JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Florida\u2019s minimum wage rises to $15 an hour Wednesday. In Jacksonville, that\u2019s still about $8 an hour short of what a single adult needs to cover the basics, according to MIT\u2019s Living Wage Calculator.<\/p>\n
The $1 increase is the last step in a series of annual raises Florida voters approved in 2020. Tipped workers\u2019 base pay rises to $11.98 an hour. Starting in 2027, the minimum wage will be adjusted each year for inflation.<\/p>\n
Doing the math<\/p>\n
A full-time worker earning $15 an hour makes about $31,200 a year, or about $2,600 a month before taxes. The raise adds about $40 a week before taxes.<\/p>\n
MIT estimates a single adult with no children in the Jacksonville area needs $23.09 an hour, or $48,037 a year before taxes, to get by.<\/p>\n
Housing is the biggest expense. MIT budgets about $1,354 a month for it. Transportation adds about $738, food about $377, and medical costs about $261. Those basics alone come to about $2,730 a month. That\u2019s more than a full-time minimum-wage worker earns before taxes, and it doesn\u2019t include a phone bill or internet.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrices aren\u2019t going down any right now, and everything seems to be going up,\u201d Jacksonville resident Embree Walker said.<\/p>\n
Where you live matters<\/p>\n
Rent varies widely across the city. Near Brooklyn, the average one-bedroom runs more than $1,650 a month. In Jacksonville Heights, one-bedrooms go for about $700 to $900.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just being honest, people can\u2019t afford housing, and I don\u2019t see it getting no better no time soon,\u201d Jacksonville resident Eugene Sykes said.<\/p>\n
The cost to businesses<\/p>\n
Rebekah Paxton, with the Employment Policies Institute, said wage mandates like Florida\u2019s can backfire. She said restaurants are already dealing with rising food costs, taxes, and rent.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo what we typically see is that restaurants have to either reduce the number of staff they have, reduce the number hours that they give those staff on their schedules, potentially raise prices at the same time, you know, move to more automation,\u201d Paxton said.<\/p>\n
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