Twenty-one states to see an increase in the minimum wage starting in 2022

Employees working in 21 states will see an increase in their minimum wage in the upcoming year as those states have enacted pay bumps.

The majority of the increases are set to go into effect on Saturday, but New York’s increase will start on Friday. 

In New York, along with seven other states, the increases come in line with scheduled raises in the effort to soon reach $15 minimum wages.

According to a report from payroll experts at Wolters Kluwer Legal and Regulatory US, which is a company that provides finance, compliance, and regulatory information, the seven other states are California, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Rhode Island.

Some states, including Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Ohio, South Dakota, Vermont, and Washington, are increasing rates due to previously approved legislation or ballot initiatives. 

The federal minimum wage is so far remaining at $7.25, which reflects a rate that has not changed since it began in 2009. The almost 13-year time period is the longest that American workers have gone without a federally ordered increase in wages.

President Joe Biden and other progressive Democrats previously advocated for a $15 federal minimum wage, but so far, Biden only raised the wage for federal contractors to that level by signing an executive order in April. That hike will go into effect at the end of January. 

Other attempts to increase the federal wage failed in February as the Senate parliamentarian decided against adding an increase in the minimum wage in the Covid relief bill. Then in March, Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont introduced an amendment to have the wage increase included, but eight Democrats voted against it.

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia was one who voted against the amendment, and he said at the time he would like to see the minimum wage increase to $11 and then “it should be indexed for inflation, so it never becomes a political football again.”