Florida minimum wage 2026: $15 an hour and the paycheck behind it

Two rates apply in 2026. From January 1 through September 29 the Florida minimum wage is $14.00 an hour; on September 30, 2026 it rises to $15.00, the last scheduled step of Amendment 2, which 61% of Florida voters approved in November 2020. Tipped employees must receive at least $11.98 in direct cash wages after the increase ($10.98 before). Both figures are well above the federal $7.25 minimum, which hasn't changed since 2009, so the Florida rate is the one that applies.

At $15.00 and 40 hours a week, gross pay is $600 a week or $31,200 a year. A single filer with no other deductions takes home about $524 a week or $1,048 every two weeks, $27,249 a year. Federal income tax takes $1,564 a year, Social Security $1,934 and Medicare $452; Florida takes nothing, so the overall rate is 12.7%.

Amendment 2 ends its fixed steps at $15.00. Starting September 30, 2027, the rate goes back to the pre-2020 rule: every year Florida Commerce adjusts it for inflation using the Consumer Price Index for urban wage earners (CPI-W) for the South region, rounded to the nearest cent, and announces the new figure on or before October 15 for the following September 30. The rate can rise with inflation but cannot fall.

Florida lets employers take a tip credit of $3.02 an hour, the same dollar amount since 2003. The direct cash wage is therefore the full minimum wage minus $3.02: $11.98 after September 30, 2026. If tips plus the cash wage don't reach $15.00 for the hours worked, the employer has to make up the difference. Tips are taxable wages for federal purposes, reported through payroll, and for 2026 up to $25,000 of qualified tips are deductible on your federal return.

No. Florida Statutes §218.077 preempts local governments from setting a general minimum wage, so Miami, Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville all use the state rate. Some counties and cities do require a higher living wage for their own employees and contractors (Miami-Dade's living wage ordinance, for example), but that only applies to those government contracts, not to private employers generally.

No. Minimum-wage earnings go through the same federal withholding as any other wage, and Florida has no state income tax on wages at any level. A full-time minimum-wage worker is in the 10% and 12% federal brackets after the standard deduction, and may qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit at filing time, which can return more than was withheld.