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Minimum wage backers are leery of House bill

TALLAHASSEE - Backers of Florida's new higher minimum wage criticized a bill Wednesday that deals with the increase, saying it could water down the measure by creating loopholes.

Seventy percent of voters in November approved a constitutional amendment creating a state minimum wage of $6.15, a dollar above the federal minimum wage.

The wage takes effect six months "after enactment" and must keep pace with inflation each year. The provision also says action by state lawmakers is not needed for it to take effect.

"The language in the amendment could not have been clearer. The will of the voter could not have been clearer," said Rich Templin, a Florida AFL-CIO spokesman.

But business groups that opposed the measure say clarifications are needed, such as the exact date the state wage takes effect, and protections for employers who make honest mistakes.

The House Judiciary Committee is working on legislation to "explain and clarify the ambiguities," Chairman David Simmons, R-Longwood, said Wednesday. "All we're trying to do is keep employers all across the state from being caught in a "gotcha' situation."

The state chairwoman of ACORN, the advocacy group behind the minimum wage drive last year, said supporters fear the bill will weaken the amendment.

Tamecka Pierce said the bill would undercut the constitutional right of employees to join in class action lawsuits. She said it would also give employers a 15-day window to pay disputed wages before being penalized and protection from damages if they can prove they acted in "good faith" when they violated the Constitution.

"We don't want corporations to be able to put in their words," Pierce said.

A business lobbyist told the House panel he worried about employers facing penalties because they didn't realize the increase had taken effect.

"It's not that they don't want to pay the minimum wage - primarily most of them pay well above the minimum wage even as we speak right now," Steve Birtman, representing National Federation of Independent Business, said. "It's that they will not know."

The proposed bill specifies that the effective date of the increase would be May 2, six months after last Election Day.

Ronald Meyer, a Tallahassee attorney who specializes in labor law, wanted removal of the provisions on class action lawsuits and the good-faith protection given to employers.

"I think that goes beyond what the Constitution authorizes and I think it renders the act somewhat susceptible of constitutional challenge," Meyer said.

[Last modified February 10, 2005, 00:25:06]