By Andrew Miller
The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. That number hasn’t changed since 2009.
Last month, four House Democrats introduced a bill that would raise it to $25 an hour.
The Living Wage for All Act has a two-track phase-in: large employers with over 500 employees or more than $1 billion in annual gross revenue would need to comply by 2031. Small businesses would have until 2038 to adjust.
In addition to raising the minimum wage, the bill would eliminate all subminimum wages. These include tipped workers, youth workers, and workers with disabilities. All would receive a full wage, with no exceptions.
Of course, the federal minimum wage is simply a starting place. Other states and even some cities have local minimum wages well beyond $7.25 an hour. Los Angeles will update their minimum wage to $18.42 on July 1, 2026. It’s been slowly ticking up since 2021. New Jersey just increased theirs to $15.92 on January 1.
In addition, some areas have plans in place to account for inflation. For example, Florida’s minimum wage was set to $14 an hour last September. On September 30, 2026, Florida’s minimum wage will reach $15 an hour and then be adjusted annually for inflation starting in 2027.
Meanwhile, New York City is weighing a proposal to raise the local minimum wage to $30 an hour by 2030. NYC has steadily risen the minimum wage each year, which currently sits at $17 an hour.
The bill hasn’t passed, and may not. But with state and local wage floors already climbing, small business owners don’t have the luxury of waiting on Congress to figure out what rising labor costs mean for their margins.
P.S. Rising labor costs affect more than just payroll, they affect how you structure capital, plan for growth, and think about financing. At Signet Capital Group, we help business owners think through exactly that. Let’s talk.