19 States Ring in 2026 with Minimum Wage Increases for 8 Million Workers

January arrived with more than just a new calendar for millions of American workers. Paychecks grew fatter in 19 states on New Year’s Day, marking one of the largest coordinated wage increases in recent memory. From the Pacific Northwest to the Jersey Shore, state governments moved to boost pay floors while Congress remained frozen in place.

Behind these increases lies a story of political maneuvering, voter activism, and an ongoing battle over what constitutes fair pay in modern America. Some states added mere pennies to their hourly rates. Others leaped by dollars. And in one state, workers saw the single largest jump in the nation.

Yet even as millions celebrate their raises, the federal minimum wage remains stuck at a rate set more than 15 years ago. A growing divide between states that have acted and those that have not raises questions about the future of low-wage work in America.

Washington State Claims Top Spot

Washington State now pays the highest statewide minimum wage in the nation at $17.13 per hour, up from $16.66 in 2025. Workers there benefit from an inflation-adjustment formula written into state law, which automatically recalculates the wage floor each year based on changes in consumer prices.

New York follows close behind with a two-tier system. Workers in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County now earn at least $17 per hour. Employees in the rest of the state receive a minimum of $16 per hour. Governor Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers agreed to these increases as part of a multi-year plan that began in 2024, with future hikes tied to the Consumer Price Index starting in 2027.

Connecticut rounds out the top three among states implementing January increases, with its minimum wage climbing to $16.94 per hour. California, home to the nation’s largest workforce, reached $16.90 per hour.

Hawaii Workers See Largest Single Increase

While Washington claims bragging rights for the highest rate, Hawaii delivered the most dramatic single-year jump. Workers in the Aloha State saw their minimum wage rise by $2 per hour, from $14 to $16. A full-time worker earning the minimum will now take home an additional $1,346 per year compared to 2025.

Several other states also crossed meaningful thresholds. Nebraska jumped $1.50 to reach $15 per hour, while Missouri and Michigan each added $1.25 to their wage floors. Missouri now sits at $15 per hour, and Michigan reached $13.73. Rhode Island added $1 to hit $16 per hour.

Nebraska and Missouri’s increases stemmed from voter-approved ballot measures rather than legislative action. In both states, residents bypassed Republican-controlled legislatures that had resisted raising the minimum wage. Nebraska voters in 2022 chose to lift the wage from $9 over a multi-year span, with the 2026 increase representing the final step in that plan.

A Historic Milestone for the $15 Movement

For advocates who have pushed for higher wages over the past decade, 2026 marks a symbolic victory. For the first time in American history, more workers will live in states with a $15 or higher minimum wage than in states stuck at the federal minimum of $7.25.

Seventeen states plus Washington, D.C., have now reached or exceeded the $15 threshold. Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Missouri, and Nebraska joined that group on January 1. A decade ago, such a milestone seemed like a fantasy to many observers.

Union-backed activists launched the Fight for $15 movement in 2012, organizing fast-food workers to demand what critics at the time dismissed as an unrealistic wage target. Yannet Lathrop, senior researcher at the National Employment Law Project, argues that the campaign has proven its worth. “Policies increasing the minimum wage have been a lifeline for underpaid workers who have been the most impacted by a growing affordability crisis,” Lathrop said in an analysis of the 2026 increases.

Yet inflation has eroded some of that progress. A $15 wage floor buys far less today than it would have in 2012. Many labor advocates have moved beyond the original target and now push for $17 or higher as the new benchmark.

Who Benefits from These Raises

More than 8.3 million workers will see larger paychecks as a result of the January 1 increases, according to analysis by the Economic Policy Institute. Collectively, these workers will earn an estimated $5 billion more over the course of 2026 than they would have under 2025 wage rates.

Women make up 58.1% of affected workers. Black and Hispanic workers will see disproportionate benefits relative to their share of state workforces. In the 19 states with increases, Hispanic workers represent 19.8% of the overall workforce but account for 38.3% of those receiving raises. Black workers make up 8.7% of the workforce in these states but represent 10.7% of affected employees.

Contrary to stereotypes about minimum wage workers being teenagers in part-time jobs, 87.4% of those receiving raises are adults. A quarter of affected workers are parents, and 4.8 million children live in households with at least one worker receiving a pay increase. Nearly half of those getting raises work full-time, and 41.4% have at least some college education.

More than one in five affected workers live in households with incomes below the poverty line. Nearly half fall within 200% of the poverty threshold.

Local Wages Climb Even Higher

State-level increases tell only part of the story. Nearly 50 cities and counties across the country also raised their wage floors on January 1, with some localities pushing rates far above state minimums.

Tukwila, Washington, now boasts the nation’s highest local minimum wage at $21.65 per hour. Seattle follows at $21.30 per hour. Seven localities in Washington will have minimum wages above $20 per hour in 2026.

California’s cities also pushed wage floors higher. West Hollywood reached $20.25 per hour. Mountain View hit $19.70. Richmond climbed to $19.18, and San Jose reached $18.45. Twenty-nine California localities implemented pay increases on New Year’s Day.

Denver raised its minimum wage to $19.29 per hour, well above Colorado’s state floor of $15.16. Minneapolis and St. Paul both reached $16.37 per hour, outpacing Minnesota’s statewide minimum of $11.41.

A Complete State-by-State Breakdown

Beyond the headline-grabbing increases, smaller inflation adjustments brought modest gains to workers in several states.

Arizona rose to $15.15 from $14.70. California climbed to $16.90 from $16.50. Colorado reached $15.16 from $14.81. Connecticut hit $16.94 from $16.35. Maine moved to $15.10 from $14.65.

Minnesota’s increase was among the smallest in dollar terms, rising to $11.41 from $11.13. Montana reached $10.85 from $10.55. New Jersey climbed to $15.92 from $15.49, though the state maintains separate rates for certain industries. Long-term care facility workers in New Jersey now earn at least $18.92 per hour, one of the highest industry-specific floors in the nation.

Ohio moved to $11 from $10.70. South Dakota reached $11.85 from $11.50. Vermont climbed to $14.42 from $14.01. Virginia rose to $12.77 from $12.41.

Federal Wage Floor Remains Frozen

While states have acted, the federal minimum wage has remained at $7.25 per hour since July 2009. More than 15 years of inflation have eroded its purchasing power by more than 30%, according to the Economic Policy Institute analysis.

Twenty states, concentrated primarily in the South, still have no minimum wage above the federal level. More than 60 million workers live in these states. Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee have no state minimum wage at all, defaulting to the federal floor.

Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri broke with most members of his party earlier in 2025 by co-sponsoring a bill to raise the federal minimum to $15 per hour. “Right now, the federal minimum wage, if you index it for inflation, or relative to inflation, it’s the lowest level since the 1940s,” Hawley told HuffPost.

An April 2025 Senate vote on an amendment proposing a $17 federal minimum wage failed 47 to 52. Hawley was the only Republican who voted in favor.

Political Battles Shape Future Increases

Not all planned increases have moved forward smoothly. Virginia had been on track to reach a $15 minimum wage by 2026 under legislation passed in 2020, but the law required reauthorization by the state legislature by July 2024. Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin vetoed those planned increases multiple times. Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger has promised to support raising the wage floor once she takes office.

In Oklahoma, Republican Governor Kevin Stitt delayed a voter-initiated $15 minimum wage ballot measure until June 2026. Because the policy is structured as a ballot measure, its language cannot be adjusted to account for inflation since 2024, meaning Oklahoma workers will receive less purchasing power than originally intended even if the measure passes.

Missouri’s experience offers another cautionary tale. While voters approved a minimum wage increase, Republican lawmakers stripped the successful ballot measure of its inflation-indexing provision. Without automatic adjustments tied to rising prices, Missouri’s $15 wage floor will lose value over time.

Alaska, Florida, and Oregon have scheduled minimum wage increases for later in 2026. Florida will reach $15 per hour on September 30, completing a voter-approved plan to raise wages by $1 per year.

Business Groups Sound Alarm

Not everyone celebrates the wage increases. Small business advocates warn that rising labor costs could squeeze independent operators and contractors.

Dean Lyulkin, CEO of Cardiff, a small business loan company, told the New York Post that entry-level workers face particular risks. “When entry-level labor becomes more expensive, the first thing that disappears is the opportunity to get hired and learn on the job,” Lyulkin said.

Independent restaurants operating on thin margins may respond by cutting hours or slowing hiring, according to Lyulkin. Large corporations can absorb higher labor costs through economies of scale and capital reserves. Small businesses cannot.

Automation and artificial intelligence add another wrinkle to the debate. As technology makes it easier to replace certain tasks, higher minimum wages may accelerate the shift away from human workers in some roles. Entry-level positions that once served as stepping stones into the workforce could disappear entirely.

Construction contractors face similar pressures. Many operate on bids written months in advance, leaving little room to absorb unexpected wage increases without cutting staff.

A Nation Divided on Pay

As 2026 begins, the minimum wage landscape in America has never been more fragmented. Workers in Washington State earn more than double the federal minimum. Employees in Tukwila, Washington, take home triple what their counterparts in Texas or Georgia receive for the same hour of work.

For millions of workers, January 1 brought meaningful relief. For millions more, the federal floor of $7.25 per hour remains the law of the land.

Whether Congress will act remains uncertain. With Republicans controlling both chambers and the White House, significant federal movement appears unlikely in the near term. States and cities will continue to set their own paths, widening the gap between those who have acted and those who have not.