Nineteen states, including New York and California, will ring in 2017 with an increase in the minimum wage – with Massachusetts and the state of Washington implementing the highest new minimum wages in the country at $11 per hour.
California will raise its wage to $10.50 for businesses with 26 or more employees. New York is taking a regional approach, with the wage rising to $11 in New York City, to $10.50 for small businesses in the city, $10 in its downstate suburbs and $9.70 elsewhere. Some specific businesses – fast-food restaurants and the smallest New York City businesses – will have slightly different wage requirements.
Voters in Arizona, Maine, Colorado and Washington approved increases in this year’s election. Seven other states, Alaska, Florida, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio and South Dakota, are automatically raising the wage based on indexing. The other states seeing increases are Arkansas, Connecticut, Hawaii, Michigan and Vermont.
Additional increases are slated for later in the year in Oregon, Washington, D.C. and Maryland.
In Arizona, the state Chamber of Commerce and Industry filed a lawsuit challenging the increase, which will raise the minimum wage from $8.05 to $10. However, the Arizona Supreme Court refused to temporarily block the raise.
Workers and labor advocates argue the increases will help low-wage workers now barely making ends meet and boost the economy by giving some consumers more money to spend. But many business owners opposed the higher wages, saying they would lead to higher prices and greater automation.
The adjustments in New York, California and several other states are part of a series of gradual increases to a $12 or $15 hourly wage.
The minimum wage also will go up in 22 cities and counties, including San Diego, San Jose and Seattle.
The high number of states and localities raising the wage this year reflects the work of fast-food workers and organized labor, according to Tsedeye Gebreselassie, senior staff attorney at the National Employment Law Project, as well as federal inaction on the wage.
The national minimum was last raised, to $7.25, in 2009.
