Which US cities have the highest minimum hourly wages?
There is a federally-mandated minimum wage but there are many places in the US which exceed this, even by double the amount.
With prices getting ever higher, despite recent drops in speed, people will be asking bosses for more money so inflation doesn’t swallow their wallet. Living is expensive and although there are laws for minimum amounts jobs can pay workers, the amount is so low that it is not at all liveable for any person.
In fact, the current minimum wage has not changed since July 2009.
Currently, the US federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, meaning that a person earning this wage who worked 40 per week every week of the year, would bring home $15,080 annually. That is less than half the US median annual average and slightly above the US poverty threshold at $13,590 for an individual.
Here are the cities with the highest hourly minimum wage, according to investopedia.
- Emeryville, California – $17.68 per hour, which can be reduced to $15.75 per hour if the employer decides to redirect part of the wages towards health benefits.
- Seattle, Washington : $17.27 per hour.
- Mountain View, California – $17.10 per hour.
- Sunnyvale, California – $17.10 per hour.
- Palo Alto, California – $16.45 per hour.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that the majority of these cities are from California. The average wage in the state in $115 an hour, a statistic reinforced by the state increasing the minimum wage to $15.50 an hour from January 2023.
Federal minimum wage woefully low for majority of Americans
According to MIT’s Living Wage Calculations the living wage in the US is $24.16 per hour before taxes for a family of four. That estimate is nearly $3 per hour higher than the year before. While the cost of living varies from state to state and urban versus rural areas, generally the places that have the highest minimum wage also have the highest cost of living.
A study released by Oxfam America found that 52 million Americans were earning less than $15 per hour.