John Morgan says he’ll raise entry level pay for his employees to $15 an hour

Orlando attorney John Morgan announced that he will be increasing the starting pay at his law firm Morgan & Morgan to $15 an hour in 2019.

Morgan posted a companywide memo to his social media channels on Friday, Dec. 28, announcing the pay bump, and saying that it will go into effect sometime in early 2019. “In early 2019 we will be moving our entry level pay to 15 dollars an hour. Some at 15 and 16 will be getting bumps as well,” said Morgan in the post. “This will be an additional cost of millions of dollars to the firm. We think it is worth it,” added Morgan.” More importantly we think you’re worth it.”

You can read the full memo below:

Over the past couple years, Morgan’s law firm has pledged $1 million to a political committee called Florida For a Fair Wage, which hopes through their “Living Wage” campaign, hopes to raise Florida’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. As of March 31, the committee has raised $323,928.

The committee, which is chaired by Morgan, is backing a proposed constitutional amendment that would raise the state’s minimum wage to $10 on Sept. 30, 2021, and then raise it $1 a year until it is $15 on Sept. 30, 2026.

In November of 2017, Morgan was criticized by Orlando Weekly for advocating for this wage increase but not paying his own employees $15 an hour. Job postings on the sites Indeed and Glassdoor showed entry-level positions starting at $11 and $12 an hour, months after announcing his “Living Wage” campaign.

“If you want to play gotcha with me,” Morgan said to Orlando Weekly, “a better place to look is WonderWorks where I don’t pay 15 to many to start. But I would be happy to if my competition did,” said Morgan.

It’s unclear at the moment if Morgan’s pay bump will include his other businesses, like WonderWorks. But so far Disney has announced plans to boost their starting pay of some employees to $15, and Universal and SeaWorld have both announced pay increases this year.

We reached out to Morgan for this story and will update this article if he responds.

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This article appears in Dec 26, 2018 – Jan 1, 2019.