State Minimum Wage, Now On PolicyMap

The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. There’s been much in the news lately about whether this is sufficient income to live off of, whether to raise it, and what the effects of that would be.

Right now, not every state has the same minimum wage. Some states have legislated minimum wages higher than the federal minimum. The state of Washington has the highest, at $9.32. Some states actually have lower minimum wages, but they’re superseded by the federal minimum.

Since so many are talking about the role the minimum wage plays on the economy and its workers, we decided to add that as an indicator on PolicyMap.

This data, which comes from the U.S. Department of Labor, shows the effective minimum wage in each state. There are some municipalities, such as San Francisco, that have higher minimum wages than their states, but this is not shown in the data since it’s not reported by the Department of Labor.

This data is free to all users, and is accessible in the Incomes & Spending menu.