The Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, which represents many of the state’s low-wage tourism employers, is preparing for a brawl with Orlando trial attorney John Morgan and other supporters of raising the minimum wage to $15.
A new political action committee, called Save Florida Jobs, has raised $50,000 from the National Restaurant Association and $5,000 from Red Lobster to fight the wage amendment that will be on Florida’s ballot this year.
Raising the minimum wage could create unintended consequences, said Carol Dover, FRLA’s president and CEO, that could hurt its members. The association counts representatives from Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando, Olive Garden parent Darden Restaurants and McDonald’s as board members.
“Obviously we’ve got to raise money — it’s a very significant fight,” Dover said. “It’s a catastrophic issue for our industry … I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a single thing in my budget that I could take a 75% increase in and still be able to pay all of our bills.”
The PAC, set up last month, will finance FRLA’s fight against the amendment that would gradually raise Florida’s minimum wage to $15 by 2026. Florida’s minimum wage rose by a dime in 2020 to $8.56 an hour and increased by just 63 cents during the previous six years.
For the amendment to pass, it will need at least 60 percent of the vote in November.
The minimum wage would not immediately jump 75% if the amendment passes. The measure would increase Florida’s minimum wage first to $10 by September 2021 — a 17% increase. Then it would rise $1 a year until it hits $15 in September 2026.
Dover, who represents companies that employ 1.6 million tourism and service industry workers, said that increase could lead to job loses, benefit cuts and more companies turning to automation to replace workers.
“Many people [would have to] have two jobs and three jobs to make up for the one good job they have,” Dover said.
But Morgan, who said he’s collected 1 million signatures in support of the increase, noted many workers are already resorting to working multiple jobs to pay for basic needs.
“Would you rather work 32 hours and make $15 an hour or work 40 hours and make $8 an hour?” Morgan said. “You know what, cut me back, I’ll go get a second job at $15.”
Some of the region’s biggest employers including Disney have already committed to raising their starting hourly wages to $15 an hour. Disney will increase wages to that level by 2021 for its unionized employees. Universal will start workers at $15 an hour when it opens its new theme park, Epic Universe, in 2023.
In December, the Sentinel published a series of stories called “Laborland” on the role low wages play in creating hardship for many tourism workers, some who resort to sleeping in their cars and others who can’t afford a bedroom for their child.
Across the state, theme park attendants made a median hourly wage of $9.92 in 2018, while fast food cooks made $10.27 an hour and housekeepers earned $10.69, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Dover, who is from Orlando, said she knows “it’s tough there,” noting that hospitality businesses try to address worker issues with benefits like daycare and educational programs, such as the ones Disney and Orlando hotelier Harris Rosen offer.
But she added that “what we don’t want to do is take that worker that might be struggling and then eliminate a job and have no job.” Dover said some companies who are looking to build in Florida are waiting until the vote in November to make a final decision, but declined to name any specific businesses.
FRLA has taken on a minimum wage amendment before. In 2004, another PAC established by the association under a similar name, the Coalition to Save Florida Jobs, raised $4.1 million to fight an amendment that tied minimum wage increases to inflation, raising the floor to $6.15. Major donors behind the PAC included Disney, the Florida Retail Federation, Publix Super Markets, Outback Steakhouse, Burger King and Darden Restaurants.
The amendment passed with more than 70% of the vote.
Perhaps one of the best test cases for a minimum wage ordinance is Seattle, which increased starting pay in 2016. There, the results have been complex.
One study by economists at the University of Washington, which was published and later revised with more nuanced findings, found that workers who were already employed saw their take-home pay increase or stay about flat while working fewer hours. But, after the change took effect, fewer workers without prior experience who were seeking jobs were getting hired, the findings suggested. It’s unclear how much of Seattle’s booming economy aided by the technology industry played a role in the data.
Morgan sees the issue as simple. He employs low-wage workers at attraction WonderWorks, who he said he pays $13 or $14 an hour, and said he would “love” the opportunity to tell his business partners that they’d have to start everyone at $15 if the amendment passes.
“If somebody goes from $8 to $15, it is not just a little boost, it is life changing,” Morgan said. “They can get out of their car and get into an apartment.”
The story originally appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com.
Orlando Sentinel writer Jason Garcia contributed to this report.
Contact the reporter at ccarrazana@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5660; Twitter @ChabeliH
