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The Minimum Wage Just Increased in These 21 States
By Pete Grieve MONEY RESEARCH COLLECTIVE
Alaska’s minimum wage rose by just 18 cents. But in five states, the hike is $1 or more.
Minimum wage workers in 21 states are getting a raise to start the new year thanks to ballot measures, legislation and inflation adjustments.
In some states, the minimum wage increases are modest, according to a December report from the Economic Policy Institute. For example, Alaska’s minimum wage rose by just 18 cents. But in five states — Delaware, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska and Rhode Island — the hike is $1 or more.
The left-leaning think tank argues that the minimum wage is a “powerful tool for combating racial and gender wage disparities,” pointing out that “Black and Hispanic workers will disproportionately benefit” from the 2025 increases. Hispanic workers represent 19.5% of the workforce in the 21 states where minimum wages are going up but make up 38.8% of the population getting higher wages. Meanwhile, 58.8% of the workers getting a bump are women.
The minimum wage increases, which took effect Wednesday, benefit more than 9.2 million people, according to the report. But it’s important to note that this math assumes that employers maintain their payrolls with the higher wage requirements in place. (Critics of higher minimum wages argue that these laws burden businesses and can force tough decisions about raising prices or reducing staffing.)
While the federal minimum wage has been unchanged for 15 years at $7.25 per hour, most states have higher minimums. Following the latest changes, 19 states have minimum wages of $15 per hour or more.
States with minimum wage adjusted for inflation in 2025
As of Wednesday, 14 states have hiked their minimum wages due to inflation adjustments that kicked in automatically under state laws.
Inflation adjustments, which aim to help employees keep up with rising costs, typically aren’t as sizable as minimum wage increases enacted by voters or lawmakers, but many workers stand to make hundreds of dollars more per year as a result of these changes. (The average full-time worker will get a $420 bump in annual pay in these states.)
Here are the states with higher minimum wages following inflation adjustments:
- Alaska: $11.73 per hour to $11.91 (+18 cents)
- Arizona: $14.35 to $14.70 (+35 cents)
- California: $16 to $16.50 (+50 cents)
- Colorado: $14.42 to $14.81 (+39 cents)
- Connecticut: $15.69 to $16.35 (+66 cents)
- Maine: $14.15 to $14.65 (+50 cents)
- Minnesota: $10.85 to $11.13 (+28 cents)
- Montana: $10.30 to $10.55 (+25 cents)
- New Jersey: $15.13 to $15.49 (+36 cents)
- Ohio: $10.45 to $10.70 (+25 cents)
- South Dakota: $11.20 to $11.50 (+30 cents)
- Vermont: $13.67 to $14.01 (+34 cents)
- Virginia: $12 to $12.41 (+41 cents)
- Washington: $16.28 to $16.66 (+38 cents)
States with minimum wage law changes in 2025
Workers in seven states are now covered by higher minimum wages resulting from ballot measures and legislation. Voters in Nebraska and Missouri previously passed ballot measures that lift their minimum wages in increments ultimately to $15 per hour in 2026, and lawmakers in five other states approved minimum wage hikes effective Jan. 1.
Here are the states with minimum wage law changes for 2025:
- Delaware: $13.25 to $15 (+$1.75)
- Illinois: $14 to $15 (+$1)
- Michigan: $10.33 to $10.56 (+23 cents)
- Missouri: $12.30 to $13.75 (+$1.45)
- Nebraska: $12 to $13.50 (+$1.50)
- New York: $15 to $15.50 (+50 cents)
- Rhode Island: $14 to $15 (+$1)
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Pete Grieve is a New York-based reporter who covers personal finance news. At Money, Pete covers trending stories that affect Americans’ wallets on topics including car buying, insurance, housing, credit cards, retirement and taxes. He studied political science and photography at the University of Chicago, where he was editor-in-chief of The Chicago Maroon. Pete began his career as a professional journalist in 2019. Prior to joining Money, he was a health reporter for Spectrum News in Ohio, where he wrote digital stories and appeared on TV to provide coverage to a statewide audience. He has also written for the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Sun-Times and CNN Politics. Pete received extensive journalism training through Report for America, a nonprofit organization that places reporters in newsrooms to cover underreported issues and communities, and he attended the annual Investigative Reporters and Editors conference in 2021. Pete has discussed his reporting in interviews with outlets including the Columbia Journalism Review and WBEZ (Chicago's NPR station). He’s been a panelist at the Chicago Headline Club’s FOIA Fest and he received the Institute on Political Journalism’s $2,500 Award for Excellence in Collegiate Reporting in 2017. An essay he wrote for Grey City magazine was published in a 2020 book, Remembering J. Z. Smith: A Career and its Consequence.