The state minimum reaches $15 an hour on 30 September 2026, the last step of a schedule voters set in 2020. What that means for the tipped wage, the federal floor and the postings you will see.
Florida’s minimum wage is set by the state constitution, and since 2021 it has climbed a dollar a year on a schedule the voters approved. The last step of that schedule is about to land.
The schedule
In November 2020 Florida voters passed Amendment 2, which took the minimum to $10.00 an hour on 30 September 2021 and raised it by $1.00 every 30 September after that until it reaches $15.00. The steps have been: $11.00 in 2022, $12.00 in 2023, $13.00 in 2024, $14.00 in 2025, and $15.00 on 30 September 2026. From 2027 the figure is adjusted each year for inflation, as it was before the amendment.
So on the day this was written the state minimum is $14.00 an hour, and it becomes $15.00 at the end of the month. A posting printed in early September at $14.00 is legal today and will need to be $15.00 for hours worked from 30 September. Employers who post a range starting at $14 will be reprinting it.
Tipped employees
Florida lets an employer count tips toward the minimum, up to a fixed $3.02 an hour. A tipped employee’s cash wage is therefore the minimum less $3.02: $10.98 an hour now, and $11.98 from 30 September 2026. If tips do not bring the total up to the full minimum, the employer owes the difference. Restaurant and hospitality postings usually print the cash wage, so a figure around $11 on a server posting is the tipped rate, not a mistake.
The federal floor
The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and has been since 2009. It is the number that applies where a state has no higher one, and it is the lowest figure this board will believe is a wage: a “$0.01 – $1.03 an hour” left in a posting by a careless template is thrown out rather than shown. Florida’s minimum is nearly twice the federal figure, so in practice the state number is the one that matters here.
What the lowest-paid postings actually offer
Very few postings on this board print the bare minimum. The retail and convenience chains that post per store — Wawa, Target, CVS Health — print ranges that start above it, and the hospital systems’ entry-level roles in food service, environmental services and patient transport start higher still. The employer pages show each employer’s lowest printed hourly figure, so you can see the floor for yourself rather than take a general claim for it.
Where the minimum does bite is on postings that print no figure at all. An employer who is silent about pay is not necessarily paying the minimum, but the guarantee you are left with is the legal one.
Exemptions worth knowing
The minimum applies to nearly all employees in the state. The exceptions are the federal ones: certain student and apprentice arrangements, some agricultural work, and salaried roles that meet the federal tests for exemption — which is about overtime rather than the minimum, since an exempt salary is far above it in any case. Unpaid internships have to meet a strict federal test to be lawful; an unpaid “volunteer” posting for what is plainly a job is not something this board lists.
Where to check
The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, now FloridaCommerce, publishes the current minimum and the required workplace poster each year. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division handles federal minimum-wage and overtime questions, and it is the place to go if you are paid less than the law requires; Florida has no state labor department that enforces the wage, so claims go through the federal office or the courts.
Related: how to read the pay on a posting.