While many states institute minimum wage increases in the beginning of the year, many introduce hikes mid-year too, many of them adjustments according to inflation. Looking ahead, November could also usher in several new state and local minimum wage mandates as ballot measures ask voters about higher wages.
On July 1, twenty-two states, counties, and cities will be raising their minimum wages. While some are scheduled increases as in Connecticut and Nevada, many are inflationary adjustments that occur every year. The average minimum wage increase due in July will be roughly 6% as inflation reaches record highs.
View a full list of all changes this year here.
These aren’t the last changes to state and local wage mandates to come this year. But several states are also looking at enacting new hikes come November via ballot measures:
- District of Columbia: Initiative 82, which would eliminate DC’s tip credit and raise the tipped minimum wage by more than 200%, is set to appear before voters in November. In 2018, voters approved a similar measure (Initiative 77), but City Council voted to repeal it after receiving testimony from DC’s tipped restaurant employees in favor of saving the tip credit.
- Nevada: AJR 10, which would eliminate the lower minimum wage requirement for small employers and mandate all employers pay a minimum wage of $12 per hour, will appear for approval by voters in November.
- California: Initiative #21-0043 would raise the state’s minimum wage to $18 per hour by 2026 and increase it annually thereafter by inflation. If the measure overcomes the signature requirement by the end of June, voters will get to decide on it in November. (As of June 30, CalMatters reported this measure did not receive the required signatures to advance to the November ballot).
- Nebraska: A proposed measure to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour may appear before voters in November, if it clears a signature gathering deadline by July 7.
Earlier this month, a ballot measure filed in Michigan to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour and eliminate the state’s tip credit missed the signature deadline to appear before voters this November, but the ballot committee announced plans to submit signatures later this year for the ballot in November 2024.