In 2017, John Morgan led an initiative that ultimately saw an amendment legalizing medical marijuana. Now, saying that inequality is “the greatest issue” that the United States is facing, Morgan is aiming to lead an initiative that would see the sunshine state raising the minimum wage to $15.
Although the argument has been a divisive topic across the United States, Morgan says that raising the minimum wage would be beneficial for taxpayers because they’re currently footing the bill when it comes to child care and food stamps because businesses are not currently paying their employees enough.
Morgan added, “taxpayers are actually paying these wages or supplementing these wages that should be paid for by businesses. People are working harder and harder and getting farther and farther behind.”
As it stands, the sunshine state’s minimum wage is currently $8.46 an hour. With Morgan’s amendment, the minimum wage would increase to $10 within the first year and then an additional dollar each year until it reaches $15.
James Miller, a spokesman of the Florida Retail Federation, said that raising the minimum wage could lead to negative effects on business owners, and it might even lead to reducing jobs.
Explaining the effects it could have, Miller argued that “businesses, focusing mainly on small businesses which make up around 95 percent of our membership, only have a finite amount of money they can allocate to salaries and still make a profit. By forcing a retailer to pay an employee(s) more, you’re going to force that retailer to do one of two things to protect their bottom line, either pay the increased wages and pass those increased costs onto customers in the form of higher prices or pay select employees that wage and let others go altogether.”
Still, Morgan maintains that it’s not that radical of an idea to implement, calling himself “not one of these democratic socialists that are the rage of the day. I’m what I call a compassionate capitalist.”
