Florida’s minimum wage barely inches up

Kennin Patterson had slim job prospects last year, so he took a job as a kitchen manager for an Orlando tavern.

The 53-year-old found himself living on Florida’s statutory minimum wage — $8.05 an hour. He only needed the job for a few months, but without big savings or adequate income, he and his wife ended up homeless.

“I was used to making more. But I had to survive,” Patterson said, who has been a cook for most of his life. “We were both living in shelters. We couldn’t even afford to rent a place.”

Florida didn’t raise the minimum wage at all in 2015, even while job numbers, the stock market and housing have rapidly recovered from the Great Recession. This year, the state is raising it by 5 cents per hour to $8.10. During the past 10 years, the state’s minimum wage has inched up from $6.40.

Such small increases are not

enough to keep up with increases in rent, insurance and other household expenses, said Hector Sandoval, assistant professor of economics at University of Florida.

He said Florida’s statutory minimum wage, like most states, is tied to the Consumer Price Index. The index was launched by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the 1980s to measure a theoretic “basket of goods and services” used by the average consumer.

Unfortunately, Sandoval said, the CPI is “broken.” Despite the rebounding economy and fuller employment levels, inflation hasn’t registered measured increases while other consumer costs have risen.

“The Consumer Price Index is a very rough measure of the cost of living,” he said. “This is not telling us as much about the economy as it did once.”

For example, the CPI looks at the cost of medical services, but is not necessarily an accurate measure of cost increases in health insurance, he said.

And it doesn’t reflect the difficulty many people in the U.S., particularly in Central Florida, have in finding affordable housing.

Recently the U.S. Census reported new figures that showed the Orlando region is near the bottom and below the U.S. average for median household income — only

There’s been little scrutiny of how Florida arrives at its minimum wage.

above Tampa and Miami. The region’s median household income rose to an estimated $51,077 for 2015, which is up by 5.8 percent over the 2014 number.

Patterson managed to get a new job recently as a banquet and catering cook at a local country club. He declined to say how much he’s making now, but he said it is more than $11 per hour. He went through Goodwill’s GoodSource staffing program when he was struggling to find work and he credits the nonprofit with helping him.

Bill Oakley, president of Goodwill Industries of Central Florida, said the minimum wage has historically been for “gateway” jobs for teens, college students and people changing careers.

But that has changed in recent years, he said.

“We think that it is increasingly difficult for a person with minimum skills to advance, simply because they are eager and have some experience,” he said. “They need training and new skills, especially tech and computer skills.”

Despite the lack of movement in the minimum wage, there’s been little scrutiny of how Florida arrives at its minimum wage. That’s a stark difference from California, where the state set the minimum to rise steadily to $15 by 2021 in response to organized campaigns known as “Fight for 15.”

Amy Baker, coordinator of the Florida Office of Economic and Demographic Research, said she isn’t aware of any studies or other efforts to look at minimum wage.

“It was first set up by constitutional amendment. There’s not really been any discussion of how it’s done,” she said.

The large number of hotels, souvenir shops and restaurants in Orlando means that the minimum wage has a big impact here. Last year, Disney World led the way in a voluntary effort to raise its minimum wage to $10, and several other companies followed suit.

Timothy Haughee, an employment and labor attorney at Lowndes, Drosdick, Doster, Kantor & Reed, represents many companies in the hospitality industries.

He said there’s been very little concern about the minimum wage among his clients. They just have to adjust it by 5 cents Jan. 1 to avoid unpaid wage claims, he said.

Patterson said he thinks the minimum should be increased.

“The cost of living is high in Orlando.” he said. “Actually in many places it’s high.”