Raises from Coast to Coast in 2026

Summary of Wage Increases in 2026

As affordability challenges grow, NELP supports 2026 wage increases that move us toward a good-jobs economy, rooted in living wages for all. On January 1, 2026, the minimum wage will increase in 19 states and 49 cities and counties. In 60 of those jurisdictions, the wage floor will reach or exceed $15.00 per hour for some or all employers, including 3 states and 40 localities where the wage floor will reach or exceed $17.00 per hour for some or all employers.

Later in 2026, 4 states and 22 local jurisdictions will likewise lift their wage floors—25 of them to $15.00 or more for some or all employers, including 1 state and 17 localities¹ which will reach or exceed a $17.00 minimum wage for some or all employers.

In total, 88 jurisdictions (22 states and 66 cities and counties) will raise their minimum wage floors by the end of 2026.² Of those, 79 jurisdictions (14 states and 65 cities and counties) will reach or exceed a $15.00 minimum wage for some or all employees in 2026, including 57 jurisdictions (4 states and 53 cities and counties) which will reach or exceed $17.00.

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Below is a summary of what to expect:

• On January 1^st: Wage floors will increase in 19 states and 49 cities and counties, for a total of 68 jurisdictions (Table 1).
  • In 12 states and 48 cities and counties, the minimum wage will reach or exceed $15.00 per hour for some or all employees.
  • In 3 states and 40 localities, the wage floor will reach or exceed $17.00 per hour for some or all employees. The state figure includes New Jersey, which will have a wage floor of $18.92 for long-term care workers, and under $17.00 for other workers; and New York, which will have a wage floor of $17.00 for New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County, and $16.00 for upstate; Hayward, California, which will have a wage floor of $17.79 for large employers and $16.90 for small employers; and Novato, California, which will have a wage floor of $17.73 for very large employers, $17.46 for large employers, and $16.90 for small employers.
  • In 13 states and 44 cities and counties, the minimum wage will increase due to cost-of-living adjustments—including New Jersey, which is implementing step increases for agricultural workers, while adjusting the wage floor for all others to reflect inflation; King County, Washington, which is implementing inflation adjustments for employers with more than 500 workers, and adjusting step increases for all others; and the Washington cities of Bellingham and Burien, which set their minimum wages at specific dollar amounts above the state minimum wage (the state wage floor is currently increasing to match inflation).
  • One city—Flagstaff, Arizona—will ring in the new year with the final step in the decade-long gradual elimination of its subminimum tipped wage. In 2016, the city’s voters approved a ballot initiative raising the minimum wage to $15.00 by 2021 (later amended to $15.50 by 2022) and the phase-out of the subminimum tipped wage by 2026. Starting January 1, 2026, Flagstaff will no longer permit employers of tipped workers to use any portion of tips as a credit towards their obligation to pay the minimum wage. The full minimum wage of $18.35 will now serve as the tipped cash wage with tips on top.
• Later in the year: 4 states and 22 cities and counties will follow with additional minimum wage increases, for a total of 26 jurisdictions (Table 2).
  • Among these jurisdictions are the state of California; the California cities of West Hollywood and San Diego; Saint Paul, Minnesota; and the Washington cities of Everett and Renton; which will raise their minimum wages twice (January 1st and later in the year) for some or all employers.
  • In 3 states and 22 cities and counties, the minimum wage will reach or exceed $15.00 per hour for some or all employers, including Oregon and Saint Paul, Minnesota which will have a lower minimum wage for some workers.
  • In 1 state (California) and 17 local jurisdictions, the wage floor will reach or exceed $17.00 per hour for some or all workers. (If Chicago’s inflation-adjusted minimum wage reaches $17.00 or more, the number of localities would increase to 18).
  • In 1 state (Oregon) and 22 cities and counties, the minimum wage will increase due to cost-of-living adjustments—including the California cities of Los Angeles and San Diego; Washington, D.C.; Chicago, Illinois; and Saint Paul, Minnesota, which will adjust their minimum wages for some workers to account for inflation while they continue to raise the wage floor for other workers through step increases.
• Wage floors above $15: 11 states and 65 cities and counties will have surpassed a $15.00 minimum wage for some or all employees by the end of 2026, including 4 states and 53³ localities which will have reached or surpassed a $17.00 minimum wage (Table 3).
• No increases: Eight states (Arkansas, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico, and West Virginia) with minimum wage laws above the federal rate of $7.25 are not expected to raise their minimum wages in 2026 (Table 4). All these states have failed to adopt provisions that index their minimum wages to inflation. 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 (Table 5). The South is home to the majority of the U.S. Black population, so the failure to raise wages and adopt other worker protections in the region have especially pernicious effects on the Black workforce.
• The legacy of the Fight for $15: 15 states have adopted a path to a $15.00 (or higher) minimum wage since 2012: Alaska, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island. In addition, although Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Oregon, and Washington State adopted wage laws with original target rates under $15.00 per hour, indexing provisions in their laws have boosted their wage floors above $15.00 for some or all workers in recent years. In total, 20 states are on a path to, or have reached or exceeded a $15.00 minimum wage.

Minimum Wage Developments in 2025

The year 2025 brought a mix of groundbreaking wins and some setbacks for underpaid workers. Below are some of the main developments:

• Rhode Island: Governor Daniel McKee signed legislation raising the state minimum wage to $17.00 by 2027. An estimated 50,000 workers will benefit.
• Los Angeles, CA: In a trailblazing move, the Los Angeles City Council voted in May to gradually raise the minimum wage for certain tourism industry workers to $30.00 by 2028 and require employers to provide them with a modest health care stipend. Industry groups attempted to repeal the ordinance by filing a referendum petition but failed to collect the required signatures. The measure—which is expected to be the highest wage floor in the country in 2028—will not only increase worker pay and benefits, but it is also projected to create 6,000 full-time jobs.
• San Diego, CA: The San Diego city council approved a measure to increase the wage floor for hospitality workers to $25.00 by 2030. The hospitality minimum wage will increase on different timelines for workers at amusement parks and hotels, and workers employed by event centers, but all will reach a $25.00 minimum wage by 2030.
• Portland, ME: Voters in Portland approved a ballot measure in November that raises the wage floor to $19.00 by 2028. The measure passed by a decisive 63 percent to 37 percent margin. According to the Maine Center for Economic Policy, an estimated 15,000 workers (21 percent of the city’s workforce) will benefit, including approximately a quarter of the female (23 percent) and non-white (27 percent) workforce. On average, affected workers will earn $2,100 more per year, with their aggregate wages totaling $32 million.
• Santa Fe, NM: Mayor Alan Webber introduced and the Santa Fe City Council passed an ordinance raising the city’s minimum wage to $17.50 by 2027, with future adjustments tied to overall inflation and rental costs. Over 4,100 workers earning the minimum wage are expected to benefit directly when the wage floor boosts their hourly earnings automatically; and an additional 4,800 workers are expected to benefit indirectly when the higher wage floor boosts the wages of workers earning slightly above the minimum wage. Overall, nearly 9,000 workers (20 percent of the city’s workforce) will experience wage increases.
• Burien, WA: In October 2024, the Burien City Council approved an ordinance increasing the minimum wage between $3.50 and $4.50 above the Washington state minimum wage, depending on business size. The first increase took place on January 1, 2025 for large businesses, and the second on July 1, 2025 for mid-size businesses. Small businesses with 20 or fewer workers are exempt. In February 2025, voters approved a ballot initiative that would increase the minimum wage for large businesses to the same rate as the neighboring city of Tukwila, WA right away, and phase in the minimum for medium and small businesses over time.

Other developments this year include:

• California: Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law two bills that seek to increase pay for incarcerated workers. Assembly Bill 247 raises the wage of incarcerated workers assigned to an active fire incident to $7.25 per hour. Assembly Bill 248 removes a cap that limits incarcerated workers’ earnings to just $2.00 in total per 8 hours of work and allows counties to set their own wages. These bills are a positive development in the right direction, but more must be done. Subminimum wages, especially in this context, are the enduring legacy of anti-Black slavery and Black Codes that criminalized unemployment if you were Black. Incarcerated people have economic needs—their own, including exorbitant court and facility-imposed fees—but also families they support. Like all workers, incarcerated people ought to be paid the same wages for the same work.
• Colorado: Workers and advocates defeated an effort to slash local tipped wages and chip away at local power. A bill in the state House would have mandated localities with their own minimum wages to amend their tipped wages so they match the state’s lower tipped cash wage. This bill would not only have cut tipped workers’ cash wages in Denver, Boulder, Boulder County, and Edgewater—all of which have adopted their own minimum wage laws—but it would also have rolled back local control by imposing the state’s lower cash wage on localities. Although the bill (HB25-1208) did pass, its proponents were forced to accept an amendment which gives localities the choice (but no longer requires them) to lower their tipped wages.
• Michigan and Missouri: Minimum wage detractors partially prevailed in Michigan and Missouri. In Michigan, Senate Bill 8 rolls back the gradual elimination of the subminimum tipped wage. Under the new law, the tipped subminimum wage will no longer be phased out until it reaches parity with the full minimum wage; it will only reach 50 percent of the full minimum wage by 2031. However, the standard minimum wage will increase to $15.00 by 2027, with inflation-based increases thereafter. In Missouri, Republicans rammed through House Bill 567 which rolls back key provisions of a ballot initiative that voters had overwhelmingly approved in November 2024. The main target of the bill was paid sick leave, which was fully repealed. But—while it allows the minimum wage to reach $15.00 as scheduled—this bill also removes a provision that would have raised the minimum wage in future years to the reflect the rate of inflation.
• Boulder County, CO: Despite overwhelming opposition from workers and advocates, the Boulder County Board of Commissioners voted to cut the county’s minimum wage. The wage floor will now match the city of Boulder’s lower minimum wage in January 2026, and will only increase at the rate of inflation in future years. Compared with the original ordinance which would have raised the county’s minimum wage to $25.00 by 2030, under the new ordinance affected workers could earn $2,400 less in 2026 and $12,600 less in 2030.
• Olympia, WA: Voters in Olympia narrowly rejected a “workers bill of rights” ballot initiative that would have raised the minimum wage, provided fair scheduling, and adopted other pro-worker provisions.

Workers Need Higher Minimum Wages to Help Withstand Rising Costs

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, a gap that can be traced to the unwillingness or inability of legislators to adopt policies to sufficiently raise pay and address rising costs.

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, which analyzes the growing gap between wages and housing costs in its annual Out of Reach report, only 219 counties (out of more than 3,000 in the U.S.) have 1-bedroom fair market rents (an estimation of how much rent should cost) that are affordable for a worker earning the minimum wage, provided they work full time hours or more. All 219 of those counties are in states where the minimum wage exceeds the federal wage floor.

Various studies have found that higher minimum wages are associated with a decrease in food insecurity, an increase in the ability to purchase healthier foods, and a decrease in poverty.

In addition, research shows that higher minimum wages do not contribute to overall inflation. Since 2020, overall inflation has grown by 23.6 percent, and the price of groceries has risen by 26.4 percent. As inflation continues to hover above the 2 percent rate preferred by the Federal Reserve, and as the prices of food and other necessities are predicted to remain elevated for the coming year, higher minimum wages can mitigate the pain of rising prices.

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Note on Citations

Citations to data sources are available in the full report PDF.