By Zac Anderson
Oct 29, 2019
Florida for a Fair Wage announced it has collected 766,260 signatures; the next step is court review
The group pushing for a constitutional amendment that would increase Florida’s minimum wage to $15 an hour announced Tuesday that it has met the signature requirement to get on the 2020 ballot.
Florida for a Fair Wage said in a news release that the group has collected 766,260 petition signatures from registered voters. The last step to make it on the ballot is for the proposed amendment to pass a state Supreme Court review.
“Today, I am proud to stand alongside my fellow compassionate Floridians who believe, as I do, that their neighbors deserve the dignity of a living wage,” said John Morgan, the Orlando trial attorney who chairs Florida for a Fair Wage and has bankrolled the petition drive. “I am confident that the Supreme Court will have no objection to our amendment, and Floridians will be able to vote in favor of fair wages in their state.”
Dubbed the Fair Wage Amendment, the constitutional revision would gradually increase Florida’s minimum wage, upping it to $10 an hour in 2021 and by $1 an hour each subsequent year until the $15 an hour level is reached.
Florida’s minimum wage currently is $8.46 an hour, or $5.44 for employees who earn tips. The minimum wage for tipped employees also would gradually increase under the constitutional amendment.
Gov. Ron DeSantis criticized the $15 an hour minimum wage drive Monday during a speech to business leaders, saying it is “going to cause big, big upheavals for the restaurant industry. It just will.”
“When you put that in the Constitution, we can’t just go back and say, ‘Oh, let’s tweak it, let’s do that,’ ” DeSantis continued. “You literally would have to go back and do another constitutional amendment.”
Source: https://www.heraldtribune.com/news/20191029/florida-15-minimum-wage-drive-gains-enough-signatures