March 08, 2005
Low wage Republicans work to gut minimum wage
Last November, voters in Florida passed a constitutional amendment raising the minimum wage by $1, to $6.15 per hour, and indexing it to inflation. Though only 3.1 percent of Florida's work force makes less than $6.15 per hour and would be directly impacted by raising the floor, Amendment 5 passed with more than 70 percent support. That suggests voters see raising a wage that hadn't been adjusted since 1997 as a matter of basic fairness.Posted by Norwood at March 8, 2005 05:09 AMWhy then is the Legislature entertaining proposals that might weaken the new amendment and make it difficult to enforce? Could it be that some of the state's leading lawmakers are more interested in protecting business interests than in looking out for low-wage workers?
......Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, the only member to vote against the bill, said the committee "did an injustice to the amendment.
"(My colleagues) say they want to do the will of the people, but every time the people say what they want, we find a way to ignore or emasculate it."
The people passed Amendment 5 to provide some wage relief to the dishwashers, hotel maids and retail clerks of our state, yet lawmakers seem to be intent on making it difficult for them to assert their new rights. Before this bill is finally passed, it needs some major overhauling and a completely different point of view.
