Some 81 different states, cities, and counties will hike their minimum wage in 2022—a single-year record if we’re counting just government-mandated pay increases, the National Employment Law Project says in a new report. Yet by the end of the year, only two of these states and 47 cities and counties will have hit the $15-per-hour threshold that labor activists have been pushing for since 2012. It’s a reminder that even where workers are seeing wages climb, the pace is often very, very slow. (One anti-poverty activist in California, Joe Sanberg, just filed an $18-per-hour minimum wage ballot initiative, arguing, “now we have to move the ball forward and farther.”) The federal minimum wage, $7.25, hasn’t changed since 2009.

Still, this wave of wage increases is significant:

• On January 1, the minimum wage will increase in 21 states plus 35 cities and counties. In two states (California and New York) and 31 local jurisdictions, the wage floor will be $15 per hour for some or all employers, according to the NELP.
• This year, President Joe Biden signed an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay $15 per hour, and all federal agencies will have to pay a $15 minimum wage starting January 30.
• Even Puerto Rico’s minimum wage will increase, to $8.50, the first increase since 2009, when the U.S. government set the rate at $7.25.

California is the state to move to if you’re after America’s highest starting wage. The hourly rate is increasing from $14 to $15 statewide at...

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