Which States Will See a Major Minimum Wage Boost in 2025? Find Out If Yours Is On The List

Historically, minimum wage increases have been intended to assist low-income workers in meeting basic needs such as food, medicine, and shelter. However, an increasing number of states and localities are lifting their pay ceilings to $15 per hour or higher, giving workers a somewhat bigger financial cushion to pay for necessities and make some discretionary choices.

According to research supplied exclusively to USA TODAY by the National Employment Law Project, a worker advocacy group, twenty-one states, and 48 cities and counties will boost their minimum wages on January 1. Other states and a few cities and counties will raise their minimum wage later in 2025.

Which states are increasing the minimum wage to $15?

On New Year’s Day, three states – Illinois, Delaware, and Rhode Island – will join seven others that have reached or exceeded the $15 wage base. Two states, California and New Jersey, want to raise their minimum wage for healthcare workers above $17. Meanwhile, 47 communities will hit or exceed $15 on January 1, including more than two dozen in California, most of which will rise above $17.

Burien, Washington, which is already subject to the state’s $16.28 minimum wage, will increase to $21.16 for firms with 500 or more employees in King County, making it the nation’s highest pay floor.

“Keep in mind that a full-time worker earning $17 per hour is only earning $35,360 annually pretax,” Yannet Lathrop, NELP’s senior researcher and policy analyst, stated in an email. “Those wage levels won’t make workers wealthy, but they will help pay for the basics, for a few luxuries.”

She said, “Higher income may improve their emotional and physical health, capacity to access credit, and children’s scholastic outcomes. Several states will raise the minimum wage in January as part of increases over the next several years. Illinois and Rhode Island are $14, while Delaware is $13.25. Kapamilya Hobbs, 33, of Kansas City, Missouri, makes $13.44 per hour while working 20 to 25 hours at an Arby’s. Her boyfriend primarily cares for their three children, a newborn, and two toddlers, but he occasionally delivers food for DoorDash.

Their combined earnings cover necessities. Sometimes, the pair has to put off paying rent or a mobile bill for 30 days. “It’s a little bit tricky,” Hobbs added. “After rent, food, and expenses for the kids, we don’t have too much left over to be able to do anything daily.”

Missouri’s minimum wage rise to $13.75 “would help a little,” she stated. The family might have to juggle debt payments less frequently. She added, “I’d be able to visit my mother more often.” Because of the high cost of transportation, she now visits her mother only sometimes, who lives around 25 miles away. Hobbs, on the other hand, expressed her desire for further increases in the minimum wage. “The cost of living will still increase,” she told me. “We can’t live on $13.75.” Many states, including Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Ohio, and Virginia, are implementing reduced base pay increases in response to annual increases in the cost of living as measured by the consumer price index.