More than half of all workers earning Minimum wage are Black or Hispanic.
Federal officials haven't raised the federal minimum
wage of $5.15 an hour since 1997. Some states have adopted higher
minimum wages to help workers at the bottom of the labor force, and
voters will decide the issue in Florida during the Nov. 2 election. A
ballot proposal, called Amendment 5, would raise the minimum wage
statewide to $6.15 an hour, with annual increases after that to keep
pace with inflation. Since 1997, the number of states with minimum
wages higher than the federal level has risen from five to 13,
according to the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal economic think
tank. This month, however, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of
California vetoed a bill that would have raised California's minimum
wage from $6.75 an hour to $7.25 in 2005 and to $7.75 in 2006.
Schwarzenegger said the legislation would discourage economic growth.
In Florida, raising the minimum wage to $6.15 an hour would directly
affect 304,000 workers, or 4.8 percent of the state's work force,
according to the Economic Policy Institute. If the percentages hold
true locally, that would be more than 10,800 minimum-wage workers in
Brevard County. The proposal also could affect another 464,000 workers
in Florida who now earn between $6.15 and $7.15 an hour, the institute
found. [more ]
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