Report shows Florida wages are the highest they have been in last 20 years

Florida workers have seen an increase in their wages in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which pushed the average salary in the state closer to the national average, as a new report assembled by state economists shows.

Florida — which relies heavily on the tourism and hospitality industries — has routinely seen a noticeable gap between the average annual wage and the national average. For many years, the average worker in the state earned about 87% of the national average.

But the Office of Economic and Demographic Research reported this past week that the gap has shrunk in the past two years. Final data from 2022 showed that Florida wages are now 91.1% of the national average, the highest they have been in the past two decades, according to the latest Florida economic overview put out by EDR.