[MOforthewin]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

They call South Florida the "Wall Street of the South". Our financial sector is booming due to people like the guy in your NY building.

Florida just raised the minimum wage to $11/hr for workers who do not earn tips, and $7.68/hr for those who do earn tips.

Minimum wage was never meant to be a living wage, but many people get the two confused.

I don't care if I was offered a job that pays 120k a year. I wouldn't live in Miami or Broward counties. We moan about traffic in Southwest FL, it's bad there year round. Stifling traffic, even more overcrowded.

[StarryKnight1]

Originally Posted by MOforthewin

I don't care if I was offered a job that pays 120k a year. I wouldn't live in Miami or Broward counties. We moan about traffic in Southwest FL, it's bad there year round. Stifling traffic, even more overcrowded.

While the traffic here certainly has gotten worse over the years, there are (admittedly becoming rarer and rarer) brief periods of relief from it, mostly when the snowbirds go home during the non-winter months. But now that an increasing number of snowbirds are making SoFlo their year round residence, those brief periods are eroding fast.

[Ghaati]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

They call South Florida the "Wall Street of the South". Our financial sector is booming due to people like the guy in your NY building.

Florida just raised the minimum wage to $11/hr for workers who do not earn tips, and $7.68/hr for those who do earn tips.

Minimum wage was never meant to be a living wage, but many people get the two confused.

Minimum wage WAS meant to be a living wage. That's why it was created.

From Wikipedia:

Minimum wage legislation emerged at the end of the nineteenth century from the desire to end sweated labor which had developed in the wake of industrialization.[22] Sweatshops employed large numbers of women and young workers, paying them what were considered nonliving wages that did not allow workers to afford the necessaries of life.[23]

And the source [23] here:

Willis J., Nordlund (1997). The Quest for a Living Wage: The History of the Federal Minimum Wage Program. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-313-26412-2. OCLC 33983425.

If you don't like wikipedia, here's Cornell's Legal Information Institute:

The purpose of the minimum wage was to stabilize the post-depression economy and protect the workers in the labor force. The minimum wage was designed to create a minimum standard of living to protect the health and well-being of employees. Others have argued that the primary purpose was to aid the lowest paid of the nation's working population, those who lacked sufficient bargaining power to secure for themselves a minimum subsistence wage.

This was very much intended to provide a living wage. Women and children without men in their families after WWI were being forced to work 60+ hours at less than $5 per week in horrible conditions in factories, basically slave labor.

The minimum wage was so that women could be home with their infants at least part time - and their younger children (under 16) wouldn't have to end any hopes for an education by being forced into work. It was - absolutely, most definitely, intended to provide a -living wage.- It also allowed for those 16 year olds to help with their family's income, and still allow them to attend school (meaning - the minimum wage was intended to help provide a living wage even to part-time workers).

[Ghaati]

Also important to acknowledge that the minimum wage is considered entry level. People who take full-time jobs at minimum wage are expected to have some kind of goals involving improvement and promotion. Most minimum wage jobs are part-time, which makes them cease to be living wage. Especially in states like Florida, which don't even have their own labor department. There is no requirement in Florida to provide paid sick time or vacation time, or even breaks, to ANY adult employee. There's a mandatory 30 minute break for employees under 18 for every 4 continuous hours worked, but those 30-minute breaks don't have to be paid. There is no minimum or maximum hour law for adults, though overtime pay is mandatory for non-salaried workers.

If you work fewer than 20 hours per week average, your employer doesn't have to provide you with any benefits of any kind whatsoever (other than the 30 unpaid minutes/4 hours for minors).

Between 21 and 39 hours per week they only have to offer group insurance - but they don't have to cover the cost for it, because anything less than 40 hours is allowed to be considered "part time" in Florida.

So you can work 39 hours per week, with no breaks, no paid sick time, no vacation time, no personal days off, and you have to pay 100% of your insurance premiums. At $11/hour, your annual pay will be $22,880.

That's before federal income tax and social security taxes are deducted, before insurance premiums are paid. Now figure rent being over $1000/month in most of Florida, and you're looking at around $18,000 - 12,000, leaving around $6000 per YEAR for food, clothing, utilities, transportation.

Unfortunately the inflation rate went up significantly when the minimum wage remained stagnant nationwide. Federal minimum is still only $7.25/hour. And many states defer to the Fed minimum for their own minimum wage.

It's kinda hard to get out of poverty, when you start out IN poverty. Hard work won't get you an interview at a decent paying job if you can't afford a decent interview outfit, or the transportation to get to the interview.

[StarryKnight1]

Wages in Florida, in general, are, and have always been, universally lower than elsewhere in the nation, this is well researched and documented. It’s not news, that’s the way it has always been.

[Arcenal813]

Originally Posted by MisterRice

Wages in Florida, in general, are, and have always been, universally lower than elsewhere in the nation, this is well researched and documented. It’s not news, that’s the way it has always been.

Show the statistics… Per profession.

They’re not the greatest, but they tend to be right around average.

[StarryKnight1]

Also, nothing shouts “I just moved to Florida and am new here” like reporting on old issues BREAKING NEWS!!!! style that long-term full time residents and natives have been aware of for decades.

Reminds me of that Gene Wilder meme that ends with “You must be new here”

[DanielAvery]

To be fair, those jobs pay peanuts no matter where you go, not just Florida. Yes, you might get higher salaries for entry-level jobs in some areas, but that is only because the cost of living is higher in that area, which makes it all equalize in the end.

[StarryKnight1]

Originally Posted by DanielAvery

To be fair, those jobs pay peanuts no matter where you go, not just Florida. Yes, you might get higher salaries for entry-level jobs in some areas, but that is only because the cost of living is higher in that area, which makes it all equalize in the end.

I was about to say the same, especially in response to the poster that quoted me asking for specifics when I made it clear that I was speaking in general. I never said that Floridian jobs pay the lowest, what I said was that Floridian jobs pay lower on average, which is well documented on this forum and elsewhere (the search function is a great feature that allows one to research other poster’s claims).

Bottom line is that this “alert” isn’t newsworthy to anyone who has passed the 5 year mark as a Floridian.

[silverct9a]

Late response, but I’ll ask her if she ever ran across this judge

Originally Posted by MOforthewin

When I was in college 10 years ago, the attorney up in St. Louis who taught my business law class told me "Florida has too many lawyers, they don't need anymore."

It seems that way. Lots of bankruptcy, divorce attorney, personal injury, slip and fall, homeowners insurance, etc.

But when you think of Florida and all the old, rich people it's a gold mine when you think of it. Especially for estate and divorce attorneys.

Has your friend ever worked the bond court hearings for Broward County? For some reason their bond hearings are pretty comical. Did they ever appear before Judge Hurley? I don't think he does bond hearings that much anymore but they have a couple other judges who can get pretty animated.