9.9 Million Minimum Wage Workers Will Get A Pay Raise On Jan. 1

ACROSS AMERICA — Millions of hourly workers 22 states will bring home more pay in 2024, according to a new study from the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., left-leaning think tank that analyzes the economic impact of policies and proposals.

The states are Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, and Washington.

Beginning with the new year, Maryland, New Jersey and upstate New York will reach or exceed $15 an hour for the first time, joining California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Washington, and the rest of New York that already pay at least that much.

Additionally, 38 cities and counties, mostly in California, will also increase their minimum wages above state wage floors on Jan. 1, according to the study.

The Economic Policy Institute estimates some 9.9 million workers will receive $6.95 billion in additional wages with the New Year’s Day pay bumps. In the absence of federal action to raise the minimum wage, states and localities are taking the lead in advancing fairer wage floors through legislation, ballot measures and automatic inflation adjustments, the group said.

The analysis shows women will make up 57.9 percent of workers getting a pay raise on Jan. 1. The raises also disproportionately benefit Black and Hispanic workers, the report said.

Black workers comprise 9 percent of the workforce in states with increases but represent 11 percent of workers affected by the increases. Hispanic workers make up 19.6 percent of the workforce in affected states and are nearly 40 percent of the people getting raises Jan. 1.

Families will also benefit. Just over 25 percent of affected workers, or 2.5 million people, are minimum wage workers. Overall, some 5.6 million children live in homes where an individual will get a pay raise.

The report said almost 1 in 5 workers getting a raise have incomes below the federal poverty level. Nearly half have incomes two times below the poverty line.

More than 17 million workers still earn less than $15 an hour, according to the analysis — nearly half of them in the 20 states that use the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour or have no minimum wage.

States with $7.25 minimum wages are Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee have no minimum wage.