Monday, January 6, 2025

Minimum wage just went up in these 21 states

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Workers across 21 states welcomed the new year by seeing their hourly minimum wages rise.

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, a rate that has remained unchanged since July 2009. During his presidential campaign, President Biden pledged to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, though that promise never came to fruition.

In the meantime, states have taken measures into their own hands over the past 15 years.

Starting Jan. 1, 2025, three states — Delaware, Illinois, and Rhode Island — joined the group of states with a $15 minimum wage, thanks to ballot initiatives approved by voters and later signed into law by their legislators.

Residents of Nebraska and Missouri also approved ballot measures that bumped up their minimum wages by over $1.00/hour to $13.50 and $13.75, respectively.

The other states with minimum wage increases put into effect by their own residents were New York, which now has a $15.50 hourly rate — $16.50 for those working in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County — and Michigan at $10.56.

Incoming President Trump did not commit to raising the minimum wage on a federal level but did signal a willingness to consider it further.

“I’d want to speak to the governors,” Trump told NBC News. “And the other thing that is very complicated about minimum wage is places are so different. Mississippi and Alabama and great places are very different than New York or California, I mean in terms of the cost of living and other things. So it would be nice to have just a minimum wage for the whole country, but it wouldn’t work because you have places … where a minimum wage which is at $8 or $9 … might have very little effect because the cost of living in certain places is really low.”

There are 20 states, along with the District of Columbia, that adjust their minimum wage on an annual basis according to inflation, though the effective dates are often mid-year rather than at the start of the year.

Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Wyoming are the only seven states that either have no minimum wage law on a state level or have one below the federal minimum.

Adriana Belmonte is a reporter and editor covering politics and healthcare policy for Yahoo Finance. You can follow her on X @adrianambells and reach her at adriana@yahoofinance.com.

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