Dozens of states, cities and counties will see increased minimum wages in 2026, helping millions of Americans combat an increasingly urgent affordability crisis.
On Jan. 1, 2026, the minimum wage will increase in 19 states and 49 cities and counties, with an additional four states and 22 localities lifting their minimums later in 2026, according to an annual report from the National Employment Law Project, an employee advocacy group. In 2026, 79 jurisdictions will have a minimum wage of $15 or more.
“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,” wrote Yannet Lathrop, the organization’s senior researcher and author of the report.
State and local government measures on the minimum wage are crucial because the federal wage floor hasn’t been raised since 2009, Kathryn Anne Edwards, an economist and policy consultant, said in an interview with USA TODAY. Nearly two decades later, 1 million Americans still make that amount, which is $7.25 an hour.
But sometimes ballot initiatives – policy led by ordinary voters, not state legislatures or city councils – are necessary to get those changes made, Edwards added.
“The minimum wage is one of the most popular ballot issues this century,” she said. “If you put the minimum wage on a ballot, it will pass because nobody in their...
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