The Florida minimum wage 2026 rate is $15.00 an hour as of September 30, 2026, and the cash wage for tipped employees is $11.98. This is the last of the $1 steps voters approved in 2020. The next change is calculated on September 30, 2027 and takes effect January 1,...
Making your first hire is a milestone. It’s also the moment a pile of federal and state paperwork lands on your desk, most of it with deadlines you didn’t know existed. Miss one and the penalties are real. Here’s the clean, current checklist for...
A Fort Myers contractor called me a while back, rattled. He’d been paying two guys as 1099 independent contractors for three years no tax withholding, no employer taxes, just a check and a form in January. Simpler, cheaper, and the guys were fine with it. Then...
You posted a job at $22 an hour. So that’s what the new hire costs you — $22 an hour, right? Not even close. And in my nine years at a national payroll company, the single most common surprise I watched land on a small business owner’s desk was the gap...
A Fort Myers restaurant owner called me last year after getting a notice from the IRS. He’d missed a payroll tax deposit by four days while dealing with a family emergency. Four days. The penalty was over $800 on a $20,000 payroll. He didn’t know the...
I spent nine years selling payroll for a national provider. I know how payroll pricing works — and how it is often presented so the real number only shows up on the invoice. If you’re a Fort Myers small business owner trying to figure out what payroll should...
