Minimum-wage workers in Alaska get a raise of a full dollar an hour starting today. The state’s floor climbs from $13.00 to $14.00 on July 1 under a schedule voters approved in 2024, according to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. For someone working 40 hours a week at the minimum, that is roughly $2,080 more over a full year, before taxes.
Alaska is not alone. July 1 is the second-biggest date on the minimum-wage calendar after January 1, and this year it brings increases in Oregon and the District of Columbia as well, plus a long list of cities and counties that adjust their local floors each summer. Here is who gets a raise today, how the new numbers compare, and what to do if your paycheck does not reflect the change.
The new state rates
Alaska: $14.00. Today’s increase is the second of three steps under Ballot Measure 1, which took the wage to $13.00 in July 2025 and will take it to $15.00 in July 2027, with inflation adjustments after that. Alaska law does not allow a tip credit, so tipped workers must receive the full $14.00 from their employer before tips.
Oregon: three tiers, all up 50 cents. Oregon adjusts its minimum wage every July 1 based on inflation, and it uses three geographic tiers. As of today the standard rate is $15.55, the Portland metro rate is $16.80, and the rate for non-urban counties is $14.55, per the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries. Which tier applies depends on where the employee performs the work, not where the company is headquartered. Oregon, like Alaska, does not permit a tip credit.
District of Columbia: $18.40. The District’s minimum wage rises from $17.95 to $18.40 today under its annual indexing formula, per the DC Department of Employment Services. That keeps Washington’s floor the highest of any state-level jurisdiction in the country.
Cities and counties move today too
Beyond the three statewide changes, a substantial number of local governments time their annual adjustments to July 1, including large jurisdictions in California, Illinois, Maryland and elsewhere. Local rates can run well above the state floor, and they typically apply to anyone who performs work inside the boundary, even for an employer based somewhere else. If you work in a big city, the reliable move is to check your city or county government’s wage page directly rather than assume the state rate is the one you are owed.
The federal floor has not moved since 2009
None of today’s changes touch the federal minimum wage, which remains $7.25 an hour, where it has stood since July 2009, as the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division notes. The rule when governments overlap is simple: the employee gets the highest rate that applies. Twenty-plus states now sit above the federal floor, and the Labor Department keeps a state-by-state table of current minimums that is worth bookmarking, since the map changes at least twice a year.
What the raise looks like in a paycheck
The arithmetic is straightforward but worth doing. A dollar-an-hour increase adds $40 to a 40-hour week. Oregon’s 50-cent step adds $20 a week, or about $1,040 over a year of full-time work. The DC increase of 45 cents adds $18 a week. For part-timers, scale accordingly. Overtime pay moves too, since time-and-a-half is calculated on the worker’s regular rate; a new $14.00 base in Alaska means overtime hours must pay at least $21.00.
Employers are required to apply the new rates to hours worked starting today, not starting with the next pay period. A paycheck covering the last week of June and the first week of July should show June hours at the old rate and July hours at the new one. Employers must also update the required workplace wage posters, so the break-room notice is a quick way to confirm your company knows about the change.
Tipped workers should pay particular attention in the two states raising rates today, because neither Alaska nor Oregon allows employers to count tips toward the minimum. Every hour must be paid at the full new rate before a single tip is added. Rules for tipped pay in the District and elsewhere differ, so check the local wage office’s current notice rather than relying on last year’s numbers.
If your employer does not comply
Start by asking payroll; timing errors around a mid-year change are common and often get fixed with one conversation. If that fails, every state labor department listed above takes wage complaints, and the federal Wage and Hour Division accepts complaints about minimum-wage and overtime violations regardless of immigration status and prohibits retaliation for filing. Keep your own record of hours worked and pay stubs; a simple notebook or phone note with dates and hours is usually enough to establish a claim.
One more calendar note for workers in the rest of the country: most states that index their minimum wages adjust on January 1, and the announcements typically come in the fall. If your state sat out today’s round, the next likely raise date is six months away, and the state table above will show the new figure as soon as it is set.
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