It’s no longer a matter of if, but when, Florida’s minimum wage will increase to $15 an hour.
Florida voters gave the idea the thumbs up by a slim margin on Tuesday, and that has left businesses bracing for the inevitable. The wage increase won't be immediate, but rather a gradual increase until minimum wage hits $15 an hour by 2026.
Meanwhile, for tens of thousands of part-time and low-wage earners like Alfredo Estrada, increasing Florida’s minimum wage to $15 an hour could be life-changing.
“Anything that’s helping people should be a good thing,” Estrada said.
Still, for small business owners and even bigger industries that rely on low-wage labor, it’s hard to see it that way.
“To be able to take everyone up there and have that be the place that we start from is scary, it’s a scary thing,” said restaurant owner Rayme Rossello, who wonders how she could suddenly pay her staff that much more.
