what's the highest minimum wage in the united states
Minimum wage in the United States Beginning in January 2017, Massachusetts and Washington state have the highest minimum wages in the country, at $11.00 per hour.[2] New York City's minimum wage will be $15.00 per hour by the end of 2018.[3] There is a racial difference for support of a higher minimum wage with most black and Hispanic individuals supporting a $15.00 federal minimum wage, and 54% of whites opposing it.[4] In 2015, about 3 percent of White, Asian, and Hispanic or Latino workers earned the federal minimum wage or less. Among Black workers, the percentage was about 4 percent.[5]
Wage Seventy-five million workers earned hourly wages in the United States in 2012, making up 59% of employees.[9] In the United States, wages for most workers are set by market forces, or else by collective bargaining, where a labor union negotiates on the workers' behalf. The Fair Labor Standards Act establishes a minimum wage at the federal level that all states must abide by, among other provisions. Fourteen states and a number of cities have set their own minimum wage rates that are higher than the federal level. For certain federal or state government contacts, employers must pay the so-called prevailing wage as determined according to the Davis-Bacon Act or its state equivalent. Activists have undertaken to promote the idea of a living wage rate which account for living expenses and other basic necessities, setting the living wage rate much higher than current minimum wage laws require. The minimum wage rate is there to protect the well being of the working class.[10]