US: Workers in 20 states are set to receive wage hike in 2021

Workers in 20 states in the U.S. will start receiving bigger paychecks this year. The new payout could be a New Year gift that employees will surely appreciate, especially in this time of the pandemic.

It was reported that as soon as Jan. 1, most of the low-wage workers in some states across the U.S. will get more pay as the minimum wages were adjusted to higher rates. The pay hike is an effort to help people with the altered cost of living today.

Wage increase - Here’s how much the workers will get

As per Fox News, Illinois, California, Maryland, and Connecticut are included in the list with approved wage increases. Workes can get as high as t $15 per hour. In New Mexico, the government upped the minimum salary by $1.50, which is from $9 to $10.50.

California will also give a $1 increase in the workers’ hourly wage, and this is said to be the highest increase in the country. In fact, in Minnesota, they will only offer an $.8 cents increase.

Since 2009, the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour did not change until now. Thus, with the 20 states giving pay raises, the $7.25 per hour was made into the default minimum baseline.

List of states approved for wage hike this 2021

So far, the 20 states that have been approved for wage hike this year include Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, South Dakota, Vermont, and Washington.

Some of these states have implemented wage increases years before, but the new hike is more significant because many of the low-wage workers were hit hard by the COVID-19 crisis. As the pandemic continues, housing and food have become a problem for most families as incomes have plummeted. Apparently, the low-wage earners were the most affected in the economic fallout.

"We have lots of low-wage, service workers who are working through the Covid crisis, and this will be a very welcome boost for them. A lot of families are struggling right now in this crisis," CNN News quoted Ken Jacobs, head of the Center for Labor Research and Education at the University of California-Berkeley, as saying.

Research economist at the Economic Policy Institute, Ben Zipperer, added, "Redistributing money towards the lowest-paid workers is a smart policy this will help the shortfall in consumer demand our economy faces right now."