Florida’s 2020 ballot will include $15 minimum wage question. (AP)

I've advocated for a $15/hour minimum wage since December 2005. Not one local government here has ever even put the matter on its agenda.
Only one local elected official (former St. Augustine Vice Mayor Susan Burk) ever asked for information to read.
The local political machine, motivated by anti-worker animus, long ignored requests to pay employees decently, while overpaying mendacious managers, like Michelle O'Connell homicide coverup Medical Examiner Dr. PREDRAG BULIC, M.D., Medical Examiner, fired County Administrator MICHAEL DAVID WANCHICK, et al. WANCHICK offered generous health care benefits "to stave off unionization," he once admitted in a health committee held out of the Sunshine without public comment.
Sexist, misognynist, racist, homophobic WANCHICK was fired on November 19, 2019 -- there's more than one way to skin a Republican.
Alone among local government entities, our Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County pays all employees, including interns, at least $15/hour.
Thanks to indefatigable campaigners, our $15/hour minimum wage will be on the ballot November 3, 2019.
Now, the people of Florida get to decide the matter as a matter of constitutional law.

Florida’s 2020 ballot will include $15 minimum wage question

By GARY FINEOUT 12/19/2019 02:14 PM EST
Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE — Voters in the battleground state of Florida will decide in November 2020 whether to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour.

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the constitutional amendment pushed by Orlando trial attorney John Morgan could be placed on the ballot. The decision is expected to spark fierce opposition from business groups and the state’s tourism industry, which say the initiative could lead to job losses.

It also puts a high-profile, liberal-backed issue on the ballot in a state that will be a cornerstone to President Donald Trump‘s reelection campaign. Leading Democratic candidates, including former Vice President Joe Biden and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, have endorsed a $15 minimum wage.

“Now the sprint to reverse decades of inequality really starts and let me tell you, this is going to be a tough challenge,” said Morgan, who said he was confident the measure would win approval from voters. “I’m confident because Floridians are compassionate and know that giving every worker a fair wage means not just lifting up those who would directly benefit, but lifting up our broader economy when hardworking folks have more money to spend.”

The court, which currently has two vacancies, concluded that the minimum wage amendment sticks to a single subject and the summary given to voters is “clear and unambiguous“, as required by state law.

Ballot organizers had already collected the nearly 800,000 signatures needed to qualify for the ballot. Sixty percent of voters must vote yes in order for the amendment to pass.

Congress hasn’t raised the federal minimum wage since 2009, but dozens of states and cities have acted on their own since 2012, when fast food workers in New York walked off the job and launched a Fight for $15 campaign. More than half of U.S. states have adopted minimum wages higher than the federal standard of $7.25, according to the National Employment Law Project, a think tank that partners with labor unions.

Florida voters in 2004 approved an amendment that adjusts the state minimum wage annually based on the consumer price index, a measure of inflation. The current state minimum of $8.46 is higher than the $7.25 federal minimum wage and is scheduled to increase by 10 cents on Jan. 1.

The minimum wage initiative, which will be titled Amendment 2 on the 2020 ballot, would raise the state’s minimum to $10 an hour on Sept. 30, 2021, and then increase it by a dollar every year until it reaches $15 in 2026.

Florida relies heavily on tourism to fuel its economy and has wages that are less than 88 percent of the national average. Business groups say their members will shed service jobs if the amendment is adopted.

“We fully expected it to be confirmed, but that doesn’t make it a good idea,” said Edie Ousley, vice president of public affairs for the Florida Chamber of Commerce. “This ballot measure will actually hurt the very people its proponent claims it will help. In fact, Florida could very likely lose nearly half a million jobs by 2026, and we’ve seen estimates that are higher than that. This is the posterchild for a proposed constitutional amendment masquerading as a turn out weapon to impact the presidential election.”

Some political consultants, however, are skeptical that the minimum wage initiative will make any meaningful change in the upcoming presidential election. Trump’s presence on the ballot already is driving predictions that turnout in Florida could be as high as 80 percent next year.

State economists have concluded that passage of the amendment ultimately will cost state and local governments more than $500 a million a year once it‘s fully implemented, information that will be included on the ballot.

Attorney General Ashley Moody had asked the state Supreme Court to sign off on the wording of that financial impact statement, but the court in its ruling Thursday concluded that it lacks the authority to review it.