Six states have now published an official minimum wage rate for January 1, 2027, using six different inflation formulas and six different announcement dates spread between mid-August and mid-September 2026. Rhode Island’s rate, set directly in state statute rather than tied to an index, rises to $17.00 an hour. The other five range from California’s $17.40 down to Minnesota’s $11.87, and every one of the six increases takes effect without any new legislation — each was already written into law, a constitutional formula, or a voter-approved measure years earlier.
Rhode Island’s Statute Puts It At $17.00
Rhode Island’s minimum wage climbs on a fixed statutory schedule that state lawmakers set years in advance, rather than an inflation index that changes every year. The state’s current wage is $16.00 an hour as of January 1, 2026, with the next step already written into law.
The Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training publishes the full schedule under Rhode Island General Law §28-12, which has raised the wage a dollar a year since 2023: from $13.00 in 2023 to $14.00 in 2024, $15.00 in 2025, $16.00 in 2026 and $17.00 commencing January 1, 2027. Because the increases are written directly into statute, the department doesn’t need to issue an annual announcement the way inflation-indexed states do — the 2027 number has effectively been public since the law passed.
The same department page lists related 2026 figures that move in step with the flat schedule: tipped workers receive a minimum cash wage of $12.11 an hour, the $16.00 rate minus a $3.89 tip credit, and 14- and 15-year-olds working 24 hours or fewer a week earn 75% of the adult rate, or $12.00 an hour. Because those figures are set as percentages of the standard minimum wage, they are expected to rise again once the $17.00 rate takes effect, though the department’s page does not yet list the specific 2027 amounts.
Inside the guide: Eleven benefit programs, the 2026 income limits and a 50-state phone directory, with a printable tracker that comes with the download. Open The Benefits Checklist.
California, Maine And Colorado Follow Different Formulas
California’s rate rises to $17.40 an hour on January 1, 2027, the state’s Department of Industrial Relations announced August 13, 2026, after the state’s Department of Finance certified the increase under California’s inflation-adjustment law that same summer. The new rate also lifts the minimum annual salary threshold for overtime-exempt employees to $72,384.
Maine’s rate moves from $15.10 to $15.70 an hour, the Maine Department of Labor announced September 18, 2026, tied to a 4.1% rise in the Northeast region’s Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners between August 2025 and August 2026. The same announcement sets Maine’s minimum salary threshold for a worker to be exempt from overtime at $905.79 a week, or $47,101.08 a year, starting January 1, 2027 — a figure tied to the same statutory formula that sets the state’s hourly rate. Colorado’s rate reaches $15.71 an hour, a 3.6% increase from $15.16 the state’s Department of Labor and Employment announced August 13, 2026, calculated under a formula written into the Colorado constitution — a 41.5% climb from the state’s 2019 minimum of $11.10.
Colorado’s release also notes that Denver has separately announced its own 2027 local minimum wage will reach $19.84 an hour, more than four dollars above the state floor, and that other Colorado localities set their own rates by local ordinance. The state agency says it will keep updating its website as more localities confirm 2027 numbers.
Michigan And Minnesota Round Out The List
Michigan’s minimum wage reaches $15.00 an hour on January 1, 2027, under Senate Bill 8, which the state’s Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity confirms took effect after a February 2025 change to the state’s phased wage increases. Minnesota’s rate rises to $11.87 an hour, a 3.99% adjustment the state’s Department of Labor and Industry announced August 19, 2026, with the training wage for workers under 20 rising to $9.68.
Minnesota’s statewide figure sits well below the other five because it applies only outside Minneapolis and St. Paul, where separate city ordinances already run far higher; Minneapolis’s own 2027 rate is set to reach $17.02 an hour under its local ordinance, a number the state agency’s release treats as separate from the statewide figure.
States Still Missing From The 2027 Table
Several other states adjust their minimum wage every year but hadn’t published a 2027 figure as of late September 2026. Washington and New York typically announce by late September or early October, and Nebraska’s schedule points to mid-October; Arizona’s Industrial Commission had posted only 2025 and 2026 wage posters, with nothing yet listed for 2027. Ohio, Connecticut, Vermont, Montana and New Jersey also adjust annually but hadn’t released next year’s numbers either. Any chart claiming to show every state’s 2027 rate before these states publish is filling gaps with this year’s figures rather than confirmed ones.
That gap matters for anyone comparing pay across a state line: a worker or employer near a border may see one side confirm its 2027 number weeks before the other side does, and no single federal page aggregates all fifty states’ minimum wage announcements as they’re issued. Each of the six confirmed states published its own number on its own timetable, and the remaining states will do the same over the next several weeks.
What A Higher Minimum Wage Doesn’t Answer
A wage increase changes what shows up on a pay stub, but it says nothing about which benefit programs phase out just above the new minimum, or which ones stay available even after the raise is factored in. States finalize their wage tables months before most workers see a program eligibility notice reflecting the change, leaving a gap between the new paycheck and the math on programs tied to income.
The Benefits Checklist is a 69-page guide covering 11 benefit programs and the 2026 income limits used to check where a new hourly rate lands relative to each one.
Look up the 2026 income limits in The Benefits Checklist.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor. Figures are linked to their primary sources.
