Immediately after the November election, Republicans proclaimed the GOP as the party of the working class.
Now, an influential Florida Republican wants to deprive the working class of the most significant financial boost they’ve received in decades.
State Sen. Jeff Brandes has introduced a bill that could undo the minimum-wage increase that nearly 61% of the state’s voters approved in November.
Brandes, who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee, wants to put a new amendment on the ballot in 2022, one that would allow the Legislature to pass laws creating multiple exemptions to the new $15 minimum wage.
One of the exemptions is worded so broadly — “hard to hire employees” — it could apply to just about anyone. The proposal doesn’t say what constitutes a “hard to hire” employee, or who would make that determination.
Also exempted from the new minimum wage, should lawmakers choose, would be people under 21, which would include many college students working a job so they can minimize student loan debt. Or, simply young people who aren’t in college but are trying to get by.
Another exempt category would target ex-felons. If that rings a bell, it’s because the Legislature successfully gutted 2018′s amendment No. 4, which restored voting rights for felons who had done their time.
As someone who has worked on the right side of criminal justice reform, Brandes must know that Florida’s felons are disproportionately Black. And yet, he proposes a constitutional amendment that would legalize pay discrimination for felons, a move that stinks of racism.
Brandes, who describes himself as a libertarian, spoke last year about the need to stop warehousing people in prisons, to get them out into the workplace. He’s not wrong about that.
The senator’s amendment, however, would allow employers to pay those very people less money per hour than their co-workers. We struggle to understand how this type of discriminatory brand of financial punishment and humiliation after prison would motivate someone with a felony record to turn their life around.
The $15 minimum wage approval was a stunning victory for working-class Floridians, who aren’t accustomed to winning. But this new amendment, if approved by voters, could render much of it meaningless.
Brandes just introduced the measure on Jan. 27, so it’s unclear how much support it’ll get from the self-declared party of the working class.
We do know that — because elections have consequences — the GOP now has just enough votes in both the House and Senate to reach the 60% threshold required of each body to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot, without any help from Democrats.
Which is another maddening aspect of Brandes’ bill. The Legislature has worked diligently over the past two decades to make it more difficult for citizen-led amendments — like the minimum wage measure —to get on the ballot. Thanks to lawmakers, it’s become more difficult, more time-consuming and more expensive.
But lawmakers can easily get an amendment on the ballot as long as they have enough votes.
Easy for them, hard for you. Get the picture?
Brandes’ proposed amendment is the latest in a long list of arrogant legislative attempts to thwart the will of Florida’s voters.
Lawmakers tried to undo the 2002 vote to limit class sizes in public schools.
They went to court to overturn the 2010 vote requiring fair, non-gerrymandered voting districts.
They ignored a 2014 vote mandating the state spend a fixed amount of money on land and water conservation.
They passed a law directly contradicting a 2016 amendment allowing people to smoke marijuana for medical conditions.
They limited the ability of ex-felons to vote, undermining the intent of a 2018 amendment that passed by a margin of nearly 65%.
And now, Brandes wants to essentially repeal the 2020 vote that will help the poorest of Florida’s workers.
Party of the working class ... Pffft.
Brandes’ amendment is meant to benefit the chamber-of-commerce class, not the working class.
The Florida Chamber and other business groups hated the minimum wage increase from the start, even though it only gradually raises the minimum wage each year. It wouldn’t reach $15 an hour until 2026.
This amendment simply has to be a bridge too far for Florida’s GOP. Surely some of them will refuse to go along with such a brazen attempt to overturn the will of the voters, who were loud and clear in November about what they wanted.
It would be a betrayal of the same working-class Floridians the party now claims as a constituency.
