Source: National Employment Law Project (NELP), Fact Sheet, July 2015

Raising the federal minimum wage to $12 by 2020 would boost hourly pay for more than 15 million workers in the 21 states where the minimum wage is $7.25. …. Twenty-nine states plus the District of Columbia currently have minimum wages higher than the federal minimum. Fourteen states, plus D.C., approved minimum wage increases in 2014. Some of the nation’s larger cities, such as Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Kansas City, Missouri, have enacted local minimum wage levels that are higher than their states’ rates. In the 21 states that have not enacted any increases in the minimum wage, however, the prospects of local legislative action to raise the minimum wage are slim, and thus, only Congressional action will provide the adequate wage standard workers deserve and need…..