Why it matters: The increases lift the pay of more than 9.2 million people, per the Economic Policy Institute’s tally.
- Millions more will benefit. When the wage floor rises, that means pay goes up for other workers at the bottom of the income ladder, too.
Axios
January 8, 2025
According to an Economic Policy Institute (EPI) report, California, Colorado, and Washington State are leading the charge when it comes to widely upping minimum wage. “29 cities and counties in California will increase their minimum wages in January, with every locality that is raising their wage reaching at least $17 an hour except in Oakland,” the report states.
Fast Company
January 8, 2025
Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee voted overwhelmingly in April to join the United Auto Workers, a landmark win for labor organizing in the South. The region has suffered deeply because of its low-road, anti-union economic model. Seven out of ten states with the highest levels of poverty are in the South, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Inequality.org
January 8, 2025
Currently there 20 states with a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, either because the state’s minimum wage is $7.25 or below, or there is no state-mandated minimum wage, so the federal dollar amount applies, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Common Dreams
January 8, 2025
The Economic Policy Institute estimates the increases will affect 9 million Americans. Nearly 70% of the workers live in households below the poverty line. One-third of the employees live in a state with at least a $15 per hour minimum.
Straight Arrow News
January 8, 2025
Later in 2025, a handful of states and a couple dozen localities will also boost their minimum wages. The upshot: A total of 23 states and 65 cities and counties – a record 88 jurisdictions – will lift their pay floors sometime next year. The increases will directly affect 3 million workers earning minimum wage and indirectly nudge up pay for 6.2 million higher-paid employees because of ripple effects on company pay structures, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
Canton Daily Ledger
January 8, 2025
The Economic Policy Institute analyzed inflation-adjusted earnings from hourly wages, salaries, commissions, bonuses and stock options, and there’s been a decline in income inequality in recent years, according to economist Elise Gould.
“Stronger wage growth for the bottom 90%, compared to those at the top,” she noted.
It goes back to early in the pandemic, when millions of workers lost their jobs. “We had that government safety net,” Gould said. “When those jobs came back, they had a bit more leverage to bid up their wages.”
Marketplace
January 8, 2025
The wage increases will impact about 9.2 million workers, according to the think tank Economic Policy Institute (EPI), and most of those who will benefit from the bump in pay are women and Black and Hispanic workers. “The January 1 increases show that the minimum wage continues to be a powerful tool for combating racial and gender wage disparities, supporting working families, and reducing poverty,” EPI said in its report.
Next City
January 8, 2025
The minimum wage increases will usher in pay raises for more than 9.2 million workers on Jan. 1 by a total of $5.7 billion, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank. Most of the wage jumps will take place in California, Colorado and Washington.
American City & County
January 8, 2025
Next year’s minimum wage hikes are the legacy of sustained political pressure by advocates for low-wage workers, said Sebastian Martinez Hickey, a state economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute.
“We’re more than a decade into the Fight for $15 movement, which started out with worker organizing in New York City among fast-food workers,” he said.
Nearly half of U.S. workers will live in states with a $15 an hour minimum wage or higher by 2027, Hickey said.
Marketplace
January 8, 2025