FLORIDA VOTERS SHOULD TAKE HEED AS FEDERAL DATA WARNS OF A JOBLESS WORKFORCE WITH BALLOT AMENDMENT 2
Congressional Budget Office Report Reveals Damaging Economic Impacts for Floridians with a Wage Hike
Tallahassee, FL — The Amendment 2 Hurts You campaign is urging voters this week to review a recent report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) about the severe and irreversible consequences of a $15 mandatory minimum wage inserted into the Florida Constitution.
This November 3, Florida voters have a choice about the future of Florida jobs, Florida small businesses and Florida’s economy. If Ballot Amendment 2, the $15 mandatory minimum wage is passed, a 2019 report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reveals Floridians stand to lose hundreds of thousands of jobs with an abrupt and massive wage hike.
According to CBO’s median estimate, with a mandated $15 minimum wage nationwide, “1.3 million workers who would otherwise be employed would be jobless in an average week in 2025.”
CBO’s analysis demonstrates how increasing the minimum wage could negatively affect employment and family income in Florida. If the nation were to increase the federal minimum wage, as many as 3.7 million Americans could become jobless as a direct result of the wage hike. The report estimates that a $15 wage hike would also reduce total real family income in 2025 by $9 billion nationwide.
“These data points stand as a warning to the havoc Ballot Amendment 2 will bring on our workforce and small business owners in Florida,” said Carol Dover, President & CEO of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association. “Our economy is on life support already, with tens of thousands of small businesses struggling to survive the COVID-19 pandemic. More than one million Floridians are currently without a job. We simply cannot risk killing more jobs and leaving more families without a source of income.”
The CBO report also confirms that Florida consumers will be left paying higher prices as the cost of the wage hike will be passed on through price increases. With businesses left to absorb the hefty cost, many will have to raise prices on goods and services.
The $15 mandatory minimum wage would “reduce business income and raise prices as higher labor costs were absorbed by business owners and then passed on to consumers; and reduce the nation’s output slightly through the reduction in employment and a corresponding decline in the nation’s stock of capital (such as buildings, machines, and technologies). On the basis of those effects and CBO’s estimate of the median effect on employment, the $15 option would reduce total real (inflation-adjusted) family income in 2025 by $9 billion.”
The CBO study and its findings were reported well before the COVID-19 pandemic forced millions of Floridians into unemployment, thousands of businesses to close and the economy to take a dive.
Ballot Amendment 2 is a Constitutional amendment for voters to consider on November 3 that will raise the mandatory minimum wage in Florida to $15 an hour. This will increase payroll for businesses in the service industry by 77%.
Similar measures adopted in Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago and Washington, D.C., have proven to kill jobs. In these cities, the measure was implemented without the extreme challenges of a global pandemic.
Before COVID-19, Florida’s restaurant, lodging and tourism industry generated more than $112 billion in annual economic impact and provided jobs for more than 1.5 million Florida families. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many were forced to close leaving hundreds of thousands of Florida workers without a job.
Amendment 2 Hurts You is a campaign to raise awareness for the consequences of Ballot Amendment 2 on small businesses, workers and the economy.
Learn more about how Ballot Amendment 2 will devastate Florida:
- Online at Amendment2HurtsYou.com
- On Facebook
- On Twitter
- On LinkedIn
- On Instagram
Help save Florida jobs by voting no on Ballot Amendment 2 this November.
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Paid Political Advertisement by Save Florida Jobs Inc.
230 South Adams St., Ste 200
Tallahassee, FL, 32301