Lawmakers submit bill to lower trainee wages
Florida lawmakers are advancing a bill that would allow employers to pay certain workers in training less than the minimum wage for up to 12 months.
Fox – 35 Orlando
In the new year, dozens of states, cities and counties will raise local minimum wages, helping millions of Americans offset an increasingly pressing price crisis.
On January 1, 2026, 19 states and 49 cities and counties will raise their minimum wages, and four more states and 22 local governments will increase their minimum wages in the second half of 2026, according to an annual report from the National Employment Law Project (NELP), a labor advocacy group. In 2026, a total of 79 jurisdictions will have a minimum wage of $15.00 or more.
“Minimum wage increases are a lifeline for low-wage workers who are most affected by the growing affordability crisis, defined here as the widening gap between household income and the cost of housing, food, and other basic necessities,” said Yanet Lathrop, NELP senior researcher and report author.
Kathryn Ann Edwards, an economist and policy consultant, said in an interview with USA TODAY that state and local government minimum wage measures are critical because the federal wage floor has not increased since 2009. Nearly 20 years later, one million Americans still earn that amount, or $7.25 an hour..
But such changes sometimes require ballot initiatives, or policies driven by ordinary voters rather than state legislatures or city councils, Edwards added.
“Minimum wage is one of the most popular voting issues of this century,” she said. “If you put the minimum wage on the ballot, it will pass, because no one in their right mind would say $7 an hour is a reasonable wage in 2025.”
Which states will increase their minimum wage in 2026?
According to the NELP report, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington will raise their minimum wages on January 1, 2026.
It also plans to take action in Alaska, Florida and Oregon later this year. California also plans to enact a separate new minimum wage for health care workers.
Which cities and towns will see a minimum wage increase in 2026?
Areas from Washington state to Maine and places in between are scheduled to see minimum wage increases in 2026. One of the more notable changes is in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where future wage increases will be tied to a combination of the consumer price index and housing costs. This policy is believed to be the first of its kind in the United States.
Also noteworthy: In May, the Los Angeles City Council voted to gradually raise the minimum wage for some tourism industry workers to $30 by 2028, making it the highest minimum wage ever established in the country.
What impact will increasing the minimum wage have on the economy?
Matthew Nestler, senior economist at KPMG, said he “doesn’t expect to see a significant impact” on the economy or inflation from the boost that takes effect next year because minimum wage hikes, by definition, affect people with lower incomes.
But Nessler said that for many Americans at the bottom of the income scale, even an extra $1 an hour could be “life-changing.” Minimum wage workers tend to be employed in the “care economy” as home health aides, day care providers, etc., or in retail, entertainment, and hospitality industries. And many of them are immigrants, who may have less bargaining power than native-born workers.
Many of these workers have been particularly hard hit by inflation over the past few years, when the cost of necessities such as housing, day care and food rose more than other goods and services. “Since 2020, overall inflation has increased by 23.6% and food prices have increased by 26.4%,” the NELP report notes.
As Nessler notes, daycare and kindergarten prices represent only 0.7% of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The CPI is a broad measure of inflation calculated by the Department of Labor and used as a proxy for economy-wide inflation. But for some households, these costs can take up nearly a quarter of their monthly budget.
That’s one reason the government’s official measure of inflation (CPI showed prices rose just 3% in September compared to a year ago) doesn’t match many Americans’ real experience of the economy. That’s why pushing for an increase in the minimum wage is one small way to “encourage governments to work to help ordinary people live in this economy,” Edwards said.
