Some workers in 22 states will see a raise next week on January 1 when their states increase the minimum wage. In total, an estimated 9.9 million workers will see additional wages thanks to the increased rate, equating to...
Some workers in 22 states will see a raise next week on January 1 when their states increase the minimum wage.
In total, an estimated 9.9 million workers will see additional wages thanks to the increased rate, equating to $6.95 billion in wages, according to an analysis from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Additionally, 38 cities and counties are expected to raise their minimum wage beyond what is required by the state, which will potentially impact even more workers.
Many of those increases—in 15 states and 54 cities and counties—are coming from provisions in minimum wage law that require automatic cost-of-living adjustments, according to a separate report from the National Employment Law Project (NELP). Workers fought heavily for those provisions, NELP reports.
Who will see the most benefit?
When it comes to who is seeing those wage increases, more than half of the impacted workers (57.9%) are women, according to EPI’s analysis. Meanwhile, roughly a quarter of the workers impacted by the increases are working parents, with the higher wages expected to impact the lives of 5.6 million children.
The increase it also hitting a number of workers who are currently living in poverty. Almost 1 in 5 of the workers seeing a pay increase are living below the poverty line for their area, and almost half had incomes in 2023 that were below twice the poverty line.
As for where the increases are happening, more than half of the workers seeing a New Year’s wage increase are located in California, Hawaii, or New York, all of which have high costs of living. Hawaii workers are seeing the largest minimum wage increase in the country at $2, raising the state’s minimum wage to $14 an hour. Michigan was the lowest, raising its minimum by just 23 cents, from $10.10 to $10.33.
EPI has created an interactive map that breaks down each state’s increase by size and type, as well as its annual effect.
The states seeing an increase of some kind include Maine, Vermont, Washington, Montana, Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Ohio, New Jersey, Connecticut, California, Colorado, Nebraska, Maryland, Delaware, Arizona, Alaska, and Hawaii. There are also a number of ongoing ballot campaigns in several states pushing for further increases, including in Massachusetts and Boulder County, Colorado, where campaigns are pushing for a $20-plus minimum wage to help offset the high costs of living.
The increases are impacting fewer workers than they might have traditionally thanks to low unemployment rates in the country post-pandemic, leading businesses to pay higher wages to attract workers.
Despite the increases, there will still be 17.6 million workers in the United States earning less than $15 an hour. Almost half of those workers are working in one of the 20 states where the minimum wage remains $7.25 an hour.