Pay · Updated with each state's law · Figures to January 2026
What is the Minimum wage where you live?
Two floors apply to your paycheck: the federal $7.25, frozen since 2009 - the longest freeze since the wage began, and your state's rate, which in 46 states is now higher. The highest is District of Columbia's $18.40.
Whether you're earning near it, hiring at it, or just saw a job ad and wondered how anyone lives on it, the minimum wage is really two numbers: a federal floor of $7.25 an hour, and your state's own rate - and whichever is higher is the one that applies to you. The two have drifted so far apart that the map below matters more than the famous number, and the famous number's own story is the first chart.
So, what are we looking at, exactly?
The federal minimum wage, but measured the way your grocery bill measures it: every month's rate converted into today's dollars using consumer prices, back to 1947. In cash terms the wage only ever goes up - $0.25 in 1938 to $7.25 now. In buying power it rises with each raise and then erodes with inflation until the next one, which is the sawtooth you're looking at. The teeth climbed until 1968, when the minimum was worth $15.57 in today's money - and the long slide on the right is what happens when the raises stop coming.
When did the minimum wage last go up?
July 2009 - and the freeze since is 204 months long, the longest in the wage's history (the previous record between raises was 118 months). Congress sets the federal rate by statute; nothing adjusts it automatically, so its real value simply falls between votes. At $7.25, it now buys 53% less than the 1968 version of itself.
Months since the federal minimum wage last changed
204
What is the minimum wage in your state?
This is where the real action moved. 46 of the 51 jurisdictions here have set their own floor above the federal one, topped by District of Columbia at $18.40 - more than double the federal rate. The rows at $7.25 split two ways: the 5 marked "federal rate applies" never enacted a state minimum at all, while a few others keep one on the books at or below the federal floor - Georgia and Wyoming's own rates are still $5.15 - so the federal rate is what a worker there gets either way.
| Rank | State | $/hr | vs Federal minimum |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | +154% | |
| 2 | Washington | +136% | |
| 3 | New York | +134% | |
| 4 | Connecticut | +134% | |
| 5 | California | +133% | |
| 6 | Oregon | +132% | |
| 7 | Hawaii | +121% | |
| 8 | Rhode Island | +121% | |
| 9 | New Jersey | +120% | |
| 10 | Colorado | +109% | |
| 11 | Arizona | +109% | |
| 12 | Maine | +108% | |
| 13 | Delaware | +107% | |
| 14 | Illinois | +107% | |
| 15 | Maryland | +107% | |
| 16 | Massachusetts | +107% | |
| 17 | Missouri | +107% | |
| 18 | Nebraska | +107% | |
| 19 | Vermont | +99% | |
| 20 | Alaska | +93% | |
| 21 | Florida | +93% | |
| 22 | Michigan | +89% | |
| 23 | Virginia | +76% | |
| 24 | Nevada | +66% | |
| 25 | New Mexico | +66% | |
| 26 | South Dakota | +63% | |
| 27 | Minnesota | +57% | |
| 28 | Arkansas | +52% | |
| 29 | Ohio | +52% | |
| 30 | Montana | +50% | |
| 31 | West Virginia | +21% | |
| — | Federal minimum | — | |
| 32 | Alabama (federal rate applies) | +0% | |
| 33 | Georgia | +0% | |
| 34 | Idaho | +0% | |
| 35 | Indiana | +0% | |
| 36 | Iowa | +0% | |
| 37 | Kansas | +0% | |
| 38 | Kentucky | +0% | |
| 39 | Louisiana (federal rate applies) | +0% | |
| 40 | Mississippi (federal rate applies) | +0% | |
| 41 | New Hampshire | +0% | |
| 42 | North Carolina | +0% | |
| 43 | North Dakota | +0% | |
| 44 | Oklahoma | +0% | |
| 45 | Pennsylvania | +0% | |
| 46 | South Carolina (federal rate applies) | +0% | |
| 47 | Tennessee (federal rate applies) | +0% | |
| 48 | Texas | +0% | |
| 49 | Utah | +0% | |
| 50 | Wisconsin | +0% | |
| 51 | Wyoming | +0% |
Who still earns the federal minimum?
Fewer people than the arguments suggest: 1.0% of hourly-paid workers earned at or below the federal minimum in 2025, down from 13.4% in 1979. The share fell as state floors climbed past the federal one and as pay for low-wage work rose above it in tight hiring years - so the federal rate has become less a wage most people are paid, and more the backstop for the states that kept it.
The $7.25 floor buys 53% less than the minimum wage of 1968 did. Every cash raise since has been caught and passed by prices.
Calculated from the wage and consumer-price seriesFrom District of Columbia's $18.40 down to the 5 states where $7.25 still rules, the spread between the highest and the federal floor is now $11.15 an hour.
Calculated from the table aboveWhat this page can't tell you
Your exact floor, in three cases: many cities set minimums above their state (Seattle, Denver and Chicago among them); tipped workers have a separate, lower federal base with its own state variations; and some jobs are exempt from the minimum entirely. State rates here are each year's standard rate - mid-year city changes and scheduled step-ups land at the next annual reading. The Department of Labor's state law tables carry the fine print, free.
Further reading
All of our numbers come from live, free government data - the federal wage history and every state rate from the Department of Labor via FRED, the at-or-below share from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the today's-dollars conversion is our own calculation from the consumer-price index. The page updates as the series do.
If you want to dig deeper: what those dollars buy is our inflation page, and what employers are paying for beyond the floor is our skills page.