Florida minimum wage needs a boost

A lot of folks — including those of us on the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board — believe Florida’s minimum wage needs a pay raise.

The state’s minimum wage got kicked up a whole nickel — to $8.10 an hour — on Jan. 1. The state adjusts the minimum wage each year to align with the Consumer Price Index.

While the state’s rate is higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25, it is not a livable wage. And that is why John Morgan is somebody you should listen to.

Morgan, a personal injury attorney from Orlando, received plenty of statewide recognition for leading last year’s successful campaign to legalize medical marijuana. The constitutional amendment easily passed with 71 percent of the vote.

If Morgan, a Democrat, has his way, he’ll do for the minimum wage what he did for cannabis.

As he goes around the state — he is considering a run for governor in 2018 — Morgan is talking about putting a constitutional amendment on the 2018 or 2020 ballot to raise the state’s minimum wage to at least $12 an hour, and tying it to the cost-of-living index.

“People no longer have the American Dream,” he told us this week. “They are not paid enough. The harder people work, the further they get behind.

“The gulf between the rich and the poor is getting wider. The middle class is going to the lower middle class and the edges of poverty.”

Take the man seriously. He has the wealth — from hotels, shopping centers, a billboard company and his highly advertised “for the people” Morgan and Morgan law firm — to get his message across. He estimates he personally spent between $8 million and $9 million to pass the medical marijuana amendment. If he runs for governor in 2018, you can bet the minimum wage increase will be a big part of his platform.

You can also expect big business will fight any such increase, arguing that any uptick in wages will cause business to reduce jobs and lay people off.

We’re not unsympathetic to businesses, especially struggling small businesses, that would be required to increase worker pay. But even business owners have a hard time saying $8.10 an hour is a living wage. And there are some — like Morgan — who believe raising the minimum wage would give people more money to spend and actually stimulate more business and more jobs.

“I’ve been telling most of our businesses owners that the (minimum) wage needs to be competitive,” we were told by Dan Lindblade, president and CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce.

While Lindblade didn’t have a figure in mind for a minimum wage, he said the issue clearly needs to be addressed. He deserves credit for saying so.

Also deserving of credit are businesses like JM Family Enterprises, which last year raised its minimum wage to $16 an hour, or $33,280 a year, because it wanted its employees to have a “sustainable wage” that didn’t require they work a second job.

So, too, did Jaxson’s Ice Create Parlor in Dania Beach and Caffe Luna Rosa in Delray Beach raise their minimum wage to $10.10 an hour after former President Obama called on Congress to raise the minimum wage or try living on $15,000 a year.

Business groups often argue that the minimum wage isn’t meant to support a family of four, that it’s meant to help a young person get started in the work force. But for a lot of older workers, the only jobs available are those that pay minimum wage. That means a lot of households are headed by workers earning poverty wages.

Florida’s minimum wage ranks 27th highest nationally. Meanwhile, many states have enacted minimum wage increases scheduled to take effect over the next year or two, some to as much as $13 an hour.

Morgan is a brash talker whose words — and money — have changed Florida. He wants to do it again.

No matter what Morgan decides on the governor’s race, we can only hope his idea about raising the minimum wage gets traction in Florida.

Even business owners have a hard time saying $8.10 an hour is a living wage.