Both the public and private sectors continue the trend of pushing minimum wage upwards, with federal contractors passing the $11 mark in 2022 and cities like Santa Fe pushing to $15 for hourly city workers. On the private side, supply-and-demand remains a motivating force, as with Walmart edging up to $12 per hour and Walgreens forecasting $15 per hour by November 2022.
Elsewhere, Democratic Kentucky lawmakers want to more than double the state’s existing hourly minimum wage over the next five years. This type of plan is already in place in Florida, where labor shortages keep pushing wages up across the board, a move that outpaces the required incremental increases that will reach the $15 mark by 2026.
