- Current minimum wage: $15.00 an hour, up from $14.00
- Tipped cash wage: $11.98 an hour ($15.00 minus a fixed $3.02 tip credit)
- Effective date: September 30, 2026
- Next scheduled change: an inflation adjustment calculated September 30, 2027 and effective January 1, 2028
Florida’s minimum wage rose to $15.00 an hour on September 30, 2026. That was the last of the $1-a-year steps written into the state constitution by the amendment voters adopted in 2020, which took the rate from $10.00 in September 2021 to $15.00 now. Many rate tables online still show $14.00. They are out of date.
Florida is now one of the eighteen states at or above $15, and the only one in the Deep South. Its neighbors Georgia and Alabama still use the federal $7.25, the same rate as Texas.
Florida minimum wage rates for 2026
| Category | Rate | Rule and source |
|---|---|---|
| Standard minimum wage | $15.00 | Since September 30, 2026. Article X, §24(c) of the Florida Constitution. |
| Previous rate | $14.00 | September 30, 2025 to September 29, 2026. |
| Tipped employees (cash wage) | $11.98 | Employers may credit tips up to the federal tip credit allowed in 2003, which is $3.02. Tips plus cash wage must reach $15.00. |
| Local minimum wages | Not allowed for private employers | Fla. Stat. §218.077 bars cities and counties from requiring a minimum wage other than the state or federal one. Exceptions: their own employees and employers receiving a local tax abatement or subsidy. |
| Next scheduled change | Inflation-indexed | Calculated each September 30 starting in 2027 using CPI-W; each new rate takes effect the following January 1. |
The schedule is in the constitution, not ordinary statute, so the Legislature cannot lower it. The same section lets the Legislature raise the rate or reduce the tip credit. The tip credit is fixed in dollars, not as a share of the wage, so every increase in the minimum passes through in full to the tipped cash wage. That is why it went from $10.98 to $11.98 on September 30.
How Florida got to $15
The 2020 amendment replaced Florida’s old inflation-only formula with a fixed ladder. Every step took effect on September 30:
- 2021: $10.00
- 2022: $11.00
- 2023: $12.00
- 2024: $13.00
- 2025: $14.00
- 2026: $15.00, the final step
From here the ladder ends and the old method returns. On September 30, 2027, the state’s workforce agency must raise the rate by the past year’s inflation, measured by CPI-W, and publish it. The new rate takes effect on January 1, 2028. So there is no change on January 1, 2027, and the next increase is more than a year away. Its size will depend on inflation between now and then.
What $15 adds up to in a year
The math assumes the job stays full time. The question that matters for the next few years is whether it does, especially for younger and less experienced workers, and especially in the parts of Florida where local wages are lowest.
The natural experiment: Florida vs. its neighbors
Florida’s path from $10 to $15 in five years, while Georgia and Alabama stayed at $7.25, set up a useful comparison. The Panhandle shares labor markets with southern Alabama and Georgia. Pensacola is a short drive from Mobile. Those border areas are where economists look first, because workers and employers on either side face much the same economy except for the law.
The method has its own fight. Dube, Lester and Reich (2010) compared county pairs across state lines nationwide and found no job losses in restaurants. Jha, Neumark and Rodriguez-Lopez (2022) argued the result depends on how local markets are drawn, and found negative effects using commuting zones that cross state lines. Florida’s step-up gives both camps new data, and the results are not in yet. We will add credible studies to the research tracker as they appear.
The bite ratio matters here too. A $15 floor in Miami or Orlando sits well below what many local employers already pay. In rural North Florida, where typical wages are lower, the same $15 is a much larger share of local pay, and that is where any effect on hours or hiring should be largest. It is also why a single statewide constitutional number, with no regional tier like New York’s, is a riskier design.
For the high-wage end of the country, compare California at $16.90 with Texas at $7.25, our signature pair.
The policy angle
Florida voters chose the schedule, and it is now in the constitution. Two features are worth watching. First, the tipped wage rose by the full $1 each year because the tip credit is frozen at $3.02, so restaurants pay more of the cost of each step than a percentage-based credit would require. Our tipped minimum wage explainer covers how those rules differ by state. Second, from 2028 the rate rises with inflation automatically, with no vote needed to keep it climbing even in a downturn.
Our view, consistent with Friedman’s, is that a wage floor shifts the cost of helping low earners onto the employers most likely to hire inexperienced workers, and that those who lose out are the ones least visible in the data. The alternative is to support incomes directly, through tools like the EITC, without raising the price of a first job. For all 50 states, see our state-by-state guide.
Sources and further reading
- Florida Constitution, Article X, Section 24 (Florida minimum wage) — schedule, indexing and tip credit, via the Florida Senate.
- Florida Statutes §218.077, Wage and employment benefits requirements by political subdivisions.
- U.S. Department of Labor, Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees — Florida’s $3.02 tip credit (table revised July 1, 2026).
- Dube, Lester & Reich, “Minimum Wage Effects Across State Borders: Estimates Using Contiguous Counties” — Review of Economics and Statistics (2010).
- Neumark, Salas & Wascher, “Revisiting the Minimum Wage-Employment Debate: Throwing Out the Baby with the Bathwater?” — NBER Working Paper 18681 (2013).
- Jha, Neumark & Rodriguez-Lopez, “What’s Across the Border? Re-Evaluating the Cross-Border Evidence on Minimum Wage Effects” — CESifo Working Paper 9746 (2022).