FLORIDA MINIMUM WAGE WILL BE $11.00 AN HOUR STARTING SEPTEMBER 30TH

Under an amendment to the Florida Constitution that was approved by voters in 2020, the Florida minimum wage increases by $1.00 each September 30th until the minimum wage reaches $15.00 an hour in 2026.

This is the second of these yearly $1 increases in the seven-year process of gradually raising the Florida minimum wage to $15.00 an hour. Before this amendment went into effect, increases to the minimum wage were smaller and occurred in January.

Effective September 30, 2022, the Florida minimum wage is $11.00 an hour.

All employees must be paid at least the state minimum wage. Tipped employees can be paid less than the minimum wage if they receive at least $3.02 an hour in tips. Employers can take a tip credit of $3.02 per hour towards meeting the $11.00 minimum wage obligation for tipped employees.

The minimum cash wage that employers must pay tipped employees is $7.98 starting September 30, 2022. This is the tip credit of $3.02 per hour subtracted from the minimum wage of $11.00 an hour. If the tipped employee does not receive at least $11.00 an hour when the $7.98 cash wage from the employer is added to the tips the employee receives, the employer must pay the difference to make sure the employee is paid at least $11.00 an hour.

Florida businesses are required to post a current Florida minimum wage poster at their business where employees can see it, even if all employees are paid more than the minimum wage.

One of the best benefits of your company’s continued FUBA membership is that we provide our members with updated workplace posters free of charge. We are mailing you a new Florida minimum wage poster next week with the hard copy of this newsletter. Please post it at your business when you receive it to be in compliance with the state posting requirement.

Additional copies of this poster are free for FUBA members. You can print posters from the Publications section of our website by clicking here or you can request additional color copies by emailing us at FUBA@fuba.org.

If you have any questions about the new Florida minimum wage effective September 30th, please call the FUBA offices at 800-262-4483 and ask for Karen or Mallory or email us at FUBA@fuba.org.


IS YOUR BUSINESS IN GOOD STANDING WITH THE STATE?

All corporations and LLCs registered with the State of Florida must file an Annual Report with the state every year by May 1st.

If you missed the deadline to file this year’s Annual Report, it is not too late. Even though your report is now late, you can pay a late fee of $400 and file it by Friday, September 16th. If you do not file the report by September 16th, the state will dissolve your business on Friday, September 23, 2022.

If the state dissolves your business, it affects any workers’ comp exemptions that have been issued to your company’s officers/owners. An officer of a dissolved company is not eligible to have an exemption from workers’ compensation. If an exemption is invalidated because your business is dissolved, that person is no longer exempt from workers’ comp. If your business has a workers’ comp policy, you will be charged premium for any officers whose exemptions are invalidated. And if your business has only exempt officers and the exemptions become invalid, the state can shut your business down for working illegally.

Dissolved businesses also lose the right to use their business name. After a year, the state will no longer protect your company’s name, and another company can legally take your business name.

If your company has not filed its 2022 Annual Report yet but you want to keep the company in good standing with the State of Florida, you need to file the Annual Report and pay the filing fee by 5:00 p.m. EST on September 16th. Annual Reports can only be filed online at sunbiz.org, which is the official Florida corporate registry.

Because you will be filing after the original May 1st due date, the state will charge a $400 penalty in addition to the normal filing fee. If your business is a corporation, the state will charge you $550 (the normal filing fee of $150 plus the $400 penalty for filing late). If your business is an LLC, the state will charge you $538.75 (the normal filing fee of $138.75 plus the $400 penalty for filing late).

To file your Annual Report, go to the Division of Corporations’ website at sunbiz.org. Make sure the website says “Division of Corporations, an official State of Florida website” at the top. Hover your mouse on the menu for Manage/Change Existing Business at the top of the screen and select File Annual Report. If you want to review the filing instructions, click on the blue text that says “filing instructions for annual reports.” If you want to go straight to your Annual Report, scroll down to the blue box that says Click Here to File Your 2022 Annual Report.

If you want to double check that your company filed its 2022 Annual Report, go to sunbiz.org and click on the Search Records menu item. Click on the blue writing that says Name and enter the name of your business. The system will pull up a list of business names. Click on the name of your business and scroll down to the Annual Reports section for your company. If you see 2022 listed under Report Year, your company has filed its Annual Report for this year and you do not need to take further action.

FUBA members with questions about the Annual Report requirement can call the FUBA offices at 800-262-4483 and ask for Karen or Mallory or email FUBA@fuba.org.


DECREASE PROPOSED FOR FLORIDA WORKERS’ COMP RATES

The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation is considering a proposed rate decrease of -8.4% to the rates that Florida businesses pay for workers’ comp insurance. If approved, the rate decrease would apply to policies as they are issued or renewed starting January 1, 2023.

The rate decrease of -8.4% is the average reduction over all industry types and must be approved by the state before it can become effective. If it is approved, it will be the 6th straight year that workers’ comp rates have gone down, for a cumulative rate reduction of  -73.8% since 2003.