Florida Sued Over Failure to Raise Minimum Wage

BRADENTON – Despite the news of six-figure salaries being paid to incoming staff at the state level, the State of Florida has still refused to raise the state minimum wage in order to come into compliance with its constitution. An amendment that was passed with overwhelming 72 percent voter approval requires the state to increase the minimum wage regularly to reflect increases in cost of living.

This week, a group of four workers brought suit against the Agency for Workforce Innovation, who reduced the state minimum from $7.21 to $7.06 on paper in 2010, citing deflation – though they didn't publish that reduction. At the time, the Federal minimum wage was higher, so it remained unnoticed until the agency used the unpublished rate as a base to calculate the wage.

Had the state not made that unpublished reduction, the required minimum would now be $7.31, which is 6 cents higher than the federal minimum. A previous Florida Supreme Court decision ruled that the wage should not go down, even in times of deflation. This was brought to AWI's attention, yet they still failed to raise the rate, prompting the suit.