MIAMI – The minimum wage rose between Tuesday and the first day of the year in 21 states and 26 cities and counties in the United States, according to figures compiled by the National Employment Law Project (NELP).
The first employees to benefit from this increase were those who work in New York City, who as of Tuesday must receive a payment of at least $ 15 dollars per hour, while in the rest of the state it is $ 11.80 per hour.
New York is one of 17 jurisdictions where the minimum wage has risen to as high as $ 15 an hour that unions and organizations like NELP have been asking for for years.
But the increase is not limited to this start of the year, as throughout 2020 another 4 states and 23 cities and counties will reach the desired figure of $ 15 an hour.
In total, 24 states and 48 cities and counties will increase their minimum wages sometime in 2020.
In Illinois and Saint Paul, in the state of Minneapolis, they will increase the minimum wage twice this year, on January 1 and in July, the NELP noted.
In addition to Illinois, states that already have new minimum wages include Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, New Jersey and Washington.
The increase in the minimum wage will benefit about 6.8 million employees, according to figures from the Institute for Economic Policy.
Those who will see no change in their pay are employees under the federal minimum wage, which has stood at $ 7.25 an hour since it last rose to that figure more than a decade ago.
On July 24, 2009, the US federal minimum wage had its last hike and despite various attempts to increase this figure, workers will have to wait until they see the results of next November’s elections to try to achieve an increase.
One of those efforts was the House of Representatives’ approval in 2019 of the “Raise the Wage Act” project, which would have allowed the current federal minimum wage to rise to $ 15 an hour in stages, in addition to other protections.
But the hopes of workers in about fifteen states currently living on the federal minimum wage were dashed by the words of Senate leader Republican Mitch McConnell, saying the upper house was not going to vote on the bill.
Added to this was the White House warning that he would veto the measure if he reached his desk.
–
