Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott arrived in California for a three-day trip Sunday to convince businesses to relocate to his state in response to the $15 minimum wage.
California became the first state April 4 to raise its minimum wages to $15 an hour, beating New York by just a couple hours. Scott arrived in Los Angeles to convince businesses they should relocated to his state, which has a $8.05 minimum wage.
“My goal, one-hundred percent, is to get individuals and companies to move to Florida,” Scott told the Los Angeles Times. “By raising the minimum wage in California, 700,000 people are going to lose their jobs, there are a lot of opportunities for companies to prosper in Florida and compete here and that’s what I’m going after.”
Scott said his state also adds increased benefits with access to ports. Supporters of the $15 minimum wage increase argue it could help lift people out of poverty but critics warn it could actually hurt the very people it’s supposed to help. Employers could be forced to cutback on their workforce or raise prices to overcome the added cost of labor.
“We’d like to extend a warm welcome to the governor,” Brown Spokesman Evan Westrup said in a statement to CNBC. “We can understand why he’s back — there’s lots to do and plenty to learn. In fact, since his last 2,000 mile cross-country jaunt, California has added twice as many jobs as Florida, while paying down debt, building a robust rainy day fund.”
California employment has increased by 420,800 in March while Florida saw an increase of only 234,300, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nevertheless the true impact of the $15 minimum wage will not be felt right away since the measure was written to increase overtime. Some state businesses have already reporting they will have to leave because of the increase.
The Fight for $15 movement has been at the forefront of the minimum wage push. It has utilized rallies and media marketing campaigns to advocate for the policy. In just a few years the movement has made the increase an important policy issue. It has been marketed as a grassroots movement, but skeptics have expressed doubt.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found both positive and negative results from increasing the minimum wage. It found any increase in the minimum wage will likely result in at least some job loss. The University of California, Berkeley found in a recent study that having less people in poverty outweighs the potential job loss.
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