Later this month, the federal minimum wage will increase to $6.65 -- hardly anywhere close to what it should be, but an improvement from where we are now. Fortunately, a number of states will also be increasing their minimum wage rates even higher than the federal rate:
* $6.85 per hour in Nevada
* $7.15 in Pennsylvania (for smaller employers to match the rate already for large employers)
* $7.25 per hour in West Virginia and Illinois
* $7.40 per hour in Michigan
* $7.65 in the District of Columbia
* $7.25 per hour in Maine this October
Adding in states who have already raised their minimum wage, twenty-four states plus the District of Columbia, covering 59% of the U.S. population, will still have minimum rates above the federal rate. And even when the federal rate rises to $7.25 per hour next year, eleven states plus the D.C., covering 26% of the U.S. population, will still have a minimum wage rate higher than the federal level. Five states plus D.C. will have minimum wage rates of $8 per hour or more.
To add a little context, compared to 1968, when the federal minimum wage was the equivalent of $9.34 per hour accounting for inflation, even the highest state minimum wage rates have lost value against inflation. We have a ways yet to go, but it's clear even with an Obama administration and a Democratic Congress, that states will continue to need to lead on this effort.