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Editorial: A mixed view for workers on Labor Day

 
Orlando Sentinel Walt Disney World union workers who have been fighting for better wages will be voting on an offer that will raise their minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2021.
Orlando Sentinel Walt Disney World union workers who have been fighting for better wages will be voting on an offer that will raise their minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2021.
Published Aug. 31, 2018

Thirty-eight years ago, in the homestretch of his landslide presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan famously asked, "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" This Labor Day, with burgers sizzling on the grill and an economy that is also cooking along, it's a fair question for every working person to ask as the midterm elections loom. The answer is not obvious.

There is some good news. This week, union workers at Walt Disney World are expected to ratify a deal that will raise their minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2021. That would be a raise of nearly 50 percent, and the effect should ripple across the Interstate 4 economy as other businesses would have to match it to remain competitive. Disney's theme parks, with revenues of $5.2 billion in the last quarter, can clearly afford it. Higher wages are a boon to the region as well as the workers. In fact, the Service Trades Council Union estimates that the raises will add $1 billion of earnings to Central Florida's economy during the four-year contract.

Florida's unemployment sat at 3.7 percent in July, an 11-year low. The stock market rally continues, and the nation's economy is on a hot streak, expanding for more than 106 months and counting. To paraphrase Fed chairman Jerome Powell, America's got a Goldilocks economy — neither too hot nor too cold.

And yet. The average hourly wage in Florida trickled up a mere 7 cents over the last year, and the legal minimum wage in Florida rose to only $8.25 this year. It will help that Walmart has raised its minimum wage to $11 and that Target plans to jump wages to $15 by the end of 2020.

But even in good times for the economy at large, too many people are being left behind. This summer, the Pew Research Center reported that the income gap between Americans at the top and the bottom of the income distribution widened 27 percent from 1970 to 2016. Americans near the top of the income ladder had $109,578 in income compared with $12,523 for those near the bottom. And a recent analysis by RewardExpert ranked Florida as the ninth-worst state to live in for low-income families and individuals.

Florida, with its emphasis on service-sector and construction jobs, needs to focus on continuous job training so that workers who have a job can work toward a better one. Just as the new economy will require workers to re-invent themselves over the course of a career, state and local governments need to be nimble and react to those same pressures to help workers help themselves to be competitive and employable throughout their working lives. Those years may stretch on as traditional pensions fade into history and older but still healthy workers stay in the work force longer. Astute employers will find ways to leverage their experience and maturity while training them for new work.

State colleges have a particularly important role to play for Florida's emerging work force, as they can quickly adapt their certificate programs to the needs of the local market without the lag time that runs the risk of turning out graduates for yesterday's jobs. If the state invests wisely, it can reap a great return on investment in newly trained workers, both young and older, who will earn a living wage — and pay taxes on it.