Florida Minimum Wage: Rates, Tip Credit, Increases

The first payroll correction I ever had to talk a founder through was a Florida minimum wage problem. He ran a small restaurant group near Tampa, he had come from a state that moves its rate on January 1, and he had quietly assumed Florida did the same. It did not. He was a week and a half into an old rate before anyone noticed.

This page covers one thing: what an employer in Florida has to pay, and when that number moves. Florida is unusual in two ways that matter to a small employer. Its minimum wage lives in the state constitution, put there by voters, not in a statute the legislature revises each session. And its fixed steps take effect on September 30 through 2026, while most of the country changes on January 1, a date Florida only adopts for its inflation adjustments from 2028.

I built FirstHR so a small team can put a date like this on a task with a deadline instead of relying on someone to watch a calendar.

The Rate Right Now

Florida’s minimum wage is $15.00 per hour, effective September 30, 2026. Tipped employees are owed a direct cash wage of at least $11.98 per hour in addition to the tips they keep, because the state holds the tip credit at a fixed $3.02.

The rate comes from Section 24 of Article X of the Florida Constitution, which voters amended on November 3, 2020. The amendment set a rate of $10.00 on September 30, 2021 and a $1.00 step every September 30 after that until the wage reached $15.00. Every increase since has been that same mechanical dollar.

One rate applies across the whole state. There is no separate figure for Miami, Orlando, Jacksonville or any other city, and no separate figure for large employers versus small ones. Whether an employee is covered at all follows the federal definition, because the Florida Minimum Wage Act extends the state rate only to people entitled to the federal minimum wage under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The history is worth a quick look, because it shows the rate has not always been above the federal floor. Florida enacted its own minimum wage in 2005, and the Department of Commerce wage history table shows the state defaulting back to the federal $7.25 from July 24, 2009 through May 31, 2011, when a court ruling pushed it to $7.31. From there it climbed on inflation adjustments until the 2020 amendment replaced that mechanism with fixed steps.

The Rate in Miami, Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville

The minimum wage in Miami, Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville is $15.00 per hour, which is the statewide figure and the same number an employer pays in every other Florida city. No Florida city or county sets its own rate for private employers, so whichever city you ask about, the answer is the state rate.

The tipped cash wage runs at $11.98 in every one of those cities, for the same reason. The only thing that can put a Florida worksite above the state number is a contract term you agreed to, not an ordinance that reaches you because of where the office sits.

Employers who also run payroll outside Florida tend to overcomplicate this part. If your other state lets cities set their own rates, the instinct every fall is to go looking for a Miami or an Orlando ordinance. In Florida there is nothing to look for. One rate, one date, one poster.

The Next Increase

The next change to the Florida minimum wage is an inflation adjustment effective January 1, 2028, rather than another dollar step. The $15.00 rate effective September 30, 2026 is the final fixed figure in the schedule, and it is the last time an employer can plan a Florida wage increase from a number written on the face of the constitution.

What comes after is a formula, and the timing shifts with it. The constitution directs the state to calculate an adjusted rate on September 30, 2027 by applying the change in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers over the twelve months before September 1. The adjusted rate is published and takes effect on the following January 1.

Section 448.110 of the Florida Statutes, the implementing law, names the same January 1 effective date and specifies the South Region series of that index.

For budgeting, that gap is the useful part. An employer who staffs at or near the minimum gets one predictable jump in the fall and then a long flat period before the indexing era starts.

Tipped Employees and the Tip Credit

Florida allows a tip credit, and it is fixed at $3.02 per hour. That means the direct cash wage for a tipped employee is $11.98, effective September 30, 2026. The employee keeps their tips on top of that cash wage.

The number is frozen for a specific reason. The constitution permits employers to credit tips toward the minimum wage only up to the tip credit the Fair Labor Standards Act allowed in 2003, which was $3.02. Nothing indexes it. So as the Florida wage climbs, the tip credit stays put and the cash wage you owe rises dollar for dollar with the standard rate.

Two conditions travel with the credit. The employee has to meet the federal eligibility requirements for the tip credit, and tips plus the direct cash wage have to reach the full state minimum in every workweek, with the employer covering any shortfall.

Florida adds no tip pooling rules of its own, so the federal ones govern. That matters most for restaurants that fold back-of-house staff into a pool.

What a Server or Bartender Has to Be Paid

A server in Florida is paid a direct cash wage of $11.98 per hour plus tips, and the tips have to carry the total to at least $15.00 for every hour worked that week. Bartenders, bussers, barbacks and valet staff run on the same arithmetic once they qualify as tipped employees.

Qualifying is a federal test rather than a Florida one. Section 3(t) of the Fair Labor Standards Act treats a worker as a tipped employee when the occupation is one where they customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips. A host or a dishwasher who picks up the occasional tip does not qualify, and that person is owed the full $15.00 in cash.

The mistake I see most in restaurants is running the shortfall check across a two-week pay period instead of a single workweek. A slow Tuesday can be offset by a busy Saturday inside the same week. A slow week cannot be offset by the next one, and the makeup pay is owed for the week that fell short.

City and County Rates

No Florida city or county sets a minimum wage for private employers. Section 218.077 of the Florida Statutes bars a county, municipality, district or other political subdivision from requiring an employer to pay a minimum wage other than the state or federal rate, or from mandating employment benefits beyond state and federal law.

That preemption, the state overriding local wage rules, has teeth. Miami Beach adopted a local ordinance and lost it in court, and no Florida local government has established a general private-sector rate since. If you operate in more than one Florida county, the wage side of your payroll setup is identical everywhere.

Two carve-outs remain in the statute, in subsection (3)(a). A political subdivision may still set pay for its own employees, and it may still attach a wage condition to a direct tax abatement or subsidy it grants.

Chapter 2024-80 of the Laws of Florida added a further bar on using purchasing and contracting procedures to control what vendors pay. Section 3 of that act leaves existing deals alone: the amendments do not impair any contract entered into before September 30, 2026.

Miami-Dade County shows how the contracting side works in practice. Its living wage, set in section 2-8.9 of the county code, reaches only contractors on covered county service contracts, not everyone inside the county line.

A living wage obligation like this comes with a contract you signed, not with the address of your office. If you bid on county work in Florida, read the contract. If you do not, none of this touches your payroll.

Industry Carve-Outs

Florida creates no industry rate of its own. There is no fast food wage council, no healthcare minimum, no agricultural rate and no large-employer tier. Every covered employee in every industry is owed the same $15.00.

What does vary is coverage. Section 448.110 of the Florida Statutes extends the state minimum wage only to individuals entitled to the federal minimum wage, and it incorporates the federal exemption and special certificate provisions. So the exemptions that apply in Florida are the federal ones, and an employee who is exempt federally is outside the state minimum too.

Agriculture is the one place a Florida employer routinely runs a different number, and it does not always run higher. An employer hiring under the H-2A visa program owes the highest of several rates: the adverse effect wage rate, any applicable prevailing rate, the agreed collective bargaining wage, and the federal or state minimum wage.

The adverse effect wage rate, the federal pay floor for that visa program, was itself rebuilt by an October 2025 interim final rule. The Office of Foreign Labor Certification, part of the Department of Labor, now sets the non-range rates (every job in the program except herding and range livestock work) from Bureau of Labor Statistics survey data and splits them by skill level.

The rates the Department of Labor published in August 2026 put Florida’s field and livestock figures at $13.17 for entry-level work and $15.71 for experienced work. The entry-level figure sits below the state minimum, so for that work the Florida rate is the one that binds.

Salaried staff are the other place employers get coverage wrong. A salary does not by itself remove someone from the minimum wage, and Florida applies the federal duties and salary tests without adding its own.

Youth and Training Wages

Florida sets no youth wage and no training wage. There is no state provision that lets an employer pay a teenager, a new hire or a trainee less than the full state minimum simply because of age or tenure.

The subminimum routes that do exist all come from federal law and all require paperwork. Section 448.110 pulls in the federal special certificate provisions, which cover student-learners in vocational programs, certain full-time students in retail, service, agriculture and higher education, and workers whose earning capacity is impaired. Each of those requires a certificate issued by the US Department of Labor before the lower rate can be paid.

The federal youth opportunity wage of $4.25 per hour, available for employees under 20 during their first 90 consecutive calendar days, is a genuine gray area in Florida. It sits in a section of federal law that the Florida statute does not name, and no Florida agency publishes guidance on whether it can be paid instead of the higher state rate.

There is no administrative complaint process to ask, either. Florida enforces its minimum wage through private lawsuits and the Attorney General rather than a wage and hour agency. Paying the state rate to workers under 20 is the course that carries no risk.

The legislature looked at loosening this and did not. Senate Bill 1412 of the 2026 session, the On-the-Job Workforce Training Act, would have let a worker in a structured work-study program, an internship or a preapprenticeship sign a waiver and take the federal rate instead of the state rate.

The bill capped the arrangement at nine months, or two full-time semesters of at least 15 credit hours each. It also required a parent or guardian to co-sign for anyone under 18, and it barred an employer from coercing the waiver. The Senate version died in Commerce and Tourism on March 13, 2026, and its House companion died in the Commerce Committee the same day, so nothing changed.

The Poster Requirement

Every employer who must pay the Florida minimum wage has to display a minimum wage notice in a conspicuous and accessible place in each establishment where those employees work. That comes from section 448.109 of the Florida Statutes, and it applies regardless of headcount.

The Florida Department of Commerce publishes the poster free in English, Spanish and Creole on its minimum wage page, along with a plain-language announcement of the current rate and a wage history table. Each poster names the rate and the exact period it covers, which is what makes the swap date obvious.

As of the last-checked date above, the poster on the state page still covered September 30, 2025 through September 29, 2026, and the replacement carrying $15.00 had not been posted. Watch that page in the weeks before an increase date rather than assuming the new poster appears early.

The state poster is not the only one. Florida employers also display the federal Fair Labor Standards Act minimum wage poster from the US Department of Labor, and several other state and federal notices depending on headcount.

Florida and the Federal Rate

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour and has not moved since July 24, 2009, as the Department of Labor’s minimum wage history chart records. Florida sits $7.75 above it, so the state rate is the one you pay. When a state rate and the federal rate both apply, the employee gets the higher of the two.

The link runs deeper than a comparison. Florida borrows the federal definitions of employer, employee and wage, borrows the federal exemptions and certificate rules, and freezes its tip credit at a federal figure from 2003. If Congress ever raised the federal floor above Florida’s rate, the federal number would simply take over in Florida.

One consequence of the federal link is worth naming. Florida has no general state overtime statute, so overtime follows federal law and is paid at one and a half times the regular rate. That means a minimum wage increase raises overtime cost at the same moment it raises base cost.

What to Do When the Rate Rises

The work on an increase date is small and entirely mechanical, and it goes wrong mainly when nobody owns it. Here is the sequence I give clients for every increase date, whether it is September 30, as for the fixed steps through 2026, or January 1, as for the inflation adjustments from 2028.

Those records matter most when a mistake slips through. An employee who believes they were underpaid cannot sue until they send you written notice identifying the wage claimed, the dates and hours, and the total shortfall. You then have 15 calendar days to pay or resolve it. That window is a genuine chance to fix a mistake cheaply, and employers who keep tidy payroll records use it well.

If that window passes unused, you face the expensive outcome. A successful claim recovers the unpaid wages plus an equal amount as liquidated damages, along with attorney fees and costs, and a willful violation carries a $1,000 fine per violation payable to the state.

The limitations period, meaning the time an employee has to sue, is four years, or five for willful violations. That is long enough that a rate change missed once can still be live several years later.

Florida has no state wage and hour agency to referee any of this. Enforcement runs through the courts and the Attorney General, which is exactly why the cheap prevention is a calendar reminder set a few weeks before each increase date.

Frequently Asked Questions