Court Rejects Miami Beach's Effort To Raise Minimum Wage

The court is blocking Miami Beach from increasing its minimum wage.

In an opinion filed Wednesday, the Third District Court of Appeals denied the city from setting a minimum wage higher than the statewide minimum wage.

Former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine said he wanted to incrementally raise the minimum wage in the city. 

The city then passed an ordinance that would have increased the minimum wage to $10.31 in 2017, with a $1 per hour increase every year until reaching $13.31 by 2020.

A trial court ruled that the law was unconstitutional, but the city appealed.

The appellate judges wrote that the drafters of the amendment "could have employed clear and direct language" allowing municipalities to set their own wages but "chose not to incorporate such language."

"We conclude that the [2004] constitutional amendment did not nullify the state's wage preemption statute, which indeed does prohibit local minimum wage ordinances, such as the one enacted" by Miami Beach in 2016.

The decision upholds the trial court's ruling invalidating the law.


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