Solvency – States
Minimum wage changes in states are legal and politically feasible
Olivia Dinwiddie 22 (Faculty Fellow at the Saint Louis University School of Law), “THE CRITICAL IMPORTANCE OF INCOME SECURITY DURING COVID-19 AND BEYOND,” 2022, The ABA Journal of Labor & Employment Law 36(2), pg 363-385
In the 2020 election cycle, Fight for $ 15 backed Amendment 2 on the Florida ballot, an initiative to raise Florida's minimum wage up from $ 8.56 an hour to $ 10 an hour by September 2021, and then an increase of an additional $ 1 per hour each year until 2026, incrementally bringing Florida's minimum wage to $ 15 an hour over the next five years. 112 The result? Coming from "a red state with two Republican Senators, a Republican-controlled state legislature, and a Republican governor who opposed the minimum wage hike," it might be surprising that Amendment 2 passed with sixty percent of the vote. 113
Like paid sick leave, minimum wage law is another area where states have taken matters in their own hands. In addition to Florida, Connecticut, California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and the District of Columbia have passed similar laws requiring state minimum wages to reach $ 15 by 2025. 114