Florida TaxWatch Analysis of Amendment 2: Florida’s $15 Minimum Wage Initiative

Oct 5, 2020

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Today, Florida TaxWatch (FTW) released a special report, Amendment 2: Florida’s $15 Minimum Wage Initiative analyzing the impacts on businesses and taxpayers of Florida’s $15 minimum wage initiative which will go before the voters this November as Amendment 2. In this report, TaxWatch finds a fundamental problem with increasing the minimum hourly wage to $15 is that while intended to create winners, it creates many more unintended losers, creating the potential for detrimental effects on taxpayers, small business, and low-skill workers. A 2019 report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that while implementing a federal $15 minimum wage could raise 1.3 million Americans out of poverty, as many as 3.7 million Americans who would otherwise be employed would be jobless as a result.”

HDG Hotels Chief People and Culture Officer Lisa Lombardo said, “Our industry is still struggling from the loss of team members and revenues associated with COVID-19. If a mandate to increase minimum wage goes into effect, the tourism industry – what is supposed to stand as the number one industry for the Sunshine State – will fall further into dark times.””

Click here to read the full article