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The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, set by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and enforced by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division. That rate has been frozen since July 24, 2009, making it the longest period without an increase since the FLSA became law in 1938.
Georgia's minimum wage operates through a two-tier legal structure: the state sets one rate at $5.15 per hour, the federal government enforces a higher rate at $7.25, and which number appears on your paycheck depends entirely on whether your employer falls under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Only two U.S. states maintain a minimum wage below the federal floor of $7.25 per hour: Georgia and Wyoming. Georgia's rate, $5.15 an hour and frozen since 1999, ranks among the lowest statutory wage floors in the country. But that $5.
Washington's minimum wage is set by an automatic annual formula tied to the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), making it one of the few state wage floors in the country that rises without requiring new legislation each cycle. The 2024 rate of $16.
Arizona's state minimum wage in 2024 is $14.35 per hour, set by an automatic inflation-adjustment formula that voters embedded in state law through Proposition 206 in 2016.
Washington's minimum wage is an inflation-indexed floor set by state law, adjusted each September based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), and effective every January 1 without a legislative vote. The 2024 statewide rate reached $16.28 per hour, a 3.
Amendment 2, ratified by Florida voters in November 2020, embedded a minimum wage escalator directly into Article X of the state constitution, removing the rate from legislative control entirely. The current floor is $14.00 per hour for non-tipped workers and $10.
The Improved Workforce Opportunity Wage Act controls the state of Michigan minimum wage through a fixed annual escalator that raises the floor each January without requiring new legislative votes. As of January 1, 2026, that escalator pushed the standard rate to $13.
Article II, Section 34a of the Ohio Constitution contains the formula that sets Ohio's minimum wage every January 1, removing the state legislature from the process entirely. The rate adjusts automatically based on the Consumer Price Index, which pushed the minimum wage in Ohio from $10.
Unlike most state wage floors, which legislatures can freeze or repeal at will, Florida's minimum wage is locked into the state constitution. The current rate is $14.00 per hour, climbing to $15.
The AFL-CIO passed a resolution at its July 2026 conference endorsing sectoral bargaining for the first time in the federation's history, according to a Time article published Wednesday.
Washington state doesn't have one minimum wage. It has at least seven. The statewide floor sat at $16.28 per hour for 2024 (rising to $17.
