U.S. Minimum Wage 2025 Update: New Pay Rates You Need to Know
As 2025 draws to a close, the U.S. minimum wage landscape continues to evolve with a patchwork of federal baselines and state-specific hikes designed to combat inflation and rising living costs. While the federal minimum wage remains stubbornly anchored at $7.25 per hour—unchanged since 2009 and now officially a poverty wage for full-time workers—the real action is at the state and local levels, where 21 states and dozens of cities implemented increases earlier this year, injecting an estimated $5.7 billion …