Bills filed in Florida's House and Senate Monday would not only raise the minimum wage -- it would also end the lower wages for employees who get tips as well.
State Sen. Dwight Bullard, D-Cutler Bay, and State Rep. Cynthia Stafford, D-Miami, introduced Senate Bill 456 and House Bill 385. The bill, if passed, would raise the minimum wage to $10.10 for all employees.
Tipped workers currently make $4.91 an hour and rely on the tips to make up the difference. Bullard and Stafford say servers use food stamps at double the rate of other workers. They are also three times as likely to live in poverty.
Nationally, there is a bill to that would increase tipped minimum wages to 70 percent of the regular minimum wage.
Bullard and Stafford say raising the minimum wage would lift about 6 million people out of poverty.
According to the Florida Constitution, the state's minimum wage has to rise with the rate of inflation. No word on how this bill would be affected by that.