The federally mandated minimum wage in the United States is 7.25 U.S. dollars per hour, although the minimum wage varies from state to state. As of January 1, 2025, the District of Columbia had the highest minimum wage in the U.S., at 17.5 U.S. dollars per hour. This was followed by Washington, which had 16.66 U.S. dollars per hour as the state minimum wage. Minimum wage workers Minimum wage jobs are traditionally seen as “starter jobs” in the U.S., or first jobs for teenagers and young adults, and the number of people working minimum wage jobs has decreased from almost four million in 1979 to about 247,000 in 2020. However, the number of workers earning less than minimum wage in 2020 was significantly higher, at about 865,000. Minimum wage jobs Minimum wage jobs are primarily found in food preparation and serving occupations, as well as sales jobs (primarily in retail). Because the minimum wage has not kept up with inflation, nor has it been increased since 2009, it is becoming harder and harder live off of a minimum wage wage job, and for those workers to afford essential things like rent.

In 2025, the minimum hourly wage in Beijing was the highest in China at 26.4 yuan per hour. In the past decade, China has been shifting from a cheap labor driven economy to more matured, service-oriented markets and industries. While the economy continues to grow, prices and wages keep on increasing as well. How do wages differ across the country? China’s provinces and municipalities are divided into districts of different levels. Most provinces set different minimum wages for different districts depending on the cost of living and level of development. Usually, provincial capitals and major cities enjoy higher hourly wages than smaller towns and rural areas of the same province. In 2025, the highest minimum hourly wages in China were to be found in Beijing and Tianjin municipalities with 26.4 and 24.4 yuan respectively, whereas employees in Hainan province who received a minimum wage were paid the least – between 16.3 and 17.9 yuan per hour. Minimum monthly wages that year were the highest in Shanghai and the lowest in Qinghai province. The average annual salary in urban China was around 120,700 yuan in 2023. What are the prospects? Regional governments in China are required to update their minimum wages at least every few years. Hebei, Fujian, and Guangdong – provinces that have not adjusted minimum wages in the past two years – are likely to do so in 2025. Along with economic development, increasing living standards, increasing prices and a shrinking labor force, overall minimum wages will likely continue growing in China.

Content

Data was pulled from a table in the following Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population I used Microsoft Excel's PowerQuery function to pull the table from Wikipedia. Lists each city, its rank (based on 2020 population), some data on its area, and population in both 2020 and 2010.

Living wages are based in US Dollars per hour, assuming 2080 hours worked per year.

In addition, living wage data from http://livingwage.mit.edu I left out the minimum wage from this dataset because it appears the data is somewhat inconsistent, and often falls back on the state minimum where localities can have a higher min wage. I also omitted the poverty wage data because for the most part it seemed to be the same for most areas. One last thing to keep in mind is some cities are grouped up into metropolitan statistical areas, and as a result you will see cities that are near each other have identical data.

Banner image source: https://unsplash.com/photos/wh-7GeXxItI

Wages in the United States increased to 31.24 USD/Hour in June from 31.15 USD/Hour in May of 2025. This dataset provides - United States Average Hourly Wages - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

Analysis of ‘Living Wage - Top 100 Cities’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://www.kaggle.com/brandonconrady/living-wage-top-100-cities on 28 January 2022.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

Content

Data was pulled from a table in the following Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population I used Microsoft Excel's PowerQuery function to pull the table from Wikipedia. Lists each city, its rank (based on 2020 population), some data on its area, and population in both 2020 and 2010.

Living wages are based in US Dollars per hour, assuming 2080 hours worked per year.

In addition, living wage data from http://livingwage.mit.edu I left out the minimum wage from this dataset because it appears the data is somewhat inconsistent, and often falls back on the state minimum where localities can have a higher min wage. I also omitted the poverty wage data because for the most part it seemed to be the same for most areas. One last thing to keep in mind is some cities are grouped up into metropolitan statistical areas, and as a result you will see cities that are near each other have identical data.

Banner image source: https://unsplash.com/photos/wh-7GeXxItI

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

The minimum wage per day guaranteed by law in Mexico was decreed to increase by approximately 12 percent between 2024 and 2025, reaching 278.8 Mexican pesos in 2025. The Northern Free Zone located near the northern border was the exception, where the minimum daily wage increased to 419.88 Mexican pesos. Education and income disparity The income distribution is entirely a new story than minimum wages, in fact, there are many factors that influence the level of salaries for Mexican workers. One of the main differences is by the number of schooling years, someone with more than 18 years of study earns on average double than employees with seven to nine years. Moreover, the area of study, while statistics and finance mean salaries, the highest wages by degree, are above 30,000 Mexican pesos per month, others such as performing arts and theology rank as the lowest paying degrees in Mexico.
Poverty still among the main problems
Despite one of the main reasons for minimum wage increases being moving people out from poverty conditions, poverty continues to be one of the main problems Mexican society faces. The number of people living under poverty conditions has decreased by 8.54 million inhabitants from 2014 to 2022, nonetheless, the figure is still higher than 46.5 million. The poverty rate varies among states, with Chiapas leading the ranking with 67.4 percent of the population under such conditions, while both Baja California and Baja California Sur recorded less than 14 percent.

Of the most populous cities in the U.S., San Jose, California had the highest annual income requirement at ******* U.S. dollars annually for homeowners to have an affordable and comfortable life in 2024. This can be compared to Houston, Texas, where homeowners needed an annual income of ****** U.S. dollars in 2024.

The monthly minimum wage in Russia as of January 1, 2025, amounted to ****** Russian rubles, or approximately *** U.S. dollars using the exchange rate as of February 28, 2025. In the capital Moscow, it was set at ****** Russian rubles, or around *** U.S. dollars. In the country's second-largest city, Saint Petersburg, it was lower, at ****** Russian rubles. Since 2021, the minimum wage in Russia has been calculated as 42 percent of the median wage. Between 2018 and 2020, it equaled to the minimum cost of living that was set in the country. The poor and the rich in Russia Around ** million residents lived under the poverty line in Russia. Those earning the highest 20 percent of income accounted for approximately ** percent of the total composite monetary income in 2023, while the group with the lowest income had a ***-percent share. Regional disparities The economic disparity was also observed across Russian federal subjects. The median monthly wage ranged from ****** Russian rubles in the Kabardino-Balkaria Republic to ****** Russian rubles in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug between September 2018 and August 2019. Minimum wage thresholds can be regulated by regional authorities, as long as they are not lower than the federal minimum wage.

Analysis of ‘US Minimum Wage by State from 1968 to 2020’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://www.kaggle.com/lislejoem/us-minimum-wage-by-state-from-1968-to-2017 on 12 November 2021.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

US Minimum Wage by State from 1968 to 2020

The Basics

• What is this? In the United States, states and the federal government set minimum hourly pay ("minimum wage") that workers can receive to ensure that citizens experience a minimum quality of life. This dataset provides the minimum wage data set by each state and the federal government from 1968 to 2020.

• Why did you put this together? While looking online for a clean dataset for minimum wage data by state, I was having trouble finding one. I decided to create one myself and provide it to the community.

• Who do we thank for this data? The United States Department of Labor compiles a table of this data on their website. I took the time to clean it up and provide it here for you. :) The GitHub repository (with R Code for the cleaning process) can be found here!

Content

This is a cleaned dataset of US state and federal minimum wages from 1968 to 2020 (including 2020 equivalency values). The data was scraped from the United States Department of Labor's table of minimum wage by state.

Description of Data

The values in the dataset are as follows: - Year: The year of the data. All minimum wage values are as of January 1 except 1968 and 1969, which are as of February 1. - State: The state or territory of the data. - State.Minimum.Wage: The actual State's minimum wage on January 1 of Year. - State.Minimum.Wage.2020.Dollars: The State.Minimum.Wage in 2020 dollars. - Federal.Minimum.Wage: The federal minimum wage on January 1 of Year. - Federal.Minimum.Wage.2020.Dollars: The Federal.Minimum.Wage in 2020 dollars. - Effective.Minimum.Wage: The minimum wage that is enforced in State on January 1 of Year. Because the federal minimum wage takes effect if the State's minimum wage is lower than the federal minimum wage, this is the higher of the two. - Effective.Minimum.Wage.2020.Dollars: The Effective.Minimum.Wage in 2020 dollars. - CPI.Average: The average value of the Consumer Price Index in Year. When I pulled the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, I selected the dataset with "all items in U.S. city average, all urban consumers, not seasonally adjusted". - Department.Of.Labor.Uncleaned.Data: The unclean, scraped value from the Department of Labor's website. - Department.Of.Labor.Cleaned.Low.Value: The State's lowest enforced minimum wage on January 1 of Year. If there is only one minimum wage, this and the value for Department.Of.Labor.Cleaned.High.Value are identical. (Some states enforce different minimum wage laws depending on the size of the business. In states where this is the case, generally, smaller businesses have slightly lower minimum wage requirements.) - Department.Of.Labor.Cleaned.Low.Value.2020.Dollars: The Department.Of.Labor.Cleaned.Low.Value in 2020 dollars. - Department.Of.Labor.Cleaned.High.Value: The State's higher enforced minimum wage on January 1 of Year. If there is only one minimum wage, this and the value for Department.Of.Labor.Cleaned.Low.Value are identical. - Department.Of.Labor.Cleaned.High.Value.2020.Dollars: The Department.Of.Labor.Cleaned.High.Value in 2020 dollars. - Footnote: The footnote provided on the Department of Labor's website. See more below.

Data Footnotes

As laws differ significantly from territory to territory, especially relating to whom is protected by minimum wage laws, the following footnotes are located throughout the data in Footnote to add more context to the minimum wage. The original footnotes can be found here.

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

This table contains data on the living wage and the percent of families with incomes below the living wage for California, its counties, regions and cities/towns. Living wage is the wage needed to cover basic family expenses (basic needs budget) plus all relevant taxes; it does not include publicly provided income or housing assistance. The percent of families below the living wage was calculated using data from the Living Wage Calculator and the U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey. The table is part of a series of indicators in the Healthy Communities Data and Indicators Project of the Office of Health Equity. The living wage is the wage or annual income that covers the cost of the bare necessities of life for a worker and his/her family. These necessities include housing, transportation, food, childcare, health care, and payment of taxes. Low income populations and non-white race/ethnic have disproportionately lower wages, poorer housing, and higher levels of food insecurity. More information about the data table and a data dictionary can be found in the About/Attachments section.

Minimum Wages in Philippines remained unchanged at 645 PHP/day in 2025 from 645 PHP/day in 2024. This dataset provides - Philippines Minimum Wages- actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

In 2024, households in California needed an hourly wage of over 47 U.S. dollars to afford the rent of a two-bedroom apartment. Massachusetts had the second-least affordable two-bedroom apartments, as a household would have to earn at least around 45 U.S. dollars per hour in order to afford rent payments. These figures are considerably higher than the average minimum wage in place in many states. There was no state in which a minimum wage worker could afford rent for the average two-bedroom apartment, if they only worked 40 hours a week. Where are the least affordable counties and metros? The least affordable rents were predominately in Californian counties and metropolitan areas in 2024. District of Columbia has one of the highest minimum wages in the country, which stood at 17 U.S. dollars per hour as of January 2024. Thus, the affordability of two-bedroom apartments highlights how disproportionately high housing costs are in the state.

The National Football League is one of the most lucrative leagues in the world, with big sponsorship deals and high TV ratings to match. The players within the NFL are compensated handsomely for being part of one of the biggest leagues in the world. The highest paid player in the NFL in 2025 was Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs, whose annual salary cap in 2025 was just over 66 million U.S. dollars. Quarterbacks earn the big bucks The quarterback is widely considered the most important role in football, given that the player is the middle of almost all possession on the offensive end and is the main decision-maker on the pitch. With such a decisive role, it is no wonder that quarterbacks dominate the list of highest paid players in the NFL. Although Patrick Mahomes led the way in terms of base salary in the league, Lamar Jackson was able to secure a more lucrative long-term deal. The Baltimore Ravens quarterback earned 86.3 million U.S. dollars through his salary, as well as an additional 14 million U.S. dollars bonuses and endorsements. Elsewhere, Aaron Rodgers, the quarterback with the seventh-highest passing yards in NFL history, earned nine million U.S. dollars off the field through sponsorship deals with the likes of Adidas and State Farm. High and lows of NFL salaries As with many American professional sports leagues, the NFL has a minimum annual player salary in place. In 2025, this annual salary stood at 840 thousand U.S. dollars, although the stars on every team are in line to earn much more. Meanwhile, the NFL salary cap for 2025 stood at just over 279 million U.S. dollars. This cap is put in place in order to maintain the competitive nature of the league and to stop franchises buying their way to success.

Average hourly and weekly wage rate, and median hourly and weekly wage rate by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), type of work, gender, and age group.

China is the largest labor force market in the world. China’s economic prosperity wouldn’t exist without the large number of people working in this country. With increasing living standards and growing inflation, the wages of employees in China are increasing as well. As of 2022, average wages in China increased to ******* yuan from ****** yuan in 2012. Wage gap between regions The wages vary in China depending on sector, position, gender and region like in any other country. Since China’s different regions have developed unequally, the wage gaps between people working in different regions can also be very large. This is a reason for no single minimum wage being set for the entire nation. The local governments set minimum wages based on local living standards. Considering the city tier, the wage standards are higher in cities with higher rankings. ******** and ******* have the highest minimum wage standards in China. Although the minimum wages in China have been increasing, the standards are still lower than in developed countries. Challenges of increasing labor costs Increasing wages also make the labor force market less attractive. Affected by increasing labor costs and the China-United States trade war, many companies are transferring their investment destinations, especially in the manufacturing sector. Local governments are also taking measures to ensure the living costs remain at a reasonable level to retain companies and employees. These measures include regulating the residential housing market more strictly.

According to a recent study, Colombia had the lowest monthly cost of living in Latin America with 546 U.S. dollars needed for basic living. In contrast, four countries had a cost of living above one thousand dollars, Costa Rica, Chile, Panama and Uruguay. In 2022, the highest minimum wage in the region was recorded by Ecuador with 425 dollars per month.

Can Latin Americans survive on a minimum wage? Even if most countries in Latin America have instated laws to guarantee citizens a basic income, these minimum standards are often not enough to meet household needs. For instance, it was estimated that almost 22 million people in Mexico lacked basic housing services. Salary levels also vary greatly among Latin American economies. In 2022, the average net monthly salary in Brazil was lower than Ecuador's minimum wage.

What can a minimum wage afford in Latin America? Latin American real wages have generally risen in the past decade. However, consumers in this region still struggle to afford non-basic goods, such as tech products. Recent estimates reveal that, in order to buy an iPhone, Brazilian residents would have to work more than two months to be able to pay for it. A gaming console, on the other hand, could easily cost a Latin American worker several minimum wages.

Uruguay was the Latin American country with the highest average monthly salary as of 2024, with a net value of around ***** U.S. dollars per month, followed by Costa Rica, with *** U.S. dollars per month. Employment development areas in Latin America Following the recuperation in this sector after the job losses endured throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the unemployment rate persists in its endeavor to stabilize. Informal employment remains as the predominant actor across most Latin American countries, serving as a primary avenue for economic sustenance. Notably, the construction sector has experienced substantial growth, outpacing other relevant industries like tourism and hospitality. Poverty Throughout the past two decades, poverty levels in Latin America remain unchanged. Honduras takes the lead as the country bearing the highest poverty rate, with nearly half of its population dwelling in these circumstances. Across the region, the prevalent delineation is that of individuals classified within the non-extreme and lower-middle poverty strata, characterized by modest income levels.

In 2022, about 40 percent of adults in Mexico held a net worth under 10,000 U.S. dollars. In contrast, merely 393,000 Mexicans (that is, 0.4 percent of the total) had a net worth of over one million U.S. dollars. Mexico is one of the most unequal countries in Latin America regarding wealth distribution, with 78.7 percent of the national wealth held by the richest ten percent of the population.

The minimum salaryThe minimum wage per day guaranteed by law in Mexico was decreed to increase by 22 percent between 2021 and 2022, reaching 172.87 Mexican pesos in 2022. In the Free Zone located near the northern border the minimum daily wage was raised to 260.34 Mexican pesos.This represented the fourth consecutive incrase since 2019, but could prove to be insufficient to maintain the wellbeing of Mexican workers after the soaring inflation rate registered in 2022 and the economic impact of the COVID-19 in Mexican households. The legal minimum salary has a long history in the North American country, it was first implemented with the approval of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States in 1917. Income inequality in Latin AmericaLatin America, as other developing regions in the world, generally records high rates of inequality, with a Gini coefficient ranging between 38 and 54 among the region’s countries. Moreover, many of the countries with the biggest inequality in income distribution worldwide are found in Latin America. According to the Human Development Report 2019, wealth redistribution by means of tax transfers improves Latin America's Gini coefficient to a lesser degree than it does in advanced economies. Wider access to education and health services, on the other hand, have been proven to have a greater direct effect in improving Gini coefficient measurements in the region.

This statistic shows the average working time required to buy one Big Mac in selected cities around the world in 2018. In Nairobi, the average worker had to work for about ***** minutes to be able to purchase a Big Mac. The average wages garnered in select countries around the world based on purchasing power can be accessed here. Additional information on the Big Mac Index The Big Mac index is a tongue-in-cheek measure of purchasing power parity (PPP) created by The Economist. The index gained global attention among economists and other analysts of global economic conditions due to its relative degree of accuracy in predicting purchasing power parity among countries. In attempting to include wage differentials rankings that seek to measure how fast one can earn the money required to purchase a Big Mac incorporate average wages. In theory, the result should correlate to the ranking of average world wages adjusted for PPP. The Big Mac index is open to criticism as it is unable to take certain factors that may result in the price of a Big Mac fluctuating between countries. For example, the hospitality industry, including McDonalds, tends to employ large numbers of people on or close to the minimum wage. This is shown by the percentage of workers paid hourly rates with earnings at or below the minimum wage in the U.S., by industry. As a result differing levels of the minimum wage may lead McDonalds to charge a comparably higher amount for a Big Mac in that country.