Many new laws went into effect when the clock struck midnight ushering in 2026, which included 19 states raising their minimum wages.
New York, California, Maine, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio are among states boosting the lowest someone can be paid for an hourly wage. The biggest increase is in Hawaii, which is raising its minimum wage by $2 an hour.
Florida, Alaska and Oregon will also raise their pay requirements later in 2026.
Originally introduced by the federal government during the Great Depression, the minimum wage was intended to help workers pay for their basic needs.
“By doing so, you would be able to move people off of assistance and other types of government programs and give them a sense of ownership in themselves and a sense of pride in their work while giving them a wage that would allow them to sustain themselves,” said Thomas Kemp, chair of the economic department at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, with these changes, more workers across the country will have a baseline of more than $15 an hour than those that abide by the federal wage of $7.25, a number that has not changed since 2009.
“The federal is really a sort of floor for the minimum wage for the vast majority of workers,” Kemp said. “Again, many states have minimum wages now that are higher, and some considerably higher. So, for example, California is more than double the federal minimum.”
About 20 states either do not have a minimum wage or do not have one that exceeds the federal standard, so they must, by law, take that as their own minimum wage.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in Washington D.C., believe that the federal minimum wage is too low and needs to better reflect the times.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., introduced a bill with Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., to establish a baseline of $15 an hour across the country, but it has yet to gain any real traction.
“The minimum wage, adjusted for inflation, is at its lowest point since the 1950s,” Hawley said. “People’s wages are too low across the board. I think we need to get those up.”
With the costs of goods and services continuing to trend upward and inflation sticking around, affordability is at the forefront of consumers’ minds. 2026 is an election year, and the economy is always a focus of campaigns, which could lead to more legislation to raise the wage federally.
