JACKSONVILLE, Fla — At the end of next September, some of you will see a bigger paycheck.
Those earning minimum wage will get a $1.50 an hour increase and that will go up by an additional dollar every year until it's at $15 an hour by 2026. Tipped workers will make about $12.
Economists say the impact of Amendment 2 will not just be felt by minimum wage employees, but by other workers, business owners and possibly consumers.
There is a lot of support for the minimum wage increase; it got 61% of the vote. Some business owners say they'll have to make adjustments that could cost jobs. Minimum wage employees say it's less time away from their children and less of a struggle to put food on the table.
"I've worked 60, 75 hours a week minimum wage trying to take care of three boys and myself, a car that constantly broke down on me," said Gale Williams, a former minimum wage employee.
Williams describes her time as a minimum wage worker as exhausting.
"It was a struggle," she said. "When I tell you I was at complete exhaustion, then to go out and have to get a second job."
But the chief economist at the Florida Chamber Foundation believes that struggle will now be passed on to small business owners. Jerry Parrish points to the Florida Chamber of Commerce's COVID-19 report, which cites almost half of the state's small businesses are worried about existing.
"You're not worth $15 an hour you're not gonna have a job," Parrish said. "Another big concern is people may get moved from full-time, where they may have benefits, to part-time."
A study by the Congressional Budget Office finds if $15 an hour was the minimum wage nationwide, for every 17 people who got a financial boost, one person would be lifted out of poverty and one person would lose their job.
It's a price Williams and more than six million Florida voters are willing to pay.
"I could have been home with my children more," Williams said. "I could have gave them some of the things that I didn't have. I had one son that got in trouble and believe me I don't think he would have got in trouble if mom was home a little bit more."
Continue reading here about a Duval County business owner who supports the amendment, but says she will have to look at adjusting her employees' schedules and hours because of the change.