24/7 Insights

• Two states voted in November 2024 to raise the minimum wage. 
• Multiple other states are seeing increases in minimum wage beginning on January 1, 2025. 
• At least one state will hold a referendum on raising the minimum wage in 2026. 
• Also: Discover “The Next NVIDIA” 

When it comes to hot topics in American politics, you have constants like Social Security and defense spending, as well as minimum wage. With more than 15 years since the last federal minimum wage increase in 2009, the fight for high pay, especially in light of inflation over the previous few years, has brought this fight to the surface yet again. 

Unfortunately, the number of places around the country where the federal minimum wage of $7.25 remains livable is shrinking by the hour. First established in 1933 by Franklin Roosevelt, the Fair Labor Standards Act, assuring American workers of a minimum earning wage, helped bring the United States out of the Depression. However, there’s still more work to do to help all Americans live comfortably, so multiple states put minimum wage on the ballot in 2024. 

21. California 

Unfortunately, while some states welcome increased minimum wage amounts, this isn’t universally true. In the November 2024 election, residents of California voted down a measure that would have increased the minimum wage to $18.00, depending on the number of employees. Instead, California’s minimum wage increases to $16.50 an hour on January 1, 2025. 

20. Massachusetts

Massachusetts residents were provided with an opportunity with Question 5 in the November 2024 election. This would have increased the minimum wage for tipped workers until they met the state’s full minimum wage in 2029. Unfortunately, voters were not in favor of this change. 

19. Virginia

Virginian residents are looking at a 3.4% increase to the state’s minimum wage in 2024, which will take the total from $12.00 to $12.41 per hour. The rate will increase again on January 1, 2026, but the final amount has not been decided. 

18. Nebraska

After rising to $12.00 at the beginning of 2024, Nebraskan residents will see a jump to $13.50 per hour beginning on January 1, 2025. There will be another jump on January 1, 2026, when the minimum wage will increase to $15.00 per hour. 

17. Michigan

In Michigan, the minimum wage will increase from $10.33 to $10.56 per hour just for January. However, beginning on February 21, 2025, it will increase to $12.48 per hour, while tipped employees will see a bump to $5.99 per hour on the same date. 

16. Rhode Island

In Rhode Island, workers earning $14.00 per hour will receive a dollar increase in 2025. The jump to $15.00 is believed to directly result from current inflation levels. 

15. Maine

As of January 1, 2025, Maine will see its minimum wage increase to $14.65 per hour. Maine residents agreed to the change beginning in 2026 as annual adjustments are made to this amount based on the Northeast region’s cost-of-living index. 

14. New Jersey

Beginning on January 1, 2025, residents of New Jersey will see the minimum wage increase from $15.13 to $15.49 per hour. The increase will be significant for tipped employees, from $5.26 to $9.87 per hour. Seasonal employees will see a jump from $13.73 to $14.53 per hour. 

13. New York

On January 1, 2025, the minimum wage in New York will increase from $16 to $16.50 per hour for residents of New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County. On the same date, it will increase by 50 cents to $15.50 per hour for residents of other parts of the state. 

12. Ohio

Ohio’s minimum wage will increase to $10.70 per hour for non-tipped employees and $5.35 per hour for tipped employees on January 1, 2025. 

11. South Dakota

Workers in South Dakota will see a bump in their paychecks with a 30-cent rise beginning on January 1, 2025. This will raise their hourly wage from $11.50 to $5.75, and tipped workers will get an increase to $5.75. 

10. Vermont

Led by the Vermont Department of Labor, a minimum wage increase in the state will raise the minimum wage from $13.67 to $14.01 per hour beginning on the first of the year in 2025. This represents an increase of $0.34 cents per hour. 

9. Oklahoma

In 2025, Oklahoma will raise its minimum wage from the federal minimum of $7.25 to $9.00 per hour. However, residents will vote in 2026 to raise the minimum wage to $12 per hour beginning in 2027, gradually increasing until it reaches $15 per hour in 2029. 

8. Illinois

Illinois’s state minimum wage will increase from $14.00 per hour to $15.00 per hour, effective January 1, 2025. 

7. Connecticut

The Governor of Connecticut announced in September 2024 that, beginning on January 1, 2025, the state’s minimum wage will shift from $15.69 to $16.35 per hour. This increase directly responds to the state’s employment cost index increasing by 4.2% over the last 12 months. 

6. Montana

In Montana, the Montana Department of Labor & Industry is reminding residents that the minimum wage is bumping from $10.30 per hour to $10.55 beginning on January 1, 2025. 

5. Delaware

Effective January 1, 2025, the minimum wage in Delaware will increase from $13.25 to $15.00 per hour, and the tip credit for tipped employees will jump from $11.02 to $12.77 per hour. 

4. Colorado

At the start of 2025, Colorado workers will receive a pay bump as the area’s minimum wage jumps 52 cents, from $18.29 to $18.81 per hour. This is a huge jump from 2020 when the minimum wage was only $12.85 per hour. 

3. Arizona

In Arizona, a bill passed in 2016 will help expand the minimum wage to $14.70 an hour, up from $14.35. This represents a 2.4% increase, based on the Fair Wages and Healthy Families Act, which Arizona voters approved in 2016. 

2. Missouri

Proposition A in Missouri was recently passed, enabling residents to earn a state-based minimum wage of $13.75 per hour on January 1, 2025. The ballot also included provisions to increase the dollar amount to $15.00 per hour in January 2026, with annual adjustments based on the Consumer Price Index (cost of living). 

1. Alaska

Best known as Ballot Measure 1, voters in Alaska passed a vote to increase the state’s minimum wage to $13.00 per hour, effective July 1, 2025. This ballot also included phased increases that would take place through 2027, when the minimum wage would become $15.00. Additionally, after 2027, the minimum wage in Alaska will update annually for inflation, according to the passed ballot.

 

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