A stroll down minimum wage memory lane

Today, the Florida minimum wage will be raised to meet the Federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour – a small increase of the state minimum wage set by constitutional amendment in 2004, which faced virulent opposition. It was a hard fought battle between progressive organizations, such as ACORN and labor unions, and business groups, like the Florida Chamber of Commerce and Florida Retail Federation. It ultimately ended with Florida’s workers receiving an increase in their pay.

The opponents – members of the Coalition to ‘Save Florida Jobs’ – wrongly predicted that raising the minimum wage would kill thousands of jobs and have a catastrophic impact on Florida’s economy. Of course, their end of the world predictions never came true, and in fact, by 2006, studies showed that unemployment decreased after the amendment passed and wages began to increase.

Who are the folks who perpetuated mistruths and fought against fair wagers for workers? Let’s go over some of the players below.

The coalition consisted of the usual business groups who are anti-worker and anti-consumer: the Florida Restaurant Association, Florida Chamber of Commerce and National Federation of Independent Business, to name a few. I’d like to zero in on a couple of the specific coalition partners.

Publix Super Markets donated $100,000 to the Coalition to Save Florida Jobs and really exemplifies how anti-worker some of the coalition partners can be. Besides fighting the minimum wage increase, Publix has been sued multiple times for race and gender discrimination, failed to properly train and protect workers resulting in numerous injuries and deaths, failed to provide healthcare to low wage employees resulting in their medical care being paid for by taxpayers, and fired employees for having union ties. Publix – where shopping used to be a pleasure.

The Florida Retail Federation was one of the major forces behind the Coalition to Save Florida Jobs. Richard McAllister, their CEO and one of the main spokespeople for campaign, adamantly opposed any increase in Florida’s minimum wage, claiming it would reduce jobs and drastically impact Florida’s economy. He even said raising the minimum wage “scares him to death.” He had to later recant these comments when it was clear that the minimum wage had a positive impact on Florida. As if being anti-worker wasn’t enough, the Florida Retail Federation was even against price gouging legislation to protect consumers after the 2004 hurricane season where gas stations and other businesses took advantage of consumers affected by the storms. The legislation passed in 2005 but was severely weakened by the FRF and other groups.

Today, we can look forward to fairer wages for Florida’s workers, but we must not forget the special interest groups who fought positive change in the past. It seems that the same anti-worker and anti-consumer organizations and businesses rear their ugly heads every legislative session and election cycle.

When special interests attack »