Mass. minimum wage to rise to $15 an hour on Jan. 1

On Jan. 1, Massachusetts will raise the minimum wage in the state to $15 an hour, a benchmark that activists have long pushed to meet the ever-growing cost of living. It’s the final step in a multi-year series of wage increases, the result of a 2018 act known as the “grand bargain” that made sweeping changes to workplace policies. At the beginning of 2022, base pay increased to $14.25 an hour, up from $13.50 the year prior. The “service rate,” or the pay given to tipped employees, will rise to $6.75 in Massachusetts, up from $6.15. Massachusetts is among the 86 jurisdictions instituting wage hikes over the course of 2023, according to the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy organization that supports higher minimum wages. A total of six states and 51 cities and counties will enact a minimum wage of at least $15 an hour for some or all employees, according to the NELP. Elsewhere in New England, Rhode Island is increasing its minimum wage to $13 (up from $12.25), Vermont is hiking its minimum wage to $13.18 (up from $12.55), and in Maine the minimum wage will be $13.80 (up from $12.75). As of Jan. 1, Massachusetts will have one of the highest minimum wages in the country, below only Washington, D.C., ($16.10); Washington state ($15.74); and California ($15.50), according to the NELP. But some cities are going even further, such as SeaTac, Wash. ($19.06) and Mountain View, Calif., home to Google ($18.15). Still, Massachusetts, unlike California and Washington, lacks cost-of-living provisions, meaning that the minimum wage will not continue to increase even if inflation, which is at a four-decade high, persists. The federal minimum wage — workers’ base pay in states without their own minimum wage laws — remains $7.25 an hour, unchanged since 2009. — DANA GERBER