The new year brings new pay hikes for hundreds of thousands of workers making the least that's legally allowed by local minimum wages, with a record number of cities, counties and states raising their hourly wage minimums — 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 counties, 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.
Additional states and 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.
Even as the minimum wage remains frozen in much of the country — the federal rate has been $7.25 since 2009 —corporations including Hobby Lobby are upping pay, with the crafts chain offering $18.50 an hour to full-time workers as of January 1.
"Faced with a tight labor market, employers will have to act quickly in order to retain discontented workers," Rebecca Dixon, NELP's executive director, said in a statement.
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