{"id":57396,"date":"2025-08-22T18:27:37","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T22:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=57396"},"modified":"2025-08-22T18:27:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T22:27:43","slug":"goodbye-to-13-an-hour-florida-raises-minimum-wage-in-2025-and-moves-closer-to-historic-15-cap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/08\/22\/goodbye-to-13-an-hour-florida-raises-minimum-wage-in-2025-and-moves-closer-to-historic-15-cap\/","title":{"rendered":"Goodbye to $13 an hour\u2014Florida raises minimum wage in 2025 and moves closer to historic $15 cap"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Starting September 30, 2025<\/strong>, workers across Florida<\/strong> will see their paychecks get a little bigger. The state\u2019s minimum wage<\/strong> is going up from $13 to $14 <\/strong>an hour, part of the plan set out in the Florida Amendment 2.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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Voters approved that amendment during the 2020 U.S. elections to make sure workers get steady raises every year. The idea is simple: if the cost of living and inflation keep climbing, wages should climb too. That\u2019s why people in Florida decided they weren\u2019t going to wait around any longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Florida\u2019s Department of Economic Opportunity confirmed the change and keeps reminding everyone\u2014workers and businesses\u2014that the state is on its way to a $15 minimum wage by 2026. When you compare that to the federal minimum wage, which has been stuck at $7.25<\/strong> since 2009, Florida\u2019s progress feels huge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who gets the $14 minimum rise?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The raise applies to most jobs covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act\u2014the federal law that sets wage rules for part-time and full-time workers. That means people in restaurants, retail, and service jobs around Florida, which are industries where Latin American immigrants<\/a> play a major role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tipped workers will benefit too. Their cash wage will increase to $10.98 per hour<\/strong>, with tips filling the rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s clear how quickly things have changed. In 2020, Florida\u2019s minimum was $10 an hour, this September it will be $14, and just next year it will hit $15. For workers making low incomes, those extra dollars add up not just on paper, but in daily life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It looks like a big change\u2014yes, progress has been made\u2014but it\u2019s actually just what\u2019s fair for the people. Inflation has been rising for a long time, even more since Covid, so if inflation keeps going up, shouldn\u2019t the minimum wage go up too?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why voters backed the change<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did voters support the Florida Amendment 2<\/strong> with nearly 60% approval? Well, the answer to that is more than simple: because the math wasn\u2019t adding up. The cost of living, like rent, groceries, transportation, was rising fast, and wages weren\u2019t keeping pace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The federal minimum wage<\/strong> hadn\u2019t moved in over 15 years<\/a>, It\u2019s still $7.25<\/strong> an hour, and that\u2019s just not enough to live on, even as families across the United States stretched their budgets thinner and thinner, which is nearly an insult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By approving gradual increases, Floridians sent a clear message: workers deserve paychecks that reflect today\u2019s economy, not yesterday\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many families, this change is about more than numbers. It\u2019s about paying the electric bill on time, affording healthier food, or maybe saving a little for the future. That extra dollar per hour can make a very real difference for many.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By September 2026, the state\u2019s minimum wage <\/strong>will reach $15<\/strong> per hour. After that, Florida will tie future increases to inflation, so wages don\u2019t fall behind again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Starting September 30, 2025, workers across Florida will see their paychecks get a little bigger. The state\u2019s minimum wage is going up from $13 to $14 an hour, part of the plan set out in the Florida Amendment 2.… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDhcL2ltYWdlcy0xLTMud2VicD9maXQ9Mjk0JTJDMTcxJnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiR29vZGJ5ZSB0byAkMTMgYW4gaG91clx1MjAxNEZsb3JpZGEgcmFpc2VzIG1pbmltdW0gd2FnZSBpbiAyMDI1IGFuZCBtb3ZlcyBjbG9zZXIgdG8gaGlzdG9yaWMgJDE1IGNhcCIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiaGlnaHdheSIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.QekvUIzlOJooZRiiufLle6Eh-rPyZGvjvafhQv-1n7UMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":57397,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/images-1-3.webp","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[12024],"class_list":["post-57396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-goodbye-to-13-an-hour-florida-raises-minimum-wage-in-2025-and-moves-closer-to-historic-15-cap"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57396"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57398,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57396\/revisions\/57398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}