By Anna Helhoski | NerdWallet
With the federal minimal wage mired at $7.25 an hour since 2009, many cities and states have been taking it upon themselves to set the bar greater. And generally, greater once more.
In reality, minimal wage earners in 22 states and 38 cities and counties bought a pay bump on Jan. 1.
Today, the very best minimal wages, by state and Washington, D.C., are in D.C. ($17), Washington ($16.28), California ($16), Connecticut ($15.69) and New Jersey ($15.13). In addition, New York, Massachusetts and Maryland all have minimal wages of $15.
On the extra native degree, 58 cities and counties have minimal wages set greater than their state’s wage. All of the highest 10 are within the West, and the highest three cities are shut neighbors:
- Tukwila, Washington: $20.29.
- Seattle: $19.97.
- SeaTac, Washington: $19.71.
- West Hollywood, California: $19.08.
- Mountain View, California: $18.75.
- Emeryville, California: $18.67.
- Sunnyvale, California: $18.55.
- Denver: $18.29.
- San Francisco: $18.07.
- El Cerrito, California: $17.92.
This yr’s state and native minimal wage will increase are estimated to impression 9.9 million staff, in accordance with the Economic Policy Institute, which tracks minimal wage modifications.
Of these 22 state will increase on Jan. 1, 14 have been as a consequence of automated inflation changes. Two different locations have automated changes on July 1 annually: Washington, D.C., and Oregon. But the state with the very best enhance as of Jan. 1 was Hawaii: a $2 enhance to $14, representing a 28% bump.
Who is almost definitely to earn minimal wage?
A 2023 Bureau of Labor Statistics report highlights the demographic traits of staff making minimal wage or much less in 2022. These staff are most frequently:
- Young: 45% are underneath the age of 25.
- Women: 2% of girls in comparison with 1% of males.
- Black: 2% are Black in comparison with 1% amongst all different race and ethnicity teams.
- Part-time staff: 3% work fewer than 35 hours per week in comparison with 1% of full-time staff.
- In the leisure and hospitality trade: 3 in 5 of all staff at or under the federal minimal wage degree work in eating places, bars and different meals providers.
- Students, these with some school expertise or affiliate diploma holders: 2% have some school expertise or maintain a two-year diploma in comparison with 1% of staff with no highschool diploma or these with a bachelor’s diploma and better.
Since 2009, the federal minimal wage has stayed caught at $7.25 per hour. It’s the longest stretch with no wage enhance for the reason that U.S. first instituted a minimal wage in 1938, federal information reveals.
It’s price noting, nevertheless, that whereas 20 states have the minimal wage set to the federal minimal degree, that doesn’t imply the vast majority of hourly paid staff aren’t incomes extra. In Louisiana and Mississippi, for instance, 3% of hourly paid staff are incomes $7.25 per hour. And in Alabama and Utah, it’s simply 1% of hourly paid staff.
Among all hourly staff within the U.S., 0.18% earn the federal minimal wage and 1.1% earn under the federal minimal as of 2022, in accordance with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those who earn under the federal minimal of $7.25 are sometimes tipped staff who’re required to be paid a federal minimal of a $2.13 money wage along with ideas.
Even although most hourly staff are making greater than the federal minimal, it’s nonetheless not sufficient to maintain up with inflation — particularly the elevated inflation of current years. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator, $1 in 2023 has solely 70% of the shopping for energy as $1 in July 2009, when the federal minimal wage was final elevated. So meaning $7.25 per hour immediately was price $5.11 per hour in 2009.
Legislative efforts to extend the federal minimal wage since 2009 have fallen flat. The newest proposal is the Raise the Wage Act proposed final yr by Democrats in Congress. It would enhance the federal minimal wage incrementally to succeed in $17 an hour by 2028. Every yr thereafter, minimal wage changes can be tied to median wage development.
The article These 10 Cities Have the Highest Minimum Wage within the U.S. initially appeared on NerdWallet.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”