State of Florida minimum wage will increase on January 1, 2009

Paula Fussell, Interim Vice President for Human Resources

Effective January 1, 2009, the State of Florida’s minimum wage will increase to $7.21 per hour. This is up from the $6.79 per hour minimum wage in 2008 and applies to all employees in the state who are covered by the federal minimum wage. Florida law requires the Agency for Workforce Innovation to calculate a new minimum wage each year and publish the new minimum wage on January 1.

In deciding whether the federal or state minimum wage applies, federal law directs that businesses must pay the higher of the two. The Florida minimum wage will prevail over the federal rate until such time as the federal minimum wage becomes higher than the state rate. The federal minimum wage will increase to $7.25 on July 24, 2009. On this date, Florida employers must increase the minimum wage from $7.21 to $7.25.

The Florida and federal minimum wage will increase as follows:

$6.79 – January 1, 2008 (Current Florida Minimum Wage)
$7.21 – January 1, 2009 (New Florida Minimum Wage)
$7.25 – July 24, 2009 (New Federal and Florida Minimum Wage)

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. New job rows increasing the minimum of affected employees will be created centrally.

This minimum wage increase does not affect TEAMS or USPS employees since the university’s minimum pay for these positions was changed to $9.02 per hour with the salary increases implemented September 19, 2008.

Florida’s minimum wage poster is available in English and Spanish as a download from the Agency for Workforce Innovation’s web site at: http://www.floridajobs.org/workforce/posters.html. Additional information, such as the date the job rows will be created, will be announced in future issues of the InfoGator newsletter and in upcoming HR Forums, and posted on the Human Resource Services web site at http://www.hr.ufl.edu.