Workers across several Democratic-led states are set to ring in 2027 with another pay bump, widening an already sizable gap between state minimum wages and the federal floor of $7.25 an hour.<\/p>\n
Washington, California and Connecticut will all raise minimum wages that already top $17 an hour beginning Jan. 1, while New Jersey and Michigan will also hike their wage floors \u2014 widening the gap with the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Washington will lead the pack at $17.73 an hour, up 60 cents from its current $17.13 rate. Connecticut\u2019s minimum wage will rise from $16.94 to $17.48, while California\u2019s will climb<\/a> from $16.90 to $17.40.<\/p>\n New Jersey will increase its minimum wage by 56 cents to $16.48 an hour for most workers, while Michigan is slated for one of the largest jumps, rising from $13.73 to $15 an hour.<\/p>\n AOC-BACKED $30 MINIMUM WAGE PLAN COULD BACKFIRE IN UNEXPECTED WAYS, EXPERTS WARN<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The hikes come as several Republican-led states have also pushed their wage floors well above the federal rate, though they remain below the highest-paying blue states. Florida\u2019s minimum wage reached $15 an hour on Sept. 30 and will remain there through the end of 2027, while Missouri is also at $15. Nebraska will increase its minimum wage from $15 to $15.26 on Jan. 1.<\/p>\n Washington\u2019s statewide<\/a> increase will come as Seattle pushes its own wage floor even higher. The city\u2019s minimum wage is slated to rise to $22.14 an hour in 2027, nearly $4.50 above the new statewide rate.<\/p>\n Seattle\u2019s wage requirements have also become a flashpoint in the debate over the costs facing local businesses. Beginning in 2025, all employers in the city, including small businesses, became subject to the same inflation-adjusted minimum wage. Some restaurant owners who later closed their businesses cited rising labor costs among the financial pressures they faced.<\/p>\n ECONOMIST WARNS THOUSANDS OF VIRGINIA JOBS AT RISK AFTER MINIMUM WAGE HIKE SIGNED BY SPANBERGER<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Washington\u2019s minimum wage is tied to inflation under state law, with the wage floor recalculated each year rather than requiring lawmakers to approve a new increase.<\/p>\n Washington voters approved a measure in 1998 that raised the minimum wage and, beginning in 2001, tied future increases to inflation.<\/p>\n Voters approved another measure in 2016 that set wage increases through 2020. Since 2021, the minimum wage has again risen annually with inflation, with the goal of keeping workers\u2019 pay in step with rising prices.<\/p>\n Each September, the Washington Department of Labor & Industries calculates the following year\u2019s rate based on changes in the CPI-W. The new rate is announced Sept. 30 and takes effect Jan. 1.<\/p>\n “Democrats appear to be doing everything they can to make the business climate in Washington more untenable,” Seattle Red host and conservative commentator Jason Rantz told Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n DOWNTOWN SEATTLE LOST 30,000 JOBS, BILLIONS IN OFFICE VALUE SINCE 2020 PAYROLL TAX: NEW REPORT FINDS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n “It\u2019s not just the high cost of labor \u2014 Seattle is now going to be over $22 an hour \u2014 but it\u2019s the high crime, open-air drug use, new income tax that targets pass-through businesses, and over regulation that make operating businesses more difficult than it should be,” Rantz said.<\/p>\n “Our unemployment rate is higher than the national average and we\u2019re losing tech jobs left and right,” he added. “Democrats have no answers. They\u2019re just making their problems worse.”<\/p>\n The wage hike comes as Washington\u2019s unemployment rate reached 4.9% in August, above the 4.1% national rate and up from 4.6% a year earlier, according to the state Employment Security Department.<\/p>\n Washington also lost an estimated 900 jobs that month, including 2,300 information-sector positions, while professional and business services employment was down 13,100 jobs from a year earlier.<\/p>\n Angela Rosen, who founded Penelope and the Beauty Bar and operates three Seattle spas, told Rantz that her therapists already make more than minimum wage, but said higher labor costs have squeezed support positions instead.<\/p>\n “I had to cut my front desk,” Rosen told The Jason Rantz Show, according to Seattle Red. Rantz reported that the move eliminated 12 shifts per week across two smaller locations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Workers across several Democratic-led states are set to ring in 2027 with another pay bump, widening an already sizable gap between state minimum wages and the federal floor of $7.25 an hour. Washington, California and Connecticut will all raise minimum wages that already top $17 an hour beginning Jan. 1, while New Jersey and Michigan … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79609\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}