Minimum Wage by State in 2026, and Where It Rose

The United States has no single minimum wage. It has a federal floor, fifty state answers, and a growing number of city and county ordinances stacked on top. Where they conflict, the rule is simple: the employer pays the highest rate that covers that worker.

That produces a spread of more than three to one across the country. A cashier in the District of Columbia is entitled to $18.40 an hour. A cashier doing identical work in Texas is entitled to $7.25. Neither figure is adjusted for the cost of living, and neither is a statement about what the job is worth.

The practical questions are narrower than the political ones. What rate applies to you, what does it come to in a year, what does overtime do to it, and which exceptions might quietly cut it.

What is the federal minimum wage in 2026?

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. It applies to employees covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act, which is most hourly workers at businesses with meaningful interstate commerce. States may set a higher rate but cannot set a lower one for covered workers.

Roughly twenty states have not enacted a higher rate, so $7.25 is the operative wage there: Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin. Wyoming's state figure of $5.15 is lower still, and applies only to the narrow group of workers the federal law does not reach.

What is the minimum wage in each state?

Rates range from $5.15 in Wyoming to $18.40 in the District of Columbia. The table below is a selection of 25 of the 51 jurisdictions, chosen to show the full range and the most populous states; every state not listed either matches the $7.25 federal floor or sits between the values shown.

Annual figures use 2,080 hours, which is 40 hours for 52 weeks with no unpaid leave. Real annual pay is usually lower, because minimum wage jobs rarely guarantee 40 hours every week. The hourly to salary calculator converts any rate at a different weekly schedule.

How much is minimum wage a year after tax?

A full-time worker at $7.25 grosses $15,080. That is below the 2026 single standard deduction of $16,100, so no federal income tax is due at all. Payroll tax still applies: 7.65% of $15,080 is $1,153.62, leaving $13,926.38 before any state tax.

The District of Columbia federal tax line is 10% of the first $12,400 of taxable income, which is $1,240, plus 12% of the remaining $9,772, which is $1,172.64. Neither column includes state or district income tax. The gross gap of $23,192 narrows to $19,005.17 after federal tax and payroll tax, because the higher wage carries the higher tax. Use the paycheck calculator to add your own state.

How does overtime work at minimum wage?

Non-exempt employees must be paid at least one and a half times their regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek. At $7.25 that is $10.88 an hour; at $18.40 it is $27.60. The multiplier applies to the actual regular rate, not to the minimum, so a worker paid $12 in a $7.25 state gets $18 for overtime.

The regular rate includes non-discretionary bonuses and shift differentials, not just base pay. A worker on $15.00 who earns a $100 attendance bonus in a 45-hour week has a higher regular rate than $15.00, and the overtime premium must be recalculated. The overtime calculator handles that arithmetic.

Overtime is measured by the workweek, not the pay period. Two 45-hour weeks in one biweekly period produce ten overtime hours, not zero, even though the total is 90 hours.

Which workers are exempt from the minimum wage?

Several categories fall outside the standard rate: bona fide executive, administrative and professional employees who meet both a duties test and a salary threshold, outside sales staff, some seasonal and agricultural workers, and certain small businesses below the federal coverage test. Tipped employees may be paid a lower cash wage where state law allows it.

The tipped rules are the ones that catch people. In states that permit a tip credit, the employer pays a lower cash wage and counts tips toward the minimum, but must top up any shortfall so the total reaches the applicable minimum for every hour worked. Several states, including California and Washington, do not allow a tip credit at all, so the full state minimum is payable in cash before tips. The federal tipped cash wage is set separately and we do not publish that figure; check the Department of Labor page in the sources.

Common mistakes

Assuming the state rate is the rate. City and county ordinances routinely exceed state law, and some states set higher rates for large employers, for specific industries such as fast food or healthcare, or for particular counties. The state figure is a floor within the state, not a ceiling.

Paying the state rate in Wyoming. Wyoming's $5.15 applies only to workers outside federal coverage, which is a small group. Almost every hourly worker in Wyoming is entitled to the federal $7.25. Paying $5.15 to a covered employee is a violation.

Averaging hours across two weeks to avoid overtime. Overtime is calculated per workweek. A 50-hour week followed by a 30-hour week is ten overtime hours, not a balanced 80-hour period. Employers who net the two weeks are underpaying.

Treating salary as automatic exemption. Paying someone a salary does not make them exempt. Exemption requires the job duties to fit a defined category and the salary to meet a threshold. Misclassified salaried staff working long hours are owed back overtime, calculated from their effective hourly rate.

Deducting for uniforms or tools below the minimum. Deductions that take effective pay below the applicable minimum are generally not permitted, even with the employee's agreement. The test is the wage actually received for the hours actually worked.

What the minimum wage does not tell you

It says nothing about cost of living. $15.00 in Missouri and $15.00 in Maryland buy different amounts of housing. It says nothing about hours: many minimum wage roles schedule under 30 hours a week, so the annual column above overstates real earnings for a large share of workers.

It also says nothing about total compensation. A $12.00 job with employer health insurance can beat a $15.00 job without it. And it is a floor, not a market rate: in tight local labor markets, actual starting wages sit well above the legal minimum, which is why some states with a $7.25 floor have very few workers actually paid $7.25.

Before your next pay period

• Check the state rate, then check for a city or county ordinance that overrides it.
• Check whether your state sets a different rate by employer size or industry.
• Confirm your classification: exempt or non-exempt, and on what grounds.
• If you are tipped, confirm the cash wage plus tips reaches the applicable minimum every hour.
• Recalculate overtime per workweek, not per pay period.
• Check that any bonus or shift differential was included in the regular rate for overtime.
• Verify that deductions for uniforms, tools or shortages do not push you below the minimum.
• Keep your own hours record; it is the evidence if the payroll record is wrong.

What to watch next

Many state minimums are now indexed to inflation and rise automatically on January 1, so the ranking above shifts a little each year without any legislation. Several other states are phasing toward $15.00 on published schedules, which will compress the middle of the table. The federal $7.25 has not moved in a long time, and each year of inflation widens the gap between the federal floor and the states that set their own. Local ordinances change on their own calendars, often mid-year, so a city rate can rise in July while the state rate holds.