By Kate Rogers
CNBC, Aug 22, 2017
At Panther Coffee in Miami, no worker is paid under $10 an hour. In fact, including tips, entry-level employees take home about $15 an hour on average, well above the state's minimum of $8.10 an hour. Husband-wife owners Joel and Leticia Pollock say lower wages just aren't an option if they want to be successful.
"To me minimum wage is offensive," Leticia said. "For our business, it's important that people take home a living wage, because we want the team to feel respected, we want people to stay long-term, and we want to build a culture where they're coming to work and they know that we understand that you can't live with less than that." ...
Despite the federal minimum remaining stagnant at $7.25 an hour, more than half the states across the country now have wage floors above the federal minimum, and big cities from Seattle to Los Angeles and New York City also have taken matters into their own hands to raise pay for low-wage workers, much like the Pollocks have at their own small businesses in Miami and Miami Beach.
Miami Beach is at the center of an ongoing battle of its own over raising the minimum wage. Earlier this year, a judge struck down a local ordinance that was set to hike the city's minimum to $10.31 in January 2018, eventually hitting $13.31 by 2021. Oral arguments begin in appeals court in October. Democratic Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine believes the case could reach the Florida Supreme Court but that ultimately the higher wage will prevail.
"I believe its necessary, and our entire commission as well as our business community felt it was necessary, because we felt that we need to make sure that our workers in our city get properly paid," Levine said. "We all know that no one can live on $8.10 an hour. So the question is, How do you live? The government is going to help you — they are funding you with subsidized programs, welfare programs and social programs. So, basically, the taxpayers are subsidizing the cost of businesses." ...
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