The lowest-paid workers are getting a boost to the minimum wage—an important safety net, even in an era when fewer people are making the minimum, thanks to rising pay across the board.

Starting in January, 24 states and Washington, D.C., started implementing a wave of minimum wage increases, with some not taking effect until later in the year. A map of minimum wages highlights how drastically the wage floor now varies between states.

There’s a world of difference between 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:California, where workers must be paid at least $16 an hour, and t⭕he 20 states whose effective minimum wage is the federal standard of $7.25 an hour. The map below shows the minimum wage in each state, and how much it changed Jan. 1, or is set to change later this year.

Many of the increases come from states that passed laws before the pandemic to gradually raise their wages to $15 an hour. For others, the increases come from automatic adjustments based on 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:inflation.

In some ways, those minimum wage hikes have been overtaken by the surge in pay in the post-pandemic economy, making the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:minimum wageܫ somewhꦉat less important to the general financial health of low-wage workers in recent years.

澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Wages have risen in the hot la🍰bor market, even for the lowest-paid jobs. In the third quarter of 2023, the latest data available, the bottom 10% of wage-earners made a median $587 a week, equivalent to $16.77 an hour for a 35-hour work week, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s up from $13.37 an hour before the pandemic.

In 2022, only 141,000 people made exactly the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, the Department of Labor said.

However, as independent labor economist Kathryn-Ann Edwards notes, the minimum wage is supposed to be just that—the bare minimum. That could be especially relevant if there’s a 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:recession and a spike in unemployment places downward pressure on wages.

“Whatever the market giveth, it can also taketh away,” Edwards said. “No wage is secure, technically, above the minimum.”