Human Resource Blog

Florida Minimum Wage

Can you tell us more about the minimum wage laws that we need to know about for our company in Florida?

Sure. You will find that the basic minimum wage regulations are the same for Florida as they are for employers in states across the country. The major difference in the minimum wage regulations from state to state has to do with the specific minimum wage rate requirements for each state. Also, anyone who performs manual labor cannot legally be required to work more than 10 hours in a single dayThe statewide minimum wage that Florida employers need to pay their workers is $6.67.

This minimum wage rate is greater than the federal minimum wage rate. It often occurs that states set their own minimum wage rates that are higher than the federal minimum wage rate. When this happens, employers are required to pay the greater of the two amounts. The federal minimum wage is established by the Fair Labor Standards Act and is overseen by the Department of Labor.With regards to the Florida minimum wage, employers are required to pay this base hourly wage for all employees that qualify to receive the minimum wage. This rate will increase on January 1, 2008 to $6.79 per hour.

Also, there is no permium pay period for workers that work more than a certain number of hours each week, as there is with employers in other states. There are some employees that may not necessarily qualify to receive the $6.67 minimum wage rate if they are covered under the FLSA, including:

• Some employees that have disabilities
• Employees that are under the age of 20, during the first 90 consecutive hours that the employee works at a company
• Full-time students
• Student learners
• Tipped employees.

If an employer has an employee that is tipped, the employer is only required to pay the employee $3.65 per hour. The tips that the employee makes should add up to at least the hourly minimum wage, however, in the event that the tips do not add up to the hourly minimum wage rate, the employer must make up the difference. CB