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Visitors at the state Capitol were greeted by the sight of solid ice in a water fountain.  The cold weather over the past couple of days had farmers across Florida preparing for the worst.  But it appears the temperatures were not low enough to cause significant damage to citrus trees.  But the Department of Agriculture says vegetable crops south of Lake Okeechobee might have suffered some damage.

“Because the temperatures didn’t get quite as cold as were forecast, I think all in all the industry will be in pretty decent shape, with pockets of damage here and there, said Terry McElroy, spokesman for the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.  “We won’t really know the extent of it for a couple of days.”

Citrus trees can be ruined when temperatures fall to 28 degrees for four hours.
 

People working for minimum wage will soon feel a little more green in their pockets. The new year is bringing a 12 cent an hour increase in Florida where the minimum wage is now $6.79 an hour. The state’s yearly minimum wage hike is tied to the cost of living, and as Chris Casquejo explains, for most small business owners, the increase is hardly a blip on their radar screen.

Hear it here: Florida Minimum Wage Rises 12 Cents An Hour

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Ralph Ricardo is opening a new sub shop and hiring 20 new workers.
Because Florida’s minimum wage just went up 12 cents an hour, he’ll have to pay each one $6.79. His yearly cost is five thousand dollars more than what it would have been in 2007.

“Since we’re starting at $6.79, I don’t know that 12 cents between 20 employees would have hurt, make me or break me,” he said. “Right now, I don’t feel it’s going to hurt me too bad.”

Nationally, the minimum wage is $5.85 an hour. Employers have to pay the higher of the two minimum wage rates.

Florida is one of 10 states to raise its minimum wage each year based on cost of living increases. But a Florida State University economist says most people earning minimum wage are students, or those with second jobs.

“Some people do, do better off because they get a wage increase,” said David Macpherson, an FSU economics professor. “But remember, that most people earning the minimum wage are not poor. So it doesn’t do anything to reduce the poverty rate.”

At Looper’s Sub Shop, some workers didn’t even know the minimum wage went up. They question how much it will help them.

“Now a dollar and 12 cents, maybe,” said worker Rachel Houston. “But 12 cents, I don’t think it will make a difference.”

Small business owners like Ralph Ricardo aren’t looking forward to summer 2009. That’s when the federal minimum wage jumps to $7.25 an hour.

All of Florida is under a freeze warning with temperatures expected to drop into the 20s Wednesday night and Thursday morning.  Gov. Charlie Crist signed an emergency order to relax weight restrictions on trucks to get harvests moved to processing centers.  The freeze has already hurt cold-weather crops like potatoes and cabbage in north Florida.  The concern is that low temperatures and high winds could cause trouble as far south as Lake Okeechobee.

“The dead winter is Florida’s primary, probably biggest, production season,” said Terry McElroy, a spokesman for the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.  “We have lots of citrus.  We have lots of winter vegetables.  We have ferns.  We have strawberriess.  We have fish farms that are actually growing tropical fish in outdoor tanks.  So we have all kinds of crops that are potentially vulnerable tonight.”

To protect plants like strawberries and ferns, growers ice the plants, spraying them with water to insulate them at 32 degrees.