After long months of waiting, the Florida Supreme Court ruled against the Miami Beach municipal ordinance that establishes a gradual increase for the minimum wage to 13.31 dollars per hour.
The state’s new high court, which has three new judges appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, ruled 5-2 against the Miami Beach ordinance, to overcome the previous 4 to 3 vote that took the case in August, and failed that a state law, which was established in 2003, prohibits municipal governments from establishing the minimum wage.
In fact, that was the main argument of the then state attorney Pam Bondi, who refuted the idea of the increase by not considering it “legal” before the state statutes.
However, the Miami Beach proposal was strongly rejected by business groups, including the powerful Florida Chamber of Commerce, as well as Florida Retail Federation and Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association, who stated that “the increase would damage the state’s economy and trigger inflation. “
Background
Almost two years ago, when Philip Levine was mayor of Miami Beach and had not yet submitted his candidacy for governor, the city’s legislative commission unanimously approved an ordinance that would establish the minimum wage at $ 10.31 an hour in 2018 with gradual increases during 2021 to reach 13.31 dollars per hour.
Then, the minimum wage in Florida was 8.10 dollars per hour and since last January 1 is 8.46, according to the state law, which establishes an annual increase according to the inflation rate.
Miami Beach defended the idea of the increase with evidence and testimonies from residents of the municipality who could barely meet their basic needs to get to the end of the month, while earning $ 8.10 per hour, which is equivalent to receiving $ 1024 a month after paying taxes federal and contribution to retirement.
In March 2017, Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Peter Lopez ruled that the municipality violated state law by imposing a minimum wage, but Miami Beach appealed the decision, which was later analyzed by the Florida Supreme Court.
In that interim period, the composition of the highest judicial body of the state changed: three of the judges who voted before to analyze the case are no longer in agreement with the mandatory retirement age of the state of 70 years, and the new judges, appointed by Governor DeSantis, Barbara Lagoa, Robert Luck and Carlos Muniz could have changed the balance of assessments.
However, the current mayor of Miami Beach, Dan Gelber, told WLRN radio “this is not over, we do not give up” and that he would support the management of lawyer John Morgan in taking to the polls of Florida the request to go up the minimum wage at $ 15 per hour.
The proposal has some 120,000 signatures, many more than you need to get the Supreme Court of Florida to review the wording of the proposal. If the highest court of the state approves the brief, Morgan and his support team would go to the ring to get the 766,200 signatures needed to take the proposal to the general elections of 2020.
