Many Workers Could See Pay Cut if Florida Ends Local ‘Living Wage’ Laws

Union leaders are warning that “hundreds of thousands” of workers across Florida would be forced to take a pay cut if state legislators pass a bill that would prevent local governments from mandating their own minimum wages.

The move would affect businesses that contract with counties to provide government services, jobs such as pushing wheelchairs at the airport, baggage handlers, janitorial work or cutting the grass. In Miami-Dade alone, that accounts for 28,864 workers, said Jess McCarty, Miami-Dade’s executive assistant county attorney.

He said lowering wages to the state’s $11-an-hour means a monthly income of about $1,800 a month, but “the average 1-bedroom apartment in Miami-Dade County is $1,900 a month,” he told lawmakers Monday. “Our concern is obviously with those families.”

Local government contracts already in place are grandfathered in, but future contracts would not be, if the bill were to pass.

Some legislators praised the initiative for support of small business, including Rep. Chip LaMarca, R- Lighthouse Point, who voted in favor of it. LaMarca could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Rep. Toby Overdorf, R- Palm City, said, “I do not want government to tell me I have to pay my employees a certain rate.”

Voters set the minimum rate, and “we can’t allow governments across the state to start creating their own thing,” said Mike Giallombardo, a Republican from Cape Coral.

Rich Templin, the government relations chief for Florida AFL-CIO, a labor union, told lawmakers this week that “when you go home you will have to explain why you voted to the cut the wages of your constituents.”

“Where is the compelling interest?” he asked, saying only a few private companies were pushing for the legislation.

“More money in pockets” means “more money in local economies,” he argued.

“They are not going to be able to afford to live there,” he said of areas in South Florida and Orlando.

The minimum wage in Florida now is $11 and it is scheduled to increase to $12 on Sept. 30. Florida voters approved a mandate in 2020 to make the minimum wage $15 by 2026.

But for those who work for companies that contract with local government, there are different rules.

In Miami-Dade County, workers earns $15.03 an hour with health benefits, and $18.73 without. The increase is built into the county contracts, with the employer absorbing the funds.

But in Broward County, it’s taxpayers who pay to bring workers up to a living wage since the county budgets to pay workers the difference.

In Broward, security officers earn $17.17 with health insurance, or $20.82 without health insurance. All other employees in Broward County earn $15 an hour with health benefits, or $18.65 without under the living wage ordinance.

The Broward County Commission passed its first living wage ordinance in 2002, promoted as a way to improve the quality of life for low income workers. In 2014 the categories were expanded to concessionaire services and certain retail services at airport terminals and the car rental center.

In 2015 it was expanded again include all contracted service workers at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

At the time, the county hired the Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy at Florida International University to conduct a study on expanding the living wage to cover 1,200 airport workers. “The study found that expanding the living wage would reduce economic hardships and reliance on government assistance, increase spending in Broward County, reduce absenteeism, lower turnover and training costs and result in higher productivity and skill levels of workers,” according to a county document.

Helene O’Brien, director of SEIU 32BJ, a union representing janitors, security officers and airport workers in Florida, said Wednesday that the companies lobbying for the bill “are trying to have more minimum wage jobs so they can pay less.”

“Big companies don’t want to pay a lot. They are trying to fight inflation the evil way,” she said. “It’s crazy when you think about the rent, the food, the insurance costs. It feels so freaking un-American” to lower wages.

In October, some of those workers pleaded with county commissioners to increase benefits saying they could not pay their student loans and struggled to pay medical bills.

Broward Vice Mayor Nan Rich said because the county budgets money to offset the wages for low-income workers who work for contractors, the state bill would dictate how the county spends its own money.

“We have low wages in South Florida and a high cost of housing,” she said. “If you’re going to roll back what we have done as a county, that’s outrageous.”

“You’re doing exactly the opposite of what you should be doing. This is making it worse. We’re asking them to leave us alone when it comes to money we are funding on a local level.”

Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at [email protected]. Follow on Twitter @LisaHuriash

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