Minimum wage by state 2026: full list and federal rate

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) sets the national floor: $7.25 an hour for covered, nonexempt workers. The Department of Labor's history of federal minimum wage rates shows the last increase took effect on July 24, 2009. Since then, any raise has come from states and cities, not from Congress.

When a state minimum and the federal minimum differ, the worker gets whichever is higher. That's why a state with a lower rate on its books (Georgia and Wyoming list $5.15) still pays $7.25 in practice for almost every job: the FLSA covers most employers.

Workers who receive tips have a separate federal floor. According to the Department of Labor's table of minimum wages for tipped employees (updated July 1, 2026):

• Minimum cash wage: $2.13 an hour
• Maximum tip credit: $5.12 an hour

The employer can count up to $5.12 of tips towards the $7.25, but if cash wage plus tips don't reach $7.25 over the workweek, the employer has to make up the difference. Many states set a higher cash wage for tipped workers, and some require the full state minimum before tips. Check your state in the same DOL table.

These are the basic hourly rates in force on 2 October 2026 for all 50 states and DC, from the Department of Labor's state minimum wage table (updated July 1, 2026). The one exception is Florida: the DOL table still shows $14.00, but the state's own labor agency, FloridaCommerce, confirms the rise to $15.00 on September 30, 2026. Some states only apply their rate above a certain number of employees or a sales threshold; the main exceptions are noted.

$17.00 and above

• District of Columbia: $18.40 (since July 1, 2026)
• Washington: $17.13
• New York: $17.00 in New York City, Long Island and Westchester; $16.00 in the rest of the state

$16.00 to $16.99

• Connecticut: $16.94
• California: $16.90
• Hawaii: $16.00
• Rhode Island: $16.00

$15.00 to $15.99

• New Jersey: $15.92 ($15.23 for employers with fewer than 6 employees and seasonal work)
• Oregon: $15.55 standard; $16.80 Portland metro; $14.55 non-urban counties (since July 1, 2026)
• Colorado: $15.16
• Arizona: $15.15
• Maine: $15.10
• Delaware: $15.00
• Florida: $15.00 (since September 30, 2026)
• Illinois: $15.00 (employers with 4 or more employees)
• Maryland: $15.00
• Massachusetts: $15.00
• Missouri: $15.00
• Nebraska: $15.00 (employers with 4 or more employees)

$12.00 to $14.99

• Vermont: $14.42
• Alaska: $14.00 (since July 1, 2026)
• Michigan: $13.73
• Virginia: $12.77
• Nevada: $12.00
• New Mexico: $12.00

$8.00 to $11.99

• South Dakota: $11.85
• Minnesota: $11.41
• Arkansas: $11.00 (employers with 4 or more employees)
• Ohio: $11.00 (employers with annual gross receipts of $405,000 or more; $7.25 below that)
• Montana: $10.85 (businesses with gross annual sales above $110,000)
• West Virginia: $8.75 (employers with 6 or more employees at one location)

$7.25, the federal rate (20 states)

• Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee have no state minimum wage law, so the federal $7.25 applies to covered jobs.
• Georgia and Wyoming list $5.15, but employers covered by the FLSA must pay $7.25.
• Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin set their minimum at $7.25.

Highest: among the 50 states, Washington has the highest minimum wage in 2026, at $17.13 an hour. New York's $17.00 in the New York City area comes close, followed by Connecticut ($16.94) and California ($16.90). If you count DC, it tops the list at $18.40.

Lowest: 20 states sit at the federal $7.25. Among the states with their own higher rate, West Virginia has the lowest, $8.75.

Minimum wage in California 2026: $16.90 an hour statewide. Some cities and some industries pay more, but $16.90 is the general floor.

Several cities set their own floor above the state's. These rates are confirmed by each city's labor office:

• Seattle: $21.30 in 2026, rising to $22.14 on January 1, 2027 (Seattle Office of Labor Standards)
• San Francisco: $19.61 since July 1, 2026 (San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement)
• Denver: $19.29 in 2026 (Denver Labor)
• New York City: $17.00, the state rate for the city, Long Island and Westchester

Only increases confirmed by an official source are listed here. Many states adjust for inflation every year and publish the new figure in the autumn, so more will follow.

• California: $17.40 from January 1, 2027 (Department of Industrial Relations)
• Washington: $17.73 from January 1, 2027, announced on September 30, 2026 (Department of Labor & Industries)
• Rhode Island: $17.00 from January 1, 2027 (Department of Labor and Training)
• Michigan: $15.00 from January 1, 2027 (DOL state table)
• Virginia: $13.75 from January 1, 2027, and $15.00 from January 1, 2028 (Virginia DOLI)
• New York: no increase on January 1, 2027. The rates stay at $17.00 and $16.00 because one of the law's "off-ramp" conditions was met (New York State)
• Florida: the $15.00 rate runs from September 30, 2026 to December 31, 2027, according to FloridaCommerce

The usual way to turn an hourly wage into a yearly one is to assume a full-time job with no unpaid weeks:

Annual pay = hourly wage × 2,080 hours (40 hours a week × 52 weeks). Monthly pay = annual pay ÷ 12.

Applied to some of the rates above, before taxes:

• $7.25 (federal): $290 a week, about $1,257 a month, $15,080 a year
• $15.00 (Florida, Illinois, Maryland and others): $600 a week, $2,600 a month, $31,200 a year
• $16.90 (California): $676 a week, about $2,929 a month, $35,152 a year
• $17.13 (Washington): $685.20 a week, about $2,969 a month, $35,630 a year
• $18.40 (DC): $736 a week, about $3,189 a month, $38,272 a year

These are gross figures. What lands in your account will be lower after federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare, and state tax where it applies. And 2,080 hours is the best case: fewer hours, unpaid time off or a gap between jobs all lower the real annual figure. For context on how these numbers compare with typical earnings, the median full-time worker earned $1,251 a week in the second quarter of 2026, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

On $15,080 a year there is very little margin, and on $31,200 there isn't a lot more once rent is paid. A few things help more than others:

• Budget from your real take-home pay, not the hourly rate. Use what actually arrives in your account, and if your hours vary, plan on a low month rather than an average one.
• Cover the fixed costs first. Rent, utilities, transport and food come before anything else. What's left is what you actually have to decide on.
• Use a simple frame. The 50/30/20 rule splits income into needs, wants and savings. On a low income the "needs" share is usually far above 50%, and that's normal: the point is to see the split, not to hit the exact numbers.
• Start a small cushion. Even a few hundred dollars set aside stops a car repair from ending up on a credit card. Our guide to the emergency fund breaks it into stages.
• Track where it goes for a month or two. Small, regular expenses are where most of the leaks are, and you only see them written down.

If you want a place to do that, Neto is a free-to-start app for iPhone and Android where you log income and expenses yourself, set budgets by category with alerts at 80% and 100%, and see what you have left, without connecting your bank.

Figures checked on 2 October 2026. Rates change during the year, especially on January 1 and July 1, so check your state's labor department before relying on a figure.

Sources: U.S. Department of Labor, state minimum wage laws · DOL, tipped employee minimum wages · DOL, history of federal minimum wage rates · FloridaCommerce · Oregon BOLI · California DIR · Washington L&I · Rhode Island DLT · Virginia DOLI · New York State · Alaska Department of Labor · Seattle · San Francisco OLSE · Denver · BLS, usual weekly earnings