As lawmakers craft the 2022-23 state budget, the House and Senate are pushing to boost pay for state employees, local school staffers and certain health care workers.
But the two chambers are far apart in getting the job done, and it’s not certain which avenue is better when it comes to doling out the pay raises.
As it stands now, the Florida House and Speaker Chris Sprowls wants to see a pay increase of 5.38% for the state workforce as inflation rises in Florida and elsewhere, according to budget documents. Meanwhile, the Florida Senate is pushing a minimum-wage increase of $15 an hour for state workers and a broader pool of employees, an initiative led by Senate President Wilton Simpson.
With about three weeks to go before the end of the Legislative Session, the chambers will have to negotiate a pay plan that would cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
“Because the chambers have different approaches [to salary increases for state workers], this is one of the issues that would be worked out in the budget conference,” Katherine Betta, Senate spokeswoman, said in an email to the Florida Phoenix.
Keep in mind that Florida’s minimum wage is required by law to gradually increase to $15 an hour by 2026, part of a ballot initiative that Floridians approved in 2020.
But Simpson is pushing for that figure well before 2026 for government employees.
And there are distinct differences in the plans.
In the proposed Senate budget, for example, the Governor’s salary for 2022-23 would be...
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