Which States Will Raise the Minimum Wage in 2026?

The new year will see dozens of states, cities, and counties raising the minimum wage, helping millions of Americans offset an affordability crisis.

On January 1, 2026, the minimum wage increases in 19 states and 49 cities and counties. An additional four states and 22 localities will lift minimums later in 2026, according to the National Employment Law Project. By the end of 2026, 79 jurisdictions will have a minimum wage of $15 or more.

"Policies increasing the minimum wage have been a lifeline for underpaid workers who have been the most impacted by a growing affordability crisis—defined here as the growing gap between household incomes and the cost of housing, groceries and other basics," wrote Yannet Lathrop, the organization's senior researcher.

State and local measures are crucial because the federal wage floor hasn't been raised since 2009. Nearly two decades later, 1 million Americans still make $7.25 an hour.

"The minimum wage is one of the most popular ballot issues this century," said Kathryn Anne Edwards, an economist and policy consultant. "If you put the minimum wage on a ballot, it will pass because nobody in their right mind would say $7 an hour is a reasonable wage in 2025."

Nobody except Congress, apparently. The federal minimum has been stuck at $7.25 since 2009. That's 16 years.

Which States Are Raising Minimum Wage

Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington will lift the minimum wage January 1.

Alaska, Florida, and Oregon will raise theirs later in the year. California will also enact a separate new minimum wage for health care workers.

Notable Changes

Santa Fe, New Mexico, is tying future wage increases to a combination of the consumer price index and the cost of housing. That's believed to be a first in the United States.

If housing costs are skyrocketing, minimum wage should reflect that instead of just tracking general inflation that includes stuff like electronics getting cheaper.

The Los Angeles City Council voted in May to gradually raise the wage floor for certain tourism industry employees to $30 by 2028. That'll be the highest minimum wage in the country that's been decided so far.

The Economic Effect

Because minimum wage increases go to people making less money, "we're not expecting that big of an effect" on the economy or inflation, said Matthew Nestler, a senior economist with KPMG. But even an additional dollar an hour could be "life-changing" for many Americans at the lower end of the income spectrum.

Minimum wage workers tend to work in the "care economy"—home health aides, day care providers—or in retail, entertainment, or hospitality. Many are immigrants with less bargaining power. These workers got hit hardest by inflation. "Since 2020, overall inflation has grown by 23.6%, and the price of groceries has risen by 26.4%," the NELP report notes.

Day care and preschool prices account for just 0.7% of the consumer price index. But for some households, those costs eat up one-quarter of the monthly budget.

That's why official government inflation metrics—the CPI showed prices were up just 3% compared with a year ago in September—don't match what many Americans actually experience.

Your rent went up 15%. Your groceries cost 26% more. Your day care bill jumped. But the government says inflation is only 3% because TVs got cheaper and gas prices dropped.

Who This Helps

Day care workers are among those most likely to earn the minimum wage and benefit from increases.

Also home health aides, retail workers, hospitality workers, entertainment industry workers. People whose jobs are essential but whose pay doesn't reflect it.

$7.25 an hour is $290 for a 40-hour week before taxes. That's about $15,000 a year if you work full-time with no time off. Try living on that anywhere in 2025.

The Reality

Nineteen states and 49 cities and counties are raising the minimum wage January 1, 2026. Four more states and 22 more localities will raise it later in the year.

State and local governments are stepping in where the federal government won't. Minimum wage increases are popular—put it on a ballot, it passes. But Congress hasn't touched the federal minimum in 16 years.

So, states and cities keep doing it themselves because waiting for federal action is pointless. For workers making minimum wage, an extra dollar or two an hour is actually life-changing when you're starting from $15,000 a year.

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