Minimum wage will increase on January 1

Kyle Cavanaugh, Vice President, Office of Human Resource Services

Effective January 1, 2006, Florida’s minimum wage will increase to $6.40 per hour. This change will increase the state’s minimum wage to .25 cents more than the current $6.15 per hour minimum wage and $1.25 more than the national minimum wage of $5.15 per hour.

Florida’s minimum wage increase was created in a constitutional amendment approved by voters on November 2, 2004, and covers all employees in the state covered by the federal minimum wage. According to this amendment, Agency for Workforce Innovation will review the minimum wage each September and determine whether a cost of living adjustment is needed. Any adjustment made will be effective on January 1 of each year.

At the University of Florida, the new minimum wage will affect OPS employees, student assistants, and federal work study students. Departments do not need to take any action to increase the pay of current employees who are below this new minimum, but are asked to enter any terminations that will take place in December as early as possible. UF Bridges has created a process to identify all affected employees and will generate a job row in mid to late December to increase their hourly pay to $6.40.

This minimum wage increase does not affect TEAMS and USPS employees since the university’s minimum pay for these positions is $8.67 per hour.

Additional information, such as the date the job rows will be added, will be announced in future issues of the InfoGator newsletter, at HR Forums, and our web site.