A number of states and localities have decided to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour or higher in 2025 as a way of providing a financial cushion in an unstable economy, USA Today reported.
Data from worker advocacy group National Employment Law Project (NELP) shows 21 states and 48 cities and counties will raise their minimum wages on Jan. 1. More states are planning to join later on in the year. Illinois, Delaware and Rhode Island will pinpoint $15 as pay base for the first time, joining seven other states that are already there or above it. In Burien, Washington, the pay rate will be raised to $21.16 from the $16.28 minimum pay for employers with 500 or more workers, making it the nation’s highest pay floor
.California and New Jersey will be raising the pay rate to $17 or higher for some health care workers.
Senior researcher and policy analyst for NELP, Yannet Lathrop, feels while the raise wont make workers wealthy, it’s a good place to start.
“Remember that a full-time worker earning $17 per hour is only earning $35,360 annually pretax. Those wage levels won’t make workers wealthy, but they will help with paying for the basics, for a few luxuries (hopefully),” Lathrop said.
“Those higher wages may also improve their mental and physical health, their ability to access credit, and may lead to better educational outcomes of their children.”
Some states are
raising the wage but have not reached the $15 peak just yet. Missouri’s base pay will increase from $12.30 to $13.75 and Nebraska’s to $13.50 from $12. Food workers are concerned on how they will make ends meet for some of life’s joys outside of the necessities. Kaamilya Hobbs, who works at an Arby’s location in Kansas City, Missouri, earns $13.44 an hour working 20 to 25 hours a week. The mother of three makes additional income as a DoorDash delivery driver but it’s still not enough.With her boyfriend mostly taking care of their kids, the couple’s combined pay is barely enough to pay basic expenses. Sometimes, payment on rent or a cell phone bill is delayed for 30 days. “It’s a little bit tricky,” Hobbs said.
“After rent and food and expenses for the kids, we don’t have too much left over to be able to do anything day to day.”
Hobbs says the state’s minimum wage increase to $13.75 “would help a little” but she feels more needs to be done. “The cost of living is still going to be going up,” she said. “We can’t live on $13.75.”
Workers may be in for a fight in the Show Me State. According to The Associated Press, business groups are opposed to the pay raise, so much so that a lawsuit was filed on Dec. 8 to try to stop a voter-approved law that, along with a pay raise, will require employers to give workers paid sick leave.
The Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry claims the law violates a state constitutional requirement that ballot measures only address one issue since it included both the minimum wage increase and paid sick leave. Advocacy group members like Terrence Wise of the Fight for 15 said it’s “sickening that corporations are trying to steal our victory away and quiet the will of the voters who made this win possible.”