Some states are raising minimum wage
However, Texas is not making a change in 2024
Minimum wage employees in 22 states are receiving raises in 2024 as new legislation took effect to start the year — but the Lone Star State was not one of them.
Texas is among the states that have not passed legislation to increase the minimum wage from the federal base of $7.25.
The minimum wage was last increased federally in 2009, which is easily the longest period without a raise in the federal minimum wage — 15 years — since the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed in 1938.
Some cities in Texas have attempted to establish higher base wages at the local level — here’s where that has and hasn’t been successful and which states have the highest minimum wages in the country.
Do any cities in Texas have a higher minimum wage?
Technically no cities in Texas are permitted to enforce a minimum wage higher than the federal base of $7.25. However, efforts in recent years to establish higher base wages for city employees have been successful in Austin.
This includes budget changes in 2023 that increased the minimum wage for city employees from $15 to $20.
Similar efforts have been successful in Houston, where in 2021 a minimum wage of $15 was set for all Houston municipal workers. This change passed in a 16-1 City Council vote.
In 2022, the city of San Antonio proposed raising starting wages for all its government employees to $17.50 an hour in an attempt to fill vacancies.
Counties and major cities across the country have been successful in establishing minimum wages for employees to meet increasing costs of living. This includes Illinois’ Cook County — which contains Chicago; as well as Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City.
These increases mean that Houston, Dallas and Philadelphia are the only cities among the nation’s top 10 most populous that are still allowing businesses to pay the federal minimum wage to their employees.
What states currently have the highest minimum wage?
Of the states that have passed statelevel minimum wage increases, the ones with the highest starting pay include Washington ($16.28), California ($16) and Connecticut ($15.69).
Washington, D.C., has a higher minimum wage than any state at $17.
Of the 22 states that increased their minimum wage at the start of this year, none of them were increasing the minimum wage from the federal base of $7.25 for the first time.