Minimum wage set to rise in 23 states next year as $15 an hour, and beyond, picks up steam

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: USA Today

Published 5:08 a.m. ET Dec. 9, 2024 | Updated 5:08 a.m. ET Dec. 9, 2024


Minimum wage hikes traditionally have been aimed at helping low-paid workers afford the basics, such as food, medicine and housing. But a growing number of states and localities are raising their pay floors to $15 an hour or above, providing workers a somewhat larger financial cushion so they can not only pay for essentials with less of a struggle but also make some discretionary purchases.

Twenty-one states and 48 cities and counties are set to raise their minimum wages on January 1, according to a report provided exclusively to USA TODAY by the National Employment Law Project, a worker advocacy group. Others states and few more cities and counties will raise their minimum wages later in 2025. While the pay floor bumps mark an annual ritual, the report highlights an acceleration in the size of minimum wage increases in recent years.

What states are raising the minimum wage to $15?

On New Year’s Day, three states – Illinois, Delaware and Rhode Island – will reach a $15 pay base for the first time, joining seven states already there or above it. Two states, California and New Jersey, are set to push their pay floors further above $17 for some health care workers.

Meanwhile, 47 localities will also reach or top $15 on Jan. 1, including more than two dozen in California, most of which will climb further above $17. Burien, Washington, already subject to the state’s $16.28 minimum pay, will vault to $21.16 for employers with 500 or more workers in King County, making it the nation’s highest pay floor.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2024/12/09/minimum-wage-hikes-2025/76710608007/

[BComplex]

1. Trump will get all the credit for this.

You know that the media is going to go along with it, too.

[Bengus81]

2. He can try all his wants,people can pull out the video from 2016

Where he said why would I want to raise MW? Those wages are too high right now.

[Meadowoak]

3. all the red states are still $7.25, and I doubt that very many in blue states will believe Trump raised minimum wage.

[BComplex]

4. We saw with this election that there are people in every state that are clueless about how

right wing the media really is. I mean, after all, the media has been telling everyone for the past 25 years that the "liberal media" is THE problem with this country.

[HereForTheParty]

7. Credit for what? This article is lipstick on a pig

Only 10 of 50 states will have a minimum wage of $15 or more. The fight for fifteen started in earnest around 2012. Adjusted for inflation, that would be just over $20 today.

[regnaD kciN]

9. No, he won't...

...since this is all in blue states, and is the result of lots of very vocal campaigning from the left for many years.

The bigger question, for me, is whether Cheetolini and his congressional enablers will try to abolish a minimum wage nationwide.

[mopinko]

5. at least we made some gains at the state level. i was pissed dems didnt stress downticket races.

that and talking about democracy w no mention of governance wd b my main beefs. when harris talked about wages, what she shd have said is- that’s a state issue. that’s y u vote the whole ballot.
instead of focusing on tsf, she shd have hammered govs like abbott, and state leges like tenn.

esp w the way the ec distorts our politics, the top of the ticket needs to reach down everywhere. how many of the ‘other 43 states’ even got a visit from harris OR walz? that’s how red states stay red.

we need to treat the candidates who run hopeless downticket races like the kings and queens they r. that’s what builds the party. that’s what gets the vote out. i was hopeful that the dnc streamed a lot of money to state and local parties. but they didnt bring the star power that this age apparently requires.

[OnlinePoker]

6. I remember when the call was $15 for (20)15

I think it happened in a couple of places at the time, but very few. That $15 in 2015 would need $20 now based on the U.S. inflation calculator.

https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

[HereForTheParty]

8. This right here

They've stalled so long the $15 marker, which was impressive at the time, has lost a lot of punch.