $13 an hour for non-tipped employees and $9.98 for tipped employees.

When will Florida's minimum wage go up again?

The minimum wage rates for both tipped and non-tipped employees will rise on Sept. 30, 2024, and will rise again in 2025 and 2026.

Is the minimum wage in Florida $15?

Not yet, but it will be in 2026.

Which states have the highest minimum wage?

Several states have passed minimum wage increases in recent years. The current highest minimum wages in the country, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, are:

  • Washington D.C.: $17.50 an hour

  • Washington state: $16.28 an hour

  • California: $16 an hour

  • New York (New York City, Nassau County, Suffolk County, & Westchester County): $16 an hour

  • Oregon (Portland Metro area): $15.95 an hour

  • Connecticut: $15.69 an hour

  • New Jersey: $15.13 an hour

  • Maryland, Massachusetts, rest of New York: $15 an hour

What is the lowest minimum wage in the U.S.?

Twenty states pay the federal minimum rate of $7.25, which is mandatory for any jobs covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Some states allow lower minimum wages for jobs that are not covered, such as:

  • Georgia: $5.15 an hour

  • Montana: $4 an hour for any business making less than $110,000 a year

  • Oklahoma: $2 an hour for any business with less than 10 employees at any one location or any business making less than $100,000 a year

Alabama, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming have no state minimum wage. Employers subject to the FLSA must pay $7.25 an hour but there is no minimum wage mandated for jobs that are not covered. Nebraska's $12 an hour is only applicable for employers of four or more employees.

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Which states are raising minimum wage in 2024?

Twenty-two states raised minimum wages as of Jan. 1, 2024 and Florida, Nevada and Oregon will raise theirs in 2024.

Where workers are getting a raise: 25 states are raising the minimum wage in 2024

What happens after Florida's minimum wage hits the $15 cap?

The amendment was intended to get minimum wages more in line with current costs of living. After it reaches $15, the state will return to the previous method of calculating cost-of-living adjustments tied to the Consumer Price Index.

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.

In 2024, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) living wage calculator found that the living wage in Florida is $22.43 for one adult with no children, $37.27 for an adult with one child, $45.36 for an adult with two children and $58.76 for an adult with three children.

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How much does a tipped employee make without tips in Florida?

Employers of tipped employees must pay their employees minimum wage, but according to the FLSA they can count the tips the employees receive toward that amount, up to the maximum of $3.02. So the direct wage employers must pay is the minimum wage minus $3.02.

The current minimum wage in Florida is $12 an hour, so the tipped minimum wage is $8.98. Both will go up a dollar each until they reach $15 an hour for non-tipped employees and $11.98 for tipped employees.

Do minimum wage laws in Florida apply to all employers?

No, there are certain occupations and situations where the Department of Labor allowed exemptions to the federal minimum wage law where employees may be paid less. These include, among others:

  • Executive, administrative and professional employees

  • Commissioned sales employees

  • Farm workers

  • Seasonal or recreational establishment workers

  • Newspaper delivery people

  • Federal criminal investigators

  • Informal workers such as babysitters

  • Minors under certain circumstances

  • Student workers

  • Employees with disabilities if the employer has a certificate from the Department of Labor allowing it (a measure to encourage more employers to hire people with disabilities)

  • Nonprofit or educational organizations that have applied for an exemption, and others.

  • Employees of enterprises with an annual gross income of less than $500,00

What was the minimum wage in Florida before?

Florida's minimum wage was tied to the federal minimum wage created in 1938 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 which set the minimum hourly wage at 25 cents, banned oppressive child labor and capped the maximum workweek at 44 hours. In 2005, Florida voters approved Amendment 5 to establish a state minimum wage over the federal standard. Florida has paid its minimum wage workers more than the federal minimum ever since.

Amendment 5 brought the hourly wage for non-tipped employees to $6.15, a dollar more than the federal minimum at the time, and required the Department of Economic Opportunity to calculate an adjusted state minimum wage rate based on the rate of inflation for the 12 months prior to Sept. 1, based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers. There have been several increases since:

  • 2005: Raised to $6.15 an hour

  • 2006: Raised to $6.40 an hour

  • 2009: Raised to $7.21 an hour

  • 2010: Raised to $7.25 an hour

  • 2016: After 6 years, raised to $8.05 an hour

  • 2017: Raised to $8.10 an hour

  • 2018: Raised to $8.25 an hour

  • 2019: Raised to $8.45 an hour

  • 2021: Raised to $10 an hour to meet requirements from the 2020 amendment

  • 2022: Raised to $11 an hour

  • 2023: Raised to $12 an hour

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Florida's minimum wage increasing again on path to $15 an hour