The Leon County Board of Commissioners will vote on June 8 to approve a $14 an hour minimum wage for all county employees.
The proposal at the start of Tuesday's budget meeting was to move to $13 an hour, one dollar above the current minimum for county employees. However, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s living wage calculator suggests Leon County residents need $13.98 an hour.
The move would cost the county $188,000 to get all employees up to the higher amount.
Commissioner Bill Proctor suggested the county should go even higher since it received unexpected money from the federal government due to the pandemic.
"When we think about $188,000 in this year, in particular, that we have received $62 million to assist the most vulnerable it makes sense to me that this is the year," Proctor said.
Voters in November approved raising the state’s minimum wage to 10 dollars an hour starting at the end of September. It’ll increase one dollar each year until 2026 when it will reach $15 an hour.
