Millions of workers can expect a raise in the new year as state and local governments around the country increase their minimum wages.
Twenty-one states and more than 40 U.S. cities and counties will bump up their wage floors for 2025, most of them adjusting rates to account for inflation. Eight states will meet or exceed a minimum wage of $15 per hour.
Another five states and 23 cities and counties will hike their minimums later in the year, according to the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group that published an analysis of the scheduled increases.
The group says the number of increases across the U.S. is a record, driven by successful legislation and ballot measures in recent years. Most new laws tie the wage rate to an inflation index so that it rises with the cost of living.
The idea of raising the minimum wage is immensely popular with voters, including in conservative states. Missouri and Alaska just approved measures in November to hike their wage floors to $15 by 2026 and 2027, respectively, even though President-elect Donald Trump easily won both states.
The Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, estimates that more than 9 million workers around the country will get raises on Jan. 1, with an average increase of about $400 for the year for those who work full-time. EPI says most of those workers will be women, and a disproportionate share will be Black or Latino.
Looming minimum wage increases, as compiled by EPI:
The federal minimum wage is just $7.25 per hour and prevails in any state that doesn’t mandate a higher minimum. But a majority of states now require employers to pay above the federal rate, some more than double.
At the same time, many cities and counties, primarily in liberal areas, have implemented minimum wages higher than their state levels. Most of the local increases in 2025 will take place in California, Colorado and Washington.
The highest wage floor in the U.S. will be in Burien, Washington, near Seattle. The city recently approved an ordinance requiring large employers to pay $4.50 above the state rate, which will push the minimum wage above $21 at certain companies.
Washington state will have the highest across-the-board state minimum wage, at $16.66. California’s will be $16.50 for most workers and $18 and above for those employed in health care. New York will require $16.50 for workers in New York City and $15.50 for those in other parts of the state.
Five other states — Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, New Jersey and Rhode Island — will also have minimum wages of at least $15.
Meanwhile, the federal minimum wage has not budged since 2009, when the last of a series of increases passed in 2007 went into effect. The 15-year period is the longest without an increase since the federal minimum wage was created during the Great Depression.
Democrats in Congress have pushed various bills to increase the federal minimum wage but have encountered stiff resistance from most Republicans. Democrats have supported a $15 wage floor for years, but now many say it should be at least $17 due to inflation.
Some Republicans have been open to more moderate increases, with strings attached. Outgoing Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah) joined Sen. Tom Cotton (Ark.) in proposing a bill that would boost the minimum wage to $10 per hour while requiring employers to use E-verify, the federal system meant to confirm that workers are documented. But many Democrats have opposed a federal mandate for E-verify.
The minimum wage seems unlikely to move anywhere with Republicans taking full control of Congress and President-elect Donald Trump headed to the White House.
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Trump has offered comically inconsistent views on the minimum wage ever since he first ran for president in 2016. He’s expressed openness to the idea of increasing it, only to reverse himself. He’s even conflicted himself in the same sentence, once saying he would “leave it and raise it somewhat.”
Trump wasn’t much clearer on the matter in a recent interview with NBC News’ Kristen Welker. He conceded that the federal rate of $7.25 is “a very low number,” and said he would “consider” a raise, but also seemed to dismiss the very idea of a federal minimum.
“I’d want to speak to the governors,” Trump said. “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.”
