https://www.axios.com/2024/12/30/minimum-wage-raise-2025
Millions of workers are getting a raise on Jan. 1, when the minimum wage is set to rise across 21 states, and 48 cities and counties.
Why it matters: The increases lift the pay of more than 9.2 million people, per the Economic Policy Institute's tally.
Millions more will benefit. When the wage floor rises, that means pay goes up for other workers at the bottom of the income ladder, too.
The big picture: Congress last raised the federal minimum wage in 2009 to its current $7.25 an hour.
Since then, many states and localities took matters into their own hands. Now only 20 states adhere to the federal minimum wage.
Between the lines: 19 of those states voted for President-elect Trump, as NBC's Kristen Welker recently pointed out.
Trump said that although $7.25 an hour was "a very low number," he didn't know what the appropriate minimum wage would be because the cost of living varies so much by region.
That's how the issue has effectively sorted itself out in the U.S. The areas with a higher cost of living now do have higher minimum wages.
Where it stands: California's minimum wage is rising to $16.50, with several cities going higher, including in pricey Silicon Valley spots like Mountain View ($19.20) and Cupertino ($18.20).
In New York, the wage floor is rising to $16.50 in NYC and Long Island, and $15.50 upstate.
Washington State rises to $16.66, but large employers in Seattle's King County pay at least $20.29.
In some places, the minimum wage is linked to inflation, which is why the wage isn't a nice round number.
Higher wages aren't just a blue state phenomenon. Pay is rising to $14.70 in Arizona, $10.55 in Montana, $13.50 in Nebraska and $10.70 in Ohio.
A few states are raising pay later in the year. Florida's minimum wage will go up to $14 an hour on September 30.
What to watch: By 2027, nearly half of U.S. workers will live in states with at least a $15 minimum wage, left-leaning EPI recently reported.
That number was once considered impossibly high, but now thanks to a mix of intense worker activism (remember Fight for $15?) and sky high inflation it doesn't seem so wild.
Go deeper: The National Employment Law Project has a list of all the changes.