The new year brings new pay hikes for hundreds of thousands of workers making the least legally allowed, with a record number of cities, counties and states raising their minimum hourly wage — many of them hitting or surpassing $15 an hour.
On January 1, 2022, the minimum wage will rise in 21 states and 35 cities and countries, with that hourly floor hitting or surpassing $15 in 33 of those jurisdictions, according to an analysis released this month by the National Employment Law Project, or NELP, which advocates for low-wage and unemployed workers.
“A lot of people call it a ‘labor shortage’ but this is a slow-moving general strike,” says @GeorgetownKILWP associate director @LaneWindham.
“People are not accepting these low-wage, no-benefit jobs anymore that leave them feeling so burned out.”https://t.co/7C8RXYMABN
— Your Call Radio (@yourcallradio) December 28, 2021
Four more states and 22 localities will follow suit later in the year —17 of them to $15 or more, according to NELP. All told, 25 states and 56 municipalities will raise their minimum wage over the course of 2022, a record high of 81 jurisdictions.
The higher wages come amid worker shortages and ongoing activism on the labor front. The coming year will also mark the 10-year anniversary of the grassroots campaign by fast-food workers demanding $15 an hour and a union.
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