Some South Florida workers could see pay cut down to minimum wage. Here’s what to know
Local government contractors could soon be allowed to reduce employee wages if a bill making its way through the Florida House becomes law.
The bill, HB 917, would allow Major League Baseball to pay minor league players less than the minimum wage, and could also bar local “living wage” ordinances like the ones that require companies with six-figure Miami-Dade County government contracts to pay their workers a higher hourly rate.
READ MORE: Thousands of workers could see cut in pay under Florida House plan for uniform wages
The bill has passed through several committees. However, a companion Senate bill, SB 892, doesn’t include language that would prohibit “living wage” ordinances.
Here’s what to know about the bills and how they could affect Floridians.
Impacts on South Florida
Florida law regulates base hourly pay by private companies. But dating back to 1999, local governments in Florida have passed ordinances that require companies with government contracts to pay employees above the state’s minimum wage, which currently sits at $11 an hour.
The proposal moving through the House would change that.
A House committee amended the proposal Monday so that current contracts couldn’t be affected. But if passed, the bill as constituted seeks to prohibit future living wage ordinances.
Miami-Dade’s living wage ordinance applies to companies with contracts with the county worth at least $100,000. It ensures more than 28,000 employees, including health care professionals, airport workers and custodians, are making at least $15.03 per hour with health benefits or $18.73 per hour without health benefits.
In Broward, about 5,000 employees earn at least $15 per hour with health benefits under the county’s own ordinance.
Following the money
The bills have the backing of powerful business groups and similar measures had previously been pushed unsuccessfully, including last year by Power Design, a St. Petersburg-based electrical company that paid millions to settle a wage-theft case in 2020.
Since September, the company has donated $60,000 to Gov. Ron DeSantis and $70,000 to a political action committee controlled by its lobbyists.
A day after the House bill and its companion were introduced in February, the billionaire owner of the Chicago Cubs donated $1 million to DeSantis’ campaign, reporter Jason Garcia wrote in his Seeking Rents newsletter on Substack.
Reactions to the proposal
The labor market — not local ordinances — would dictate how much these workers should be paid, said bill sponsor Rep. Brad Yeager, R-New Port Richey.
“When a company cannot find workers, they will have to increase their wages,” Yeager said in committee. “That’s what the free market will do.”
Labor unions like AFL-CIO, however, argue that the bill would hurt workers while the cost of living continues to rise.
“You guys have talked a lot about inflation, the [President Joe] Biden inflation,” Rich Templin, a lobbyist for the AFL-CIO, told lawmakers Monday. “How is this helping people survive the Biden inflation?”
Herald/Times staff writer Lawrence Mower contributed to this report.
