Minimum wage workers across the state of Florida are set to get a pay hike on Thursday.
The current minimum wage across the Sunshine State is $8.65 per hour, but on Thursday that goes up by $1.35 to $10 per hour.
The pay increase comes nearly a year after 61% of Florida voters passed Amendment 2 in the November 2020 general election. Amendment 2 provided for the state minimum wage to rise over the next several years until it eventually reaches $15 per hour — which was a change to Section 24 of Article X in the Florida Constitution.
[TRENDING: Family of missing 19-year-old last seen near UCF pleads for help | Man set up Facebook livestream before attacking Orlando officers, police say | Become a News 6 Insider (it’s free!)]
Thursday pay hike is the first of six for minimum wage workers. The pay increase schedule looks like this:
- $10 on Sept. 30, 2021
- $11 on Sept. 30, 2022
- $12 on Sept. 30, 2023
- $13 on Sept. 30, 2024
- $14 on Sept. 30, 2025
- $15 on Sept. 30, 2026
Orlando trial attorney John Morgan led the effort to get Amendment 2 on the ballot, investing $6 million of his own money into the initiative.
The last time Florida had voted on a minimum wage ballot measure was in 2004. Florida Amendment 5 was approved and provided for a $6.15 per hour minimum wage set to increase each year based on changes in the CPI-W or inflation. That rule caused the state’s minimum wage to rise from $8.56 per hour to $8.65 per hour earlier this year.