Minimum Wages In Half Of The U.S. Will Be Rising Next Year, And It’s Thanks To The Working-Class

New Year, and possibly new minimum wage.

In 2020, employees in about 24 states will receive a raise in the minimum wage. According to CBS News, on Jan. 1, or around that time, the minimum wage will increase in 21 states, with another 26 cities and counties also raising their baseline pay at year-start. Later in the year, four more states and 23 cities and counties will hike their minimum wages, according to the National Employment Law Project, a worker rights group.

This record number of pay hikes will benefit about 6.8 million workers, according to an analysis from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, which estimates that the pay raises could range from $150 to as high as $1,700 for full-time, year-round workers, depending on the wage hikes in their regions. However, this wasn’t the work of Uncle Sam, but instead the working-class U.S. citizens. For several years now, employees who are a part of labor groups like Fight for $15, have been lobbying and performing demonstrations to raise wages.

CBS News reports that the highest minimum wages will be enacted in some California and Washington cities and counties. Workers in Seattle will earn one of the highest minimum wages in the country on January 1, when the baseline wage increases to $16.39 an hour.

While states have been making their own changes in wages, the federal minimum wage has yet to be amended and has stayed at $7.25 an hour for a decade. This makes a record-long period of time without an increase.