Minimum wage push: shooting blanks?

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

 

Acknowledging their decision may have no impact whatsoever, Key West City Commissioners have voted to explore whether they have the power to increase the minimum wage paid to private company employees in the city.

 

Under state law, a municipality only has the authority to increase wages above the official minimum wage to its own staff and to its vendor employees on specific contract. But Florida’s current minimum wage of $8.05 an hour isn’t enough for most Key West employees to pay their bills, said Key West Mayor Craig Cates.

 

“I know the federal government sets the minimum wage and state law says we can’t change that. What I want to do is direct our city attorney to investigate. Can Key West get a special exception because of the high cost of living here? I believe we should investigate this,” Cates said.

 

Commissioners voted 5-2 to approve the resolution, with commissioners Billy Wardlow and Mark Rossi voting against. Rossi, who owns a large entertainment complex on Duval Street that employees minimum wage workers, has said in the past that the market, not government, should dictate wage policy.

 

Florida already mandates a higher minimum wage than the federal government’s $7.25 an hour rate. But Florida also allows a lower minimum wage for tipped employees at $5.03 an hour.

 

Although he voted for Cates’ resolution, Commissioner Jimmy Weekley warned that boosting pay levels could force local business owners to increase prices to pay for it.

 

“It’s a spiraling effect. That means the cost of everything else goes up. It can cause a different effect than you want to see,” he said.

 

But Commissioner Teri Johnston argued that increasing wages could actually reduce costs for business owners because higher pay could lead to lower staff turnover.

 

“What does a 40 percent turnover rate cost you in terms of cost of goods,” she said.

 

Key West has already begun to put its money where its mouth is, budgeting $1.2 million in this year’s fiscal year budget to give raises to 128 of the city’s lowest paid workers. The pay boost is part of a five-year plan based on a recent survey of Key West government employee salaries that showed a significant gap between their paychecks and what the market currently pays for the same job. Two-thirds of Key West’s 460 city workers are significantly underpaid as compared to comparable salary ranges at other public sector entities, according to Evergreen Solutions, the Tallahassee-based company that conducted the salary survey.

 

 

 

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