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Thanksgiving break allowed many working students to clock in more hours at work than their usual limited schedule. I can confidently say almost every student felt a sense of disappointment when receiving their not-so-hefty paycheck. The minimum wage in Florida is unfair and frankly unlivable.
The minimum wage is currently twelve dollars an hour but with all the taxes applied it can be reduced to nearly half the amount. I have a part-time job, and on a busy schedule sometimes, they need a person to come in for just two hours to fill in the gaps. I recently got a raise from $12.5o an hour to $13.15. With that increased pay, when I work for two hours I get paid a whopping (wait for it) sixteen bucks. I understand two hours isn’t a significant amount of time but with the gas it takes to get there and the thought of getting paid $26, seeing sixteen dollars added into my bank account seems so demoralizing. The fact that I don’t even get paid this so-called “minimum wage” makes the situation even more concerning.
According to the U.S Department of Labor, the minimum wage in Florida is set to increase by $1 every Sept. 30 until reaching $15 on Sept. 30, 2026.
While this is a good start, inflation is causing the cost of living to rapidly increase in Florida, faster than the minimum wage can increase. States such as Connecticut, Massachusetts, Arizona, Maine and New Jersey all have a higher minimum wage and are considered more developed. Florida, especially Tampa, has been swiftly becoming less rural and increasingly gentrified causing prices to skyrocket. Instead of a gradual increase minimum wage should be set at $15 in 2024.
Others can say that increasing the minimum wage will cause an increase in inflation too. This is possible, however, not everyone has a minimum-wage job so not everyone is impacted. Inflation has also already affected the cost of living everywhere around us. If people had a higher salary they would finally be able to afford the inflated cost which could also benefit the economy. Low-income residents also tend to support small businesses more so the higher wages would help combat gentrification as well.
“I started working at Publix when I was fourteen and started off being paid $11 an hour which was the minimum wage then. It kind of sucked because I couldn’t really buy anything unless I worked 10+ hours a week,” said Torrey Page (’26), a RHS student who works at Publix.
Balancing school, sports, extracurriculars and a personal life with a busy work schedule of over ten hours a week just to afford basic items is almost futile for students. Working around the clock while trying to uphold all their responsibilities is going to burn out students.
“Working 10+ hours a week is hard due to having to grab carts outside, bag people’s groceries in a rush and assist customers outside, while only getting thirty-minute breaks. Only getting paid like a hundred dollars a week for that is unfair and ridiculous,” Page said.
This amount of work can lead to them failing out of school or becoming depressed. Students who need the money to support their families can take on the habit of prioritizing their paycheck over mental/physical health. All these problems stemming from working all the time build up resentment towards working and lead to problems later in life.
Personally, I think letting a kid just be a kid is vital to becoming a stable adult. Obviously having a job is necessary for some and is a great way to make money for your own expenses, but working almost the same hours as an adult can lead to early maturing. This can be seen as good sometimes but it often leads to unfortunate outcomes.
You can commonly see it in a lot of kids who take on the responsibility of taking care of everyone else around them, while seemingly appearing like the model child. They never make stupid “childish decisions” and are basically a mini adult. Suddenly, when they go to college or leave their childhood home they completely transform into a different person and are prone to reckless and foolhardy decisions. They do things they never would have done earlier and suddenly they’re back to being the child they could never be.
Kids need to remember to just enjoy their childhood while they have it and make all their silly mistakes then, so they can learn from them as adults. Working impossible hours prevents that, so if the minimum wage is increased, kids wouldn’t need to work as many hours and they would have time to do things they love.
Increasing the minimum wage is not just an economic change, it’s a stride towards fairness, economic stability and increased quality of life for students all over Florida.
