Blue states set to trigger fresh minimum wage hikes with pay floors more than double federal rate

Workers across several Democratic-led states are set to ring in 2027 with another pay bump, widening an already sizable gap between state minimum wages and the federal floor of $7.25 an hour.

Washington, California and Connecticut will all raise minimum wages that already top $17 an hour beginning Jan. 1, while New Jersey and Michigan will also hike their wage floors — widening the gap with the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour. 

Washington will lead the pack at $17.73 an hour, up 60 cents from its current $17.13 rate. Connecticut’s minimum wage will rise from $16.94 to $17.48, while California’s will climb from $16.90 to $17.40.

New Jersey will increase its minimum wage by 56 cents to $16.48 an hour for most workers, while Michigan is slated for one of the largest jumps, rising from $13.73 to $15 an hour.

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The hikes come as several Republican-led states have also pushed their wage floors well above the federal rate, though they remain below the highest-paying blue states. Florida’s minimum wage reached $15 an hour on Sept. 30 and will remain there through the end of 2027, while Missouri is also at $15. Nebraska will increase its minimum wage from $15 to $15.26 on Jan. 1.

Washington’s statewide increase will come as Seattle pushes its own wage floor even higher. The city’s minimum wage is slated to rise to $22.14 an hour in 2027, nearly $4.50 above the new statewide rate.

Seattle’s wage requirements have also become a flashpoint in the debate over the costs facing local businesses. Beginning in 2025, all employers in the city, including small businesses, became subject to the same inflation-adjusted minimum wage. Some restaurant owners who later closed their businesses cited rising labor costs among the financial pressures they faced.

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Washington’s minimum wage is tied to inflation under state law, with the wage floor recalculated each year rather than requiring lawmakers to approve a new increase.

Washington voters approved a measure in 1998 that raised the minimum wage and, beginning in 2001, tied future increases to inflation.

Voters approved another measure in 2016 that set wage increases through 2020. Since 2021, the minimum wage has again risen annually with inflation, with the goal of keeping workers’ pay in step with rising prices.

Each September, the Washington Department of Labor & Industries calculates the following year’s rate based on changes in the CPI-W. The new rate is announced Sept. 30 and takes effect Jan. 1.

“Democrats appear to be doing everything they can to make the business climate in Washington more untenable,” Seattle Red host and conservative commentator Jason Rantz told Fox News Digital.

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“It’s not just the high cost of labor — Seattle is now going to be over $22 an hour — but it’s the high crime, open-air drug use, new income tax that targets pass-through businesses, and over regulation that make operating businesses more difficult than it should be,” Rantz said.

“Our unemployment rate is higher than the national average and we’re losing tech jobs left and right,” he added. “Democrats have no answers. They’re just making their problems worse.”

The wage hike comes as Washington’s unemployment rate reached 4.9% in August, above the 4.1% national rate and up from 4.6% a year earlier, according to the state Employment Security Department.

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Washington also lost an estimated 900 jobs that month, including 2,300 information-sector positions, while professional and business services employment was down 13,100 jobs from a year earlier.

Angela Rosen, who founded Penelope and the Beauty Bar and operates three Seattle spas, told Rantz that her therapists already make more than minimum wage, but said higher labor costs have squeezed support positions instead.

“I had to cut my front desk,” Rosen told The Jason Rantz Show, according to Seattle Red. Rantz reported that the move eliminated 12 shifts per week across two smaller locations.