Minimum Wage by State and What You Are Owed

What Is the Minimum Wage

The minimum wage is the lowest hourly pay an employer may legally offer. Federal law sets a floor of $7.25 an hour, and states and some cities set higher ones. When more than one applies, you are owed the highest.

The federal floor has stood still for 17 years while prices kept rising. That is why the rate you are owed now depends mostly on where you work.

What to Do If You Are Underpaid

You do not need a lawyer to recover unpaid wages, and it is illegal for your employer to punish you for asking. Open the situation closest to yours. This is general information, not legal advice.

Minimum Wage by State in 2026

30 states pay more than the federal minimum, and 18 have reached $15 or more. The other 20 use $7.25, either because their own law matches it, sits below it, or does not exist: 5 states have no minimum wage law at all. Choose your state to see its rate, its tipped wage, the next scheduled raise, and whether your city can set a higher one.

Three states have their own guides with the full rate history, tipped pay and how to recover unpaid wages: Texas, Florida and California.

Whether your city can go higher depends on state law, not on the city. States that keep $7.25 overlap heavily with right-to-work states. Our preemption explainer covers the 25 states that block local minimum wages and how cities have fought back.

What $7.25 Buys Now

Because the federal minimum is a fixed dollar amount, inflation has cut it every year since 2009. Prices have risen 55.6% since July 2009, by the government’s own consumer price index, so $7.25 has lost 35.7% of its buying power. Today’s $7.25 buys what $4.66 bought when the rate took effect.

Measured from its high point, the loss is larger. The federal minimum bought the most in 1968, when $1.60 an hour was worth about $12.50 in 2023 dollars. The Economic Policy Institute found in 2023 that $7.25 was worth 42% less than that peak, its lowest real value in 66 years.

A worker still paid $7.25 has taken a pay cut of more than a third without a single change to the number on the check. 18 states avoid that with a yearly increase written into law, most of them tied to inflation. Those raises can pause: New York’s law skips its January 2027 increase, and Nebraska replaced its inflation formula with a flat 1.75% a year.

A Full-Time Year at $7.25

A full-time year at the federal minimum does not cover one adult’s basic needs in Texas, the largest state that uses it. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living Wage Calculator estimates what a single adult with no children needs there. Rent, food, a car, and health care alone come to $30,680, more than the $15,080 the job pays.

MIT puts the living wage for that adult at $21.77 an hour, about 3 times the federal minimum. The gap is why many minimum wage workers qualify for SNAP, Medicaid, and rent help while holding a full-time job.

Tipped Workers and the $2.13 Wage

Federal law lets employers pay tipped workers $2.13 an hour in cash, a figure frozen in the statute at its August 1996 level. Tips are supposed to make up the rest of the minimum, and the employer must cover any gap. In 16 states, $2.13 is still the legal cash wage. At the other end, 7 states require the full state minimum before tips: Alaska, California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.

Few workers are paid exactly the federal minimum anymore. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 842,000 hourly workers at or below $7.25 in 2024, 1.0% of hourly workers. Most reported a wage below it; BLS notes that its count leaves out tips and that some of these workers are exempt from minimum wage laws. About two-thirds worked in leisure and hospitality, almost entirely in restaurants and other food service (BLS).

What Raising the Minimum Wage Does to Jobs and Poverty

The best-known studies of the minimum wage disagree about how many jobs a raise costs. They land in different places, and each has limits.

The CBO estimate shows the trade most clearly. By its average estimate, a $15 federal minimum would raise the pay of 17 million workers and lift 0.9 million people out of poverty, while about 1.4 million fewer people would be working. Pay for affected workers would rise a net $333 billion from 2021 to 2031 (CBO). Supporters point to the first two numbers and opponents to the third, and both are in the same report.

How the Federal Minimum Got Stuck at $7.25

The federal minimum began in 1938 at 25 cents an hour under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The tipped cash wage stopped rising in 1996 and is now fixed in the statute. Congress set the current $7.25 in 2007, and it took effect in July 2009. A $15 bill passed the House in 2019, and a Senate vote on a $15 amendment failed in 2021.

1938: The Fair Labor Standards Act created the first federal minimum wage, 25 cents an hour. It also set a 44-hour maximum workweek and banned oppressive child labor (DOL history).

1996: Congress fixed the tipped cash wage at the amount required on August 20, 1996, which is $2.13 an hour. It has not changed since (29 U.S.C. 203(m)).

2007: The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 raised the floor to $5.85, then $6.55, then $7.25 (29 U.S.C. 206).

2009: The final step, $7.25, took effect on July 24, 2009.

2019: On July 18, 2019, the House passed the Raise the Wage Act, a phased increase to $15, by 231 to 199 (House Clerk). It never became law.

2021: On March 5, 2021, a motion to waive the Senate’s budget rules for a $15 amendment to the American Rescue Plan failed, 42 to 58 (Senate roll call). A month earlier, CBO had estimated a $15 minimum reached in 2025 under the Raise the Wage Act of 2021.

2026: The federal minimum has now gone 17 years without a raise. The previous record, from September 1997 to July 2007, was a little under ten years.

Minimum Wage Raises and Fights in 2026

With Congress not acting, the changes are happening state by state, through legislatures and ballot measures.

Statewide minimum wage measures usually pass. Ballotpedia counts 32 on ballots from 1996 to 2025, and voters approved 28, including Florida’s in 2020. Oklahoma’s failed in June 2026.

The Case Against a Higher Minimum Wage

The argument against a higher minimum rests on who gets hired. The Neumark and Shirley review finds the clearest job losses among teens and workers with the least education, the people a minimum wage is meant to help. Opponents argue that small businesses with thin margins may cut hours, raise prices, or hire fewer people. CBO’s own estimate counts 1.4 million fewer jobs at $15 nationally.

A few distinctions keep the debate honest:

• The size of the raise matters. The Cengiz study looks at state increases from 1979 to 2016. A single national $15 would be a bigger jump in states still at $7.25.
• Where you live matters. The same $15 goes further in a low-cost state than in a high-cost city. Oregon sets different rates by region, from $14.55 in nonurban counties to $16.80 around Portland. State taxes differ too; see states with no income tax.
• The minimum wage is not the only tool. The Earned Income Tax Credit raises the income of low-wage workers through the tax code instead of employer payrolls, so the cost falls on taxpayers rather than businesses.

Common Questions About the Minimum Wage

What is the federal minimum wage in 2026?

$7.25 an hour, the same as since July 24, 2009. Most workers are owed a higher state or city rate if one applies.

Which states have the highest minimum wage?

Among states, Washington is highest at $17.13 an hour in 2026, followed by Connecticut and California. The District of Columbia is higher still at $18.40. Some cities set higher local rates; Seattle’s is $21.30 in 2026.

Do salaried workers get the minimum wage?

Many salaried workers are exempt from minimum wage and overtime rules if they meet a salary threshold and do executive, administrative, or professional work. Salaried workers who do not meet those tests are still owed at least the minimum wage for every hour worked.

Can my employer pay me less because I get tips?

Yes in most states, but only if your cash wage plus tips reaches the full minimum. If it does not, your employer must pay the difference. In seven states, you get the full minimum before tips.

What is the minimum wage in my state?

It depends on your state. In 2026, 20 states still use the federal $7.25, and 18 states pay $15 or more an hour. Check your state’s rate in the state finder, then your city’s, since some cities set a higher minimum.

What You Can Do

1. Check the rate you are owed. Use the state finder above, then check your city’s website for a local minimum.
2. Recover unpaid wages. Call the U.S. Department of Labor at 1-866-487-9243 or your state labor department. Keep your hours and pay stubs.
3. Vote on it where you can. Ballot measures have raised wages in states where legislatures would not. Check your state’s November 3 ballot.
4. Ask your city what it can do. If your state allows local minimum wages, your city council can pass a higher one. The state finder above shows whether yours does.
5. Write your members of Congress. Ask them to raise the federal minimum and index it to inflation so it stops losing value. Our letter-writing guide shows how to make the message count.