If the minimum wage had increased in line with productivity, every working American would be earning at least $20 an hour. This might sound like a pipe dream when you consider that several US states still don't even offer a minimum wage – although those workers are entitled to $7.25 per hour according to federal law.

As of January 1, 2024, seven states will have a minimum wage of $15 per hour and several more are set to reach that threshold in the next few years. Others are tying it to inflation, meaning workers across the country are starting to bring home better pay.

Read on to find out if your state is on track to reach $15 per hour, and how soon...

Louisiana is one of a handful of states that doesn't have a minimum wage law in place. Despite growing pressure from underpaid workers, who have successfully campaigned for raises in other parts of the country, there are no plans to change this in 2024.

Both the house and senate have rejected bills to increase the minimum wage from $7.25. Meanwhile the New Orleans City Council approved a measure that raised the minimum wage for city employees to $15 an hour from the start of this year.

Mississippi is the most impoverished state in the US, with a poverty rate of 19.4% according to the US Census Bureau. It's also the last state to adopt an equal pay law to ensure that workers doing the same job receive the same pay, regardless of their gender – something legislators only enacted in July 2022. 

Like Louisiana, Mississippi defaults to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, without imposing a minimum wage of its own.

Alabama is another southern state with no minimum wage, but contrary to some of its neighbors, it's making no attempt to change the rate.

In fact, the opposite is happening. Unlike other states, lawmakers here have prevented individual jurisdictions from creating their own rates, a decision it made after Birmingham voted in favor of a $10.10 hourly wage in 2015. It has upheld this rule despite legal challenges from workers throughout the state.

The minimum wage in South Carolina has reflected the federal rate of $7.25 since 2009. Nationwide, campaigners have been pushing for $15 an hour since 2012 as part of a national movement called 'Fight for $15' with an active presence in the state.

In summer 2021, workers at fast food chains around Charleston – including McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s – went on strike but to no avail. Around 5.4% of South Carolina's hourly workforce is paid minimum wage or lower, which is higher than the national average, and they won't see a pay raise in 2024. 

Likewise, Tennessee workers make the default federal minimum of $7.25, and the state has a poverty rate above the national average at 13.6%.

There have been several attempts to increase its minimum wage including the Tennessee Minimum Wage Act, which aimed to require a minimum of $12 an hour, but was killed in May 2021. Bills in 2022 never made it out of committee, and persistent lawmakers reintroduced a $12 minimum wage bill yet again in 2023, with no result. 

New Hampshire eliminated its state minimum wage in 2011, making it the only New England state relying on the federal rate of $7.25.

A house bill to restore the state's minimum wage and increase it to $15 an hour over three years failed in February this year. The senate had already defeated a similar bill so it looks like very little will change for low-wage workers in the Granite State in 2024.

One of just two states where the minimum wage is below the federal rate, Georgia has been clinging on to its $5.15 hourly rate since 2001 and has no plans to raise it in line with the national trend. For most workers, however, the $7.25 federal minimum wage applies. The only employees that can earn less than this are those who aren't covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), comprising less than 2% of the workforce in 2021.

In Savannah, meanwhile, the 2022 budget included increasing the minimum wage to $15 for hourly city employees. 

Joining Georgia with the lowest minimum wage in the country is Wyoming, where employees who aren't protected by the FLSA could earn just $5.15 an hour. Wyoming also has the biggest gender wage gap in the country, with women earning just 75 cents for every $1 earned by a man.

In early 2021, a bill to raise the wage to $15 an hour was proposed but failed to generate support. The state has declined to increase its minimum wage for 2024. 

Texas is one of 14 states that imposes the federal minimum wage of $7.25 across the board – almost. For tipped employees such as wait staff, this figure can plummet to just $2.13 an hour. Like the previous states in our round-up, Texas won't be raising its minimum wage in 2024.

This is despite the fact that, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Living Wage Calculator, a single adult with no children would have to earn $16.79 per hour to make a living wage in Texas. This figure accounts for the cost of food, housing, transportation, and other necessities. 

Oklahoma will maintain the federal minimum wage of $7.25 in 2024, having declined to change it since 2008. In July 2019, each of Oklahoma’s five members of the US House of Representatives voted against raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025.

In December 2020, senator George Young filed a bill that would require employers to either increase their hourly minimum wage to $10.50 or match the federal minimum wage (whichever figure was the greater of the two). Young said it was desperately needed as the spending power of a minimum wage paycheck had decreased since the amount was last upped. This bill also failed, leaving thousands of Oklahomans earning less than the state's lowest living wage of $15.49.

Kansas has also declined to raise its minimum wage in 2024 and will keep the federal minimum of $7.25. That is with some exceptions. 

Overland Park established a $15-per-hour minimum for city employees this October, following a similar ordinance set by Kansas City in 2021.

North Carolina also has the federal rate of $7.25, which won't be changing in 2024. Discussing the possibility of more than doubling the current rate in 2019, Virginia Foxx, representative for North Carolina's 5th district, said the move was "radical, risky and unnecessary." However, other lawmakers in the state disagree and introduced a bill in the 2023-2024 session to increase pay to $15 per hour.

The current living wage in North Carolina ranges from $16.83 (for a single adult with no children) to $42.45 (for a single adult with three children). But the state’s current minimum wage is closer to the poverty wage – the amount which determines eligibility for federal assistance – of $6.53, according to the MIT Living Wage Calculator. Hospitality and care workers in cities Raleigh and Durham were among those who took to the streets in 2021 as part of the Fight for $15 demonstrations.

Utah also implements the federal minimum wage of $7.25, which is less than half of the state's lowest estimated living wage of $17.42.

However, some local lawmakers want this to change. Shortly after being sworn in, Utah House of Representatives member Brett Garner introduced a house bill that would see the state's minimum wage increase in 2025, with the amount varying by age. The minimum wage for employees under 18 would rise to $10 an hour, rising to $13 for under-21s, $15 for under-23s, and $19 an hour for anyone older than that.

​​Despite having the fifth-highest poverty rate in the US, Kentucky is sticking with the current federal minimum wage in 2024.

Democrat Reggie Thomas has tried to increase the minimum wage, introducing bills into the state senate more than five times in recent years. However, his proposal to raise the wage incrementally to $15 an hour by 2026 has fallen flat every time. 

The minimum wage has stayed at $7.25 for more than a decade in Iowa. If a working single parent earns that amount, the family is below the official poverty line.

It's been predicted that half a million people across Iowa would benefit from an increase to $15 an hour – roughly a third of the state's workforce.

Yet another state refusing to increase its $7.25 minimum wage is Indiana, despite the fact this is nearly $4 less than the poverty wage for a single parent with one child ($11.07 an hour). In fact, workers need to earn at least $19 an hour just to afford rent on a two-bedroom apartment, according to housing reports released this summer. 

Lawmakers haven't changed their minds and Indiana won't be raising wages in 2024.

Unlike surrounding states, Pennsylvania is sticking with the federal minimum wage. However, many businesses have increased pay rates beyond $7.25.

Recently-elected governor Josh Shapiro urged state legislators to more than double the rate to $15. The Democrat-held house passed a bill in June that would incrementally raise wages to $15 in 2026, but the bill remains languishing in the GOP-led senate. 

There will also be no change in Idaho – though it's not for lack of trying. A bill introduced to the senate in January 2021 would have increased the minimum wage from the federal limit of $7.25 to $15 by July 2023. However, it received very little traction.  

At the time, governor Brad Little didn't support the increase out of concerns there might be job losses, pointing out that only 1% of Idaho's workers earn the minimum wage.  

Unlike its neighbors, North Dakota is yet to increase the minimum wage above the federal rate. An attempt to boost it to $9 an hour from August 2022 failed in the house in February 2023. 

The Peace Garden State also followed in Alabama's footsteps by forbidding cities from adopting their own minimum wages.

Although it has the same rate as the federal minimum wage, Wisconsin does have some protections in place that aren't seen in other low-wage states. Agricultural and farm employees, who are usually exempt from the federal rate, are guaranteed $7.25 an hour, while camp counselors are eligible for special minimum pay rates of up to $350 per week.

Governor Tony Evers has proposed raising the minimum wage to $10.25 by 2026, but nothing will change in 2024.  

As of 2016, the minimum wage in West Virginia has been $8.75 an hour and this will be maintained in 2024.

However, in January 2023 the mayor of capital city Charleston announced she will work toward increasing city employee wages to a minimum of $15 per hour. 

Montana is one of several states that tie the minimum wage to the Consumer Prices Index (CPI). Every year, by September 30, the wage is adjusted for any recent increases in the costs of living and kicks in at the start of the year.

In 2022 the state saw its largest boost to date, with the minimum wage rising to $9.20 an hour from $8.75. It had an even bigger jump in 2023 to $9.95.

As of January 1, 2024, workers making the minimum wage in Montana will received a pay raise to $10.30.

Michigan's minimum wage is increasing from $10.10 in 2023 to $10.33 on January 1, 2024. The rate for workers ages 16-17 will increase to $8.78 per hour. 

In 2018, a ballot initiative had been proposed to raise the minimum wage to $12 by 2022, but before voters could have their say the measure got tied up in lawsuits. Another proposal for the 2024 ballot would steadily increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2027, though this too is currently stalled in court. 

On January 1, 2024, Ohio will increase its minimum wage to $10.45 an hour in line with current inflation. 

However, this doesn't apply to all workers across the state. Workers under 16 years of age are only entitled to the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour. Similarly, if an employer's gross income is less than $372,000, the federal minimum also applies. 

A campaign group is working to introduce a ballot measure for November 2024 that would see a minimum wage of $12.75 an hour beginning January 1, 2025, going up to $15 an hour beginning January 1, 2026.

​Minnesota will also raise its minimum wage in 2024, increasing it from $10.59 to $10.85 per hour. However, this only applies to "large employers," which the state defines as entities whose annual gross revenues are $500,000 or more. For smaller employers, the minimum wage will be $8.85 an hour, up from $8.63 in 2023.

Separately, in Minneapolis the minimum wage will increase to $15.57 for employers with more than 100 employees on January 1, 2024. For those with fewer than 100 employees, the minimum will increase from $14.50 to match that $15.57 rate on July 1, 2024.

Arkansas was one of 20 states that increased its minimum wage on January 1, 2021, but it has no plans for further increases. Instead, Arkansas will keep its current rate of $11 an hour for non-tipped employees in 2024.

While these wages are considerably better than the wages offered by several neighboring states, money may still be tight for many workers. The living wage in Arkansas is $15.25 for a single adult with no children, $4.25 higher than the minimum wage.

South Dakota's lower wage workers get a 40-cent raise starting on January 1. Just like in neighboring state Montana, the increases are tied to the CPI, a law the legislature passed back in 2014.

Increases are also applied to tipped employees, with the hourly minimum of $5.60 effective at the start of 2024. This is half the minimum wage for non-tipped employees, and wages and tips combined must at least equal the minimum wage. 

Alaska's minimum wage will increase from $10.85 to $11.73 at the start of the year. While this is higher than the minimum wage in many other states, it certainly doesn't do much to offset Alaska's notoriously high living costs. 

An adult without any children needs to make at least $17.15 per hour for a living wage, jumping to $25 for households with two working adults and two children. 

Virginia followed the federal minimum wage until 2021. It then saw the largest minimum wage increase of all 50 states when it raised base hourly pay to $9.50 in May that year. This has been swiftly followed by more raises through January 1 this year when it went to $12.

However, workers making minimum wage won't see any mandated pay raises in 2024. The new law scheduled the $12 wage to last until January 1, 2025, when it increases to $13.50. By 2026 the minimum will hit $15, and then from January 1, 2027, it will be adjusted each year in line with the CPI. 

New Mexico’s minimum wage teetered at just 25 cents above the federal rate for a decade – but there have been big changes in the last couple of years.

In 2019 a new rate of $9.20 was introduced and it's been steadily increasing ever since. What's more, several cities have set their minimum wages even higher. In Santa Fe, for example, the lowest paid workers take home $14.03 per hour. 

However, for 2024, workers will not see an increase in the minimum wage.

The minimum wage in Nevada is dependent on the benefits that employers offer to workers. Those without employer-provided healthcare are ensured an $11.25 minimum wage. 

However, if employees are offered qualifying healthcare benefits, the minimum wage is lower at $10.25 per hour. But only until July 1, 2024, when the two-tier system will be replaced with a flat rate minimum wage of $12.00 per hour for all employees.

​In November 2022, Nebraskan voters approved a measure to increase the minimum wage from $9 to $15 by 2026. It's one of several states that have chosen to do a gradual increase over the next few years.

On January 1, 2024, the minimum wage will increase to $12, with increases to $13.50 in 2025 and $15 by 2026. 

On January 1, 2024, the minimum wage in Missouri will increase from $12.00 to $12.30. However, there are exemptions for employers whose businesses take home less than $500,000 in annual gross income. 

Missouri is also one of the states that ensure tipped employees take home a fair share. They must be paid at least 50% of the non-tipped minimum wage ($6.15 as of January 1), with a guarantee that their employer will top up their salary if their total pay doesn't equal $12.30 an hour. 

Starting next year, Missouri law mandates the minimum wage will increase, or decrease, in line with the CPI. 

Florida will be increasing its minimum wage from the current rate of $12 to $13, but not until September 2024.

In 2020, voters approved an amendment that adds a dollar to the hourly minimum wage each year until it hits $15 in 2026. Previously, it had increased the minimum wage every year or so, but never by as much as the increases enshrined in the new amendment.

The minimum wage in Delaware will be $13.25 as of January 1, 2024, an increase of $1.50 from 2023.

Back in June 2021, governor John Carney signed a law mandating a $15 minimum wage by 2025. On January 1, 2022, the minimum started at $10.50 with increases kicking in on the first of each year. There are exceptions. Tipped workers still have a minimum of only $2.23 per hour. 

As of January 1, 2024, the minimum wage in Vermont will increase from $13.18 an hour to $13.67. Tipped employees will also receive a raise, as they are entitled to 50% of the non-tipped minimum wage.

Unlike other states, Vermont hasn't passed a bill to raise the minimum wage to $15 by a certain year. The increases over the last few years were approved back in 2019, but from 2023 onwards the annual adjustments are determined by the CPI only. 

At present Hawaii’s minimum wage is $12 an hour, with a pay raise for the lowest workers set for January 1, 2024.

Although the state made history by passing legislation to raise the minimum wage to $18 an hour by 2028, this won't come close to meeting the island's living wage, which currently stands at a huge $22.05 for a single adult with no children. 

According to World Population Review, Hawaii continues to be the most expensive US state to live in year over year.

As part of its plan to introduce a $15 hourly minimum wage by 2025, Illinois has been increasing the minimum wage by $1 every year.

From January 1, 2024, non-tipped employees earn at least $14 an hour – though workers in Chicago are steps ahead and already earn $15.80 an hour. (Employers with fewer than 21 workers can pay a minimum wage of $15.00.)

Meanwhile, tipped workers in Chicago are guaranteed at least $9.48 an hour, well above what many minimum wage earners make across the country.

Rhode Island will raise its minimum wage again in 2024, after raising it to $13.00 in 2023 from $12.25 an hour in 2022.

As with other states, this is part of a plan to increase the minimum wage to $15 by 2025, a law that was signed by governor Dan McKee on May 20, 2021.

Maine approved a motion to increase its minimum wage in line with the cost of living back in 2016. Its lowest-paid workers made $7.50 per hour at the time, and this has since increased by more than $6 to hit $14.15 in 2024.

Meanwhile, the minimum wage for tipped employees will rise from $6 to $7.08 an hour, as of January 1.

Where you work in Oregon dictates the minimum hourly rate an employer needs to pay you, and increase take effect in July. The amount depends on the rate of inflation according to the CPI, from March to March, so it’s still unknown what will change next year. Since July 1, 2023, the standard state minimum wage has been $14.20, and will remain at that rate until June 30, 2024.

However, employers in the Portland metropolitan area need to pay at least $1.25 over the standard wage, and that minimum hourly wage is currently $15.45.

Meanwhile, 18 non-urban counties in the south and west of the state have their own minimum wage of $13.20 an hour, and are allowed to pay no less than $1 below the standard wage.

On January 1, 2023, Arizona introduced a new minimum wage of $13.85 – more than a dollar higher than its previous rate of $12.80. Like many other states on this list, increases are tied to inflation rather than scheduled to reach a certain threshold. In 2024, the rate will increase further to $14.35, a 50-cent-per-hour raise. 

Tipped employees are guaranteed no more than $3 below the non-tipped wage, which works out to a minimum hourly wage of $11.35 as of January 1. However, this figure varies across the state. In the city of Flagstaff, for example, tipped employees will receive a minimum of $15.90 an hour at the start of the new year, while non-tipped employees receive $17.40. 

Since 2020, the minimum wage in Colorado has been tied to the cost of living as measured by the CPI and adjusted annually. For 2024, it will increase to $14.42 starting January 1.

However, residents of Denver have already passed the $15 milestone. On New Year's Day 2022, the city's minimum wage increased from $14.77 to $15.87, making it one of the highest minimum wages anywhere in the country. And it continues to increase each year. As of January 1, 2024, workers are guaranteed a minimum wage of $18.29 per hour in Denver.

Starting January 1, Maryland workers will see a $1.75 per hour increase.

This is part of the state's plan to steadily raise the rate to $15 an hour by 2025. However, this April, lawmakers decided not to wait and passed a new bill that will introduce the $15 minimum in January 2024 instead. 

However, tipped employees aren't seeing similar improvements to their wages, with their hourly minimum staying at $3.63. The state does require employers to top up paychecks when the base wage plus tips doesn't add up to $15 per hour. 

In the state of New York, the minimum wage will be going up to $15 per hour, from $14.20 in 2023. But the rules are different in New York City, Long Island and Westchester County, which will see the minimum wage increase an additional $1 per hour to $16.

As part of her most recent budget, Governor Kathy Hochul enacted new increases of $0.50 per hour for 2025, as well as 2026. From 2027, the state's minimum wage will increase annually in line with the CPI, as many other states are doing.  

Massachusetts is one of few states to have reached the $15-an-hour minimum, but it's also one of the most expensive parts of the country – a living wage of $21.35 is needed for a single adult with no children.

Tipped employees earn $6.75 an hour, and employers must make up the difference if this wage plus tips doesn't add up to the full $15.

While state law had enshrined a five-year schedule for increasing the minimum wage, it ended in 2023 and any further changes must be made by law either through the legislature or a ballot measure. In 2024, Massachusetts' minimum rate will remain the same. 

New Jersey is yet another state that has pledged to increase its minimum wage to $15. In 2022, the minimum wage rose to $13 and, then by another dollar and change to $14.13 in 2023. As of January 1, the state will reach the $15 threshold. 

The law, enacted in 2019, does gives some exemptions to seasonal and small employers who have until 2026 to reach the $15 target. In these categories, workers will earn a minimum of $13.93 per hour in 2024. Similarly, agricultural workers have been given an extension until 2027.

In June 2023, the minimum wage in Connecticut increased to $15, after several years of steady increases to reach this milestone. Going forward, increases will be tied to the CPI.

As of New Year’s Day, minimum wage will be $15.69 an hour, meaning Connecticut's lowest paid workers are guaranteed to make double the federal minimum wage of $7.25 that is adopted by so many states across the US.

And actually, should the federal rate change, Connecticut will adjust its own wage accordingly. The law states that its minimum wage will increase to be one half of 1% more than the federal minimum wage if an increase occurs, rounded to the nearest whole cent. 

The state with the second highest minimum wage is California. Back in 2016, the state decided to raise its minimum wage to $15 by 2022, and it's continued to increase this every year with $16 set to be the new rate as of January 1.

Some jurisdictions are going even further. For 2024, Sunnyvale will raise its minimum wage to $18.55, while the city of Mountain View will boost its rate to $18.75. In fact, there are 40 cities and towns in California that already have minimum wages that are higher than the state's forthcoming mandated rate of $16.

Washington will increase its minimum wage from $15.74 to $16.28, the highest of all states.

On top of that, as of January 1, Seattle-based employers will be required to pay an even more generous $19.97-per-hour minimum, with an exception for smaller employers who contribute to medical benefits or whose workers are tipped.

Meanwhile workers in SeaTac will see an increase from $19.06 per hour to $19.71 at the start of the year. That said, in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area the living wage for a single adult without children is $21.48.

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