Efforts to raise the minimum wage in states across the country have been effective, with 22 of them hiking the minimum employers are allowed to pay workers in 2026. Many now have a minimum bar of $15 an hour.
Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington have minimum wage increases going into effect this year.
Among the states with new increases, Minnesota and Montana set the lowest bar at $11.41, and $10.85 respectively. Highest are New Jersey, at $15.92, California, at $16.90, Connecticut, at $16.94, and New York at $17 an hour.
Michigan is in the middle at $13.73 starting in 2026, but it's a big jump up from its nearest neighbors. Workers in Ohio face an $11 an hour minimum wage, and in Indiana and Kentucky, the states use the federal minimum of $7.25. Nebraska and Illinois are in the middle of the states in terms of minimum pay, with the Mitten State, both at $15 an hour. SEE a map of where your state stacks up HERE.
As the National Employment Law Project notes, "Arkansas, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico, and West Virginia, all with minimum wage laws above the federal rate of $7.25 are not expected to raise their minimum wages in 2026. All these states have failed to adopt provisions that index their minimum wages to inflation."
But that's better news than low-wage workers face in the South, where most stick to the federal minimum wage.
"Another 20 states, mainly in the South, will also not increase their wage floors as they have not adopted their own minimum wage laws or have set their minimum wages at the federal rate of $7.25 or lower," NELP wrote in its new report.
Amit Batabyal, professor of economics at the Rochester Institute of Technology, told WCSC News in South Carolina that while the wage increases are good news, it’s not going to solve the affordability crisis. "Wealth inequality in the United States, where the difference between the 1 percenters and the 99 percenters is staggeringly large,” Batabyal said. “(But) It will definitely help people at the lower end of the income distribution.”