Federal minimum wage rising to $17.30 per hour on April 1 (2024)

FAQs

Federal minimum wage rising to $17.30 per hour on April 1? ›

To keep up with the cost of living, the federal minimum wage will increase from $16.65 to $17.30 per hour on April 1, 2024.

The federally mandated minimum wage in the United States is 7.25 U.S. dollars per hour, although the minimum wage varies from state to state. As of January 1, 2024, the District of Columbia had the highest minimum wage in the U.S., at 17 U.S. dollars per hour.

The federal minimum hourly wage is just $7.25 and has not increased since 2009. The Raise the Wage Act of 2021, introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on January 26, 2021, would gradually raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025.

The Executive Order raises the minimum wage paid by those contractors to workers performing work on or in connection with covered federal contracts to $15.00 per hour, beginning January 30, 2022; and beginning January 1, 2023, and annually thereafter, an amount determined by the Secretary of Labor (Secretary).

A lack of competitive pay hurts the recruitment, retention, and quality of the civil service. The Biden Administration has worked to reverse these trends, providing federal employees a 4.6 percent pay raise in 2023 and a 5.2 percent raise in 2024.

The Raise the Wage Act of 2021 (HR 603) would increase the federal minimum wage in five annual steps, from $7.25 to $15 in 2025, with annual increases thereafter indexed to the median wage.

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour (about $15,000 annually). Many cities and states across the U.S. have adopted higher minimums.

In fact, had the federal minimum wage kept pace with workers' productivity since 1968 the inflation-adjusted minimum wage would be $24 an hour. The labor movement has long advocated that working people share in the wealth we help create and our incomes should rise as we become more productive.

What 3 states have the lowest minimum wage? ›

Currently, 34 states, territories and districts have minimum wages above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Five states have not adopted a state minimum wage: Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee. Two states, Georgia and Wyoming, have a minimum wage below $7.25 per hour.

The federal minimum wage for covered nonexempt employees is $7.25 per hour.

“Most of us can't do the math in our heads. If we could, we'd realize that $15 an hour amounts to only $31,200 a year, assuming full-time work—about half of the U.S. median income and a painfully small amount for living and raising children in most American cities.” It can be painfully small outside of cities, too.

On January 1, 2024, the hourly minimum wage for certain federal contractor employees will increase to $17.20, according to a Notice issued by the Wage and Hour Division of the United States Department of Labor (DOL) and published in the Federal Register on September 28, 2023.

In general, increasing the federal minimum wage would raise the earnings and family income of most low-wage workers and thus lift some families out of poverty—but doing so would cause other low-wage workers to become jobless, and their family income would fall.

The federal minimum wage provisions are contained in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour effective July 24, 2009. Many states also have minimum wage laws. Some state laws provide greater employee protections; employers must comply with both.

The year 2024 brings significant attention to wage laws as economic conditions and legislative pressures drive discussions on wage adjustments. While the Texas state minimum wage remains at $7.25 per hour, several local initiatives and proposals aim to increase minimum wages in specific cities and sectors.

The minimum wage in Virginia is $12.00 per hour. Unlike other states, Virginia does not exempt tipped workers from the state mandated minimum wage. For this reason, tipped employees in Virginia are to receive the same minimum wage as all other employees plus earned tips.