What does it mean to index the minimum wage to inflation?
Indexing the minimum wage to inflation means adjusting it automatically to keep pace with the rising cost of living so that minimum wage workers do not lose purchasing power each year.
Sixteen states plus the District of Columbia have adopted laws to index their minimum wages to rise automatically with the cost of living.
Ten states currently index minimum wage increases each year: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, South Dakota, and Washington.
Six more states, plus the District of Columbia, will index minimum wage increases annually beginning in future years: Alaska (2017), Minnesota (2018), Michigan (2019), Vermont (2019), D.C. (2021), Oregon (2023), and California (2024).
The remaining states and the federal government, however, have not yet indexed their minimum wages.