Allison Bailey/NurPhoto via AP Photo
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Workers speak at a press conference with restaurant owners and Congresspeople in Washington, D.C., in February 2022.
For 15 years, the federal minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25, barely enough to cover lunch, let alone the cost of living. But Congress isn’t moving on the issue, so the quest to bring the federal minimum in line with economic realities stagnates. Two bills have been put forward this year: The Raise the Wage Act of 2025, introduced in April by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Bobby Scott (D-VA), proposes a federal minimum wage of $15.50 by 2029 and $17 by 2030. The Higher Wages for American Workers Act, introduced by Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Peter Welch (D-VT) in June, proposes a federal minimum wage of $15 per hour, linked to future increases in the Consumer Price Index. But neither has gotten any traction since Republicans in Congress remain obsessed with slashing Medicaid, SNAP, and other programs for the poorest Americans.
More than 30 states have hourly wages higher than the federal minimum with nearly 20 states at or near $15. Workers and state and local officials understand that it’s increasingly difficult to justify resistance to higher wages—even if Congress does not. The fight for $20 is the new benchmark.
In June, a coalition of national labor union leaders, worker organizations, and racial and economic justice organizations gathered in Los Angeles to launch the Living Wage for All campaign. The group wants to see Los Angeles officials raise the minimum wage to $30 and also plans to work for higher wages across the country.
Saru Jayaraman, president and co-founder of One Fair Wage, recognizes that many businesses will continue to throw up roadblocks. “We’re excited that, despite—or even because of—the restaurant lobby’s increased activity, it’s created new momentum that we think will lead to wins this year, and definitely [move to] the ballot next year in multiple states,” she said.
The call for a $30 wage became a flashpoint in New York City’s contentious Democratic mayoral primary. The two frontrunners, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) and Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, both made bold promises. Mamdani pledged to raise the minimum wage to $30 by 2030. Cuomo, the deep-pocketed establishment favorite, offered up $20.
Ultimately, Mamdani won over New York voters, who are grappling with a cost-of-living crisis of their own. MIT’s Living Wage calculator estimates that $28.87 is the hourly wage that a single New Yorker would need to earn to meet their basic needs, while $35.02 is what two working people with two children would need. However, this debate seems slightly disingenuous given that the next mayor would have to head to Albany: The New York legislature sets the statewide minimum wage, and that fight will not be easy.
Related: Mamdani Shocks the World on a Hot Primary Day
In 2016, California became the first state to pass a $15 minimum wage. (Currently, the minimum wage in the state is $16.50.) Early last year, California state lawmakers passed AB 1228, which raised the minimum wage for fast-food workers to $20 an hour. The legislation became a lightning rod for anti-minimum wage lobbying firms. The bill saw industry groups like the National Restaurant Association battle against the bill through its “Save Local Restaurants” campaign. Bankrolled by fast-food giants like McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A, the group warned that raising wages would devastate local businesses as well as their own multi-billion-dollar franchises.
But UC Berkeley Labor Center’s 2025 study on the impacts of California’s $20 minimum wage found no evidence of mass layoffs or other major economic disruptions. “What determines unemployment in low-wage markets is the supply side—it’s hard to recruit and retain workers when you have very low-quality jobs that pay low wages,” says Enrique Lopezlira, director of the center’s Low-Wage Work Program. “When you raise the minimum wage, like in fast food, what we're finding is that improving wages allows employers to attract and retain those workers that they couldn't attract and retain previous to the increase.”
Los Angeles will put this debate to the test. Hotel and airport workers want an increase in wages to $30 an hour. Passed 8-3 by the L.A. City Council, the ordinance sets the wage for these sectors at $22.50 with a $2.50 increase every year leading up to 2028 when the city hosts the Olympic Games. Naturally, hotel owners in the area are pushing back against the measure, citing rising costs and post-pandemic business stresses.
Some Republican states are headed in the opposite direction, passing preemption laws that prevent cities and counties from setting their own wage floors. In 2016, low-wage workers in Birmingham, Alabama fought for a local ordinance raising the minimum wage to $8.50 and to $10.10 in 2017. But before the increase could take effect, the Alabama state legislators banned municipalities from raising the minimum wage above the federal minimum of $7.25.
Still, even in conservative states like Nebraska, voters have passed minimum wage hikes through ballot measures, often by wide margins. These efforts reveal a growing consensus among workers that the status quo is unsustainable. But many of these local victories remain vulnerable. Missouri voters passed a referendum in 2024 raising the minimum wage to $15. However, state lawmakers removed the cost-of-living adjustment, set to take effect in 2027, from the mandate. The wage increases remain intact.
Raise the Wage Ohio is working to bring a $15 wage ballot initiative to the Buckeye State in 2026. The future of the measure is uncertain after the failed signature campaign in 2024 and harsh words from Secretary of State Frank LaRose.
Oklahoma voters will also weigh in on a similar measure during the mid-terms. State Question 832, backed by the NEA and AFL-CIO, would raise the hourly wage to $15. The measure could impact over 200,000 workers in a state where the living wage for a single adult with no children is $20.26 per hour. Currently, Oklahoma’s minimum wage stands at the federal rate of $7.25.
This growing disconnect between public support for higher wages and political obstruction at the state level underscores a key tension in the minimum wage fight: victories at the ballot are not always victories in practice. But setting a living wage is a key political priority for American workers and, although lawmakers backed by deep-pocketed industry groups may push back, the recent successes in California show that progress is possible.
