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TAMPA, Fla. – Florida\u2019s <\/a>minimum wage is set to reach $15 an hour Wednesday, completing a six-year increase approved by voters in 2020.<\/p>\n Florida minimum wage increase <\/p>\n By the numbers:<\/p>\n The new wage affects an estimated 1.2 million Floridians. A full-time minimum-wage worker could earn about $2,100 more per year compared with the previous rate.<\/p>\n Florida voters approved a plan in 2020 to increase the state\u2019s minimum wage by $1 each year until it reached $15 an hour.<\/p>\n The wage rose from $9 to $10 in 2021 and continued increasing annually. Today\u2019s increase from $14 to $15 marks the final scheduled dollar increase under that plan.<\/p>\n The minimum wage will now be adjusted annually for inflation.<\/p>\n The required cash wage for tipped workers, including servers and bartenders, increases to $11.98 an hour. Tips can be used to make up the remaining $3.02 needed to reach the $15 minimum.<\/p>\n Supporters say the increase will put more money in workers\u2019 pockets and could boost consumer spending.<\/p>\n Florida now ranks 13th\u00a0in terms of highest minimum wage pay, which is now more than double the federal floor.\u00a0<\/p>\n The federal minimum wage has remained at $7.25 an hour since July 2009.<\/p>\n Business labor costs <\/p>\n Why you should care:<\/p>\n The increase gives eligible workers a higher wage base, but it also raises operating costs for businesses.<\/p>\n USF Assistant Professor Leo Chen said adding $1 per hour across a staff could result in tens of thousands of dollars in additional annual labor costs for businesses.<\/p>\n “For example, a business with 15 hourly employees, this $1 could increase their overall cost for the year above $40,000. If you use 5% net profit margin, then that would require over $800,000 revenue increase,” Chen said. “So, even though business owners have seen this coming, they will still have to gradually increase prices.”<\/p>\n Labor costs can also affect overtime calculations. Johan Gutierrez, CEO and founder of Oceanview Financials, works with restaurants across Florida and said some businesses may reduce overtime or staff levels.<\/p>\n Business automation adjustments <\/p>\n What’s next:<\/p>\n Businesses will begin operating under the new $15 minimum wage immediately.<\/p>\n Restaurant and hospitality leaders say they will continue evaluating staffing, operating hours, prices and automation as they adjust to the higher wage.<\/p>\n The Source: The information in this story was gathered from the text of Florida’s 2020 voter-approved constitutional minimum wage amendment, economic analysis provided by USF Assistant Professor Leo Chen, business consulting updates from Oceanview Financials CEO Johan Gutierrez, and previous reporting by FOX 13.\u00a0<\/p>\n Florida<\/a>Economy<\/a>Money<\/a>Business<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. – Florida\u2019s minimum wage is set to reach $15 an hour Wednesday, completing a six-year increase…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[558,47,2159,115,202,204,203,199,201,200,628,16338],"class_list":["post-415209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-business","tag-fl","tag-money","tag-news","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-us","tag-us-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/vlcsnap-2026-09-30-10h46m51s740.png\")
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