Minimum Wage Workers by State

Reading this table

The rows count wage and salary workers paid hourly rates: people aged 16 and over who report being paid by the hour at their main job in the Current Population Survey, about 58 percent of all wage and salary workers; salaried workers and the self-employed are outside the table. At minimum wage means an hourly rate exactly equal to the prevailing federal minimum, $7.25 since July 2009; below means a lower reported rate, which may be lawful (tipped work, full-time students, workers under 20 in their first 90 days, jobs outside FLSA coverage) or rounding in the answer; the report does not separate the reasons. Rates are before tips, overtime and commissions. Number of workers is in thousands; percent distribution is each row's share of the national total in that column; percentage of workers paid hourly rates is the share of the row's own hourly workers at or below the minimum. A state minimum above $7.25 is not counted; the minimum-wage pages give each rate. 2024 annual averages.

BLS's note under this table is the one to keep in mind: the state figures come from a sample, and the sampling error "may be quite large for less populous states", so 0.5 percent against 0.8 percent in a small state is not a reliable difference. Where the state minimum is above $7.25 (the state pages show which), almost no one is paid exactly the federal rate, so the "at" column is near zero and the count is workers reporting less, mostly tipped occupations; where the state minimum equals the federal rate or the state has none, the "at" count is larger. The region page groups these states into census regions and divisions.