That Has To be Good considering the increase in consumer prices since the pandemic….
Never the less ?
A good many American’s work two or three jobs to get by….
Low-paid workers might not notice that 22 states are increasing the minimum wage to start the year. The reason: Robust raises in recent years have rendered pay floors largely irrelevant, even in states that aggressively lifted them.
At the turn of each year, many states lift the minimum wage to adjust for the cost of living or to meet requirements in the law. Before the pandemic, that often meant a welcomed raise for low-wage workers, but labor shortages in recent years caused paychecks for many cooks, housekeepers and grocery clerks to rise faster than required by states. Meanwhile, the $7.25 an hour federal minimum wage, followed in 20 states, has been unchanged since 2009.
To start 2024, Washington state will raise the nation’s highest minimum to $16.28 an hour, from $15.74 in 2023. Washington ties its minimum wage to the consumer-price index, a measure of inflation. Hawaii has the largest planned increase, with its minimum wage rising $2, to $14 an hour, in 2024. That is part of a law that will increase the lowest hourly wages in the Aloha State to $18 by 2028. California, New York and Illinois are also among the states raising the pay floor.
Gap widens between pay and minimum
Most low-wage workers are making well above those minimums. Through September, the lowest 10% of workers by income in each state earned hourly wages that were on average nearly 50% higher than their state’s minimum wages in 2023, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis that compared state minimum wages to income estimates from MIT Sloan School of Management professor Nathan Wilmers.
That is the largest gap between actual pay and minimum pay in a decade….