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.

Graph and download economic data for State Minimum Wage Rate for California (STTMINWGCA) from 1968 to 2025 about minimum wage, wages, CA, rate, and USA.

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.

Graph and download economic data for State Minimum Wage Rate for Ohio (STTMINWGOH) from 1968 to 2025 about minimum wage, OH, wages, rate, and USA.

Graph and download economic data for State Minimum Wage Rate for Washington (STTMINWGWA) from 1968 to 2025 about minimum wage, WA, wages, rate, and USA.

This data archive consists of a digitized database of all of India's daily minimum wages across states and detailed industries for the years 1983, 1985/86, 1993, 1998, 2004, and 2006. These data are otherwise only available on paper and/or pdf documents. The data are provided as Excel and Stata files, including aggregate codes by broad industry group that the principal investigators assigned during their research.

State Minimum Wage Rate for Ohio was 10.70000 $ per Hour in January of 2025, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, State Minimum Wage Rate for Ohio reached a record high of 10.70000 in January of 2025 and a record low of 1.25000 in January of 1969. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for State Minimum Wage Rate for Ohio - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on December of 2025.

Minimum Wages in the United States remained unchanged at 7.25 USD/Hour in 2025 from 7.25 USD/Hour in 2024. This dataset provides - United States Minimum Wages- actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

Comprehensive dataset of minimum wage rates, overtime rules, and labor law exceptions for all U.S. states and territories for 2025.

Graph and download economic data for Federal Minimum Hourly Wage for Nonfarm Workers for the United States (FEDMINNFRWG) from Oct 1938 to Aug 2025 about per hour, minimum wage, nonfarm, workers, hours, federal, wages, and USA.

When adjusted for inflation, the 2024 federal minimum wage in the United States is over 40 percent lower than the minimum wage in 1970. Although the real dollar minimum wage in 1970 was only 1.60 U.S. dollars, when expressed in nominal 2024 dollars this increases to 13.05 U.S. dollars. This is a significant difference from the federal minimum wage in 2024 of 7.25 U.S. dollars.

Wages in the United States increased to 31.46 USD/Hour in August from 31.34 USD/Hour in July of 2025. This dataset provides - United States Average Hourly Wages - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

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.

This feature layer consists of the contiguous United States and District of Columbia, with Alaska and Hawaii. It comprises state minimum wage data for 2018, as well as historical data since 1968, and future data where available. The data was compiled from the U.S. Department of Labor, the National Conference of State Legislatures, and the U.C. Berkeley Labor Center, with living wage data from MIT's Living Wage Calculator. This layer uses the composite geographies layout to position Alaska and Hawaii adjacent to the contiguous United States.Attributes:

Field Name Unit Description

PeakMW Nominal dollar value Highest minimum wage value planned to be reached in future years (2019-2022)

PeakYR Year The year that the highest minimum wage value is planned to be reached (2019-2022)

DiffPeak2018 Nominal dollar value (difference) The difference between the peak minimum wage and the 2018 minimum wage (PeakMW - DiffPeak2018)

MW2018 Nominal dollar value 2018 state minimum wage

Increase2017 Nominal dollar value (difference) The difference between the 2018 minimum wage and the 2017 minimum wage (MW2018 - MW2017)

Increase2000 2017 dollar value (difference) The difference between the 2018 minimum wage and the 2000 minimum wage (MW2018-MW2000)

Effective2018 Nominal dollar value The minimum wage effective in 2018. For states with minimum wages below the federal minimum wage of $7.25, or for states that have no minimum wage requirement, the federal minimum wage applies.

LV2016 Nominal dollar value 2016 living wage for a single adult at the state level

DiffMWLV Nominal dollar value (difference) The difference between the 2018 minimum wage and the 2016 living wage

CurrentMW Category The type of minimum wage policy in place at the state level

PoliciesMW Text When a state has an indexed minimum wage, the type of policy is described here

Update2018 Category Yes = the state implemented an update to its minimum wage in 2018; No = no policy update in 2018

MW2017 Nominal dollar value 2017 minimum wage

MW2016 2017 dollar value 2016 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW2015 2017 dollar value 2015 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW2014 2017 dollar value 2014 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW2013 2017 dollar value 2013 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW2012 2017 dollar value 2012 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW2011 2017 dollar value 2011 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW2010 2017 dollar value 2010 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW2009 2017 dollar value 2009 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW2008 2017 dollar value 2008 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW2007 2017 dollar value 2007 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW2006 2017 dollar value 2006 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW2005 2017 dollar value 2005 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW2004 2017 dollar value 2004 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW2003 2017 dollar value 2003 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW2002 2017 dollar value 2002 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW2001 2017 dollar value 2001 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW2000 2017 dollar value 2000 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW1998 2017 dollar value 1998 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW1997 2017 dollar value 1997 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW1996 2017 dollar value 1996 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW1994 2017 dollar value 1994 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW1992 2017 dollar value 1992 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW1991 2017 dollar value 1991 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW1988 2017 dollar value 1988 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW1981 2017 dollar value 1981 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW1980 2017 dollar value 1980 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW1979 2017 dollar value 1979 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW1976 2017 dollar value 1976 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW1972 2017 dollar value 1972 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW1970 2017 dollar value 1970 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

MW1968 2017 dollar value 1968 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars

State Minimum Wage Rate for Arkansas was 11.00000 $ per Hour in January of 2025, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, State Minimum Wage Rate for Arkansas reached a record high of 11.00000 in January of 2021 and a record low of 1.10000 in January of 1971. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for State Minimum Wage Rate for Arkansas - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on October of 2025.

New York State Minimum Wage - Historical chart and current data through 2025.

This web map, used in The Ever-Changing Minimum Wage Story Map Journal, comprises a selection of feature layers that provide an overview of minimum wages and policies for the 50 U.S. states, District of Columbia, and 36 other localities (counties, cities). Essential data points include minimum wages effective in 2018, historical state minimum wages from 1968 through 2017 (adjusted for inflation to 2017 dollars), comparative data with state living wages (2016 update), and benchmarks for future minimum wages where available. This data was digitized and compiled from the U.S. Department of Labor, the National Conference on State Legislatures, the U.C. Berkeley Labor Center, and MIT's Living Wage Calculator.The styling for this web map uses the composite geographies layout with a dark gray background. Composite geographies are a customized solution created by Esri's David Asbury in order to position Alaska and Hawaii adjacent to the contiguous United States within a Web Mercator projection web map. The dark theme is achieved with a dark gray feature layer that serves as a background to mask out the default background. For more information about using composite geographies, read this blog.

Graph and download economic data for State Minimum Wage Rate for Vermont (STTMINWGVT) from 1968 to 2025 about VT, minimum wage, wages, rate, and USA.

State Minimum Wage Rate for Georgia was 7.25000 $ per Hour in January of 2023, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, State Minimum Wage Rate for Georgia reached a record high of 7.25000 in January of 2019 and a record low of 1.23000 in January of 1979. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for State Minimum Wage Rate for Georgia - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on December of 2025.

Minimum Wages in Egypt increased to 7000 EGP/Month in 2025 from 6000 EGP/Month in 2024. This dataset provides - Egypt Minimum Wages- actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.