Alabama
none

Alaska
$8.75
$9.75 eff. 1-1-16
Indexed annual increases begin Jan. 1, 2017. (2014 ballot measure)
American Samoa
varies 1

Arizona
$8.05

Rate increased annually based on cost of living. (Ballot measure 2006)
Arkansas
$7.50
$8.00 eff. 1-1-16
$8.50 eff. 1-1-17

California
$9.00
$10.00 eff. 1-1-16

Colorado
$8.23

Rate increased or decreased annually based on cost of living (Constitutional amendment 2006)
Connecticut
$9.15 2
$9.60 eff. 1-1-16
$10.10 eff. 1-1-17

Delaware
$8.25

D.C.
$10.50 3
$10.50 eff. 7-1-15
$11.50 eff. 7-1-16
Indexed increases begin July 1, 2017 (2014 legislation)
Florida
$8.05

Annual increase based cost of living. (Constitutional amendment 2004)
Georgia
$5.15
(see notes below)

Guam
$8.25

Hawaii
$7.75
$8.50 eff. 1/1/16
$9.25 eff. 1/1/17
$10.10 eff. 1/1/18

Idaho
$7.25

Illinois
$8.25

Indiana
$7.25

Iowa
$7.25

Kansas
$7.25

Kentucky
$7.25

Louisiana
none

Maine
$7.50 4

Maryland
$8.25
$8.25 eff. 7-1-15
$8.75 eff. 7-1-16
$9.25 eff. 7-1-17
$10.10 eff. 7-1-18

Massachusetts
$9.00 5
$10.00 eff. 1-1-16
$11.00 eff. 1-1-17

Michigan
$8.15
$8.50 eff. 1-1-16
$8.90 eff. 1-1-17
$9.25 eff. 1-1-18
Annual increases take effect Jan. 1, 2019, linked to the CPI. Increases not to exceed 3.5%. (2014 Legislation)
Minnesota
$8.00/$6.50 6
Large Employers:
$9.00 eff. 8-1-15
$9.50 eff. 8-1-16
Small Employers:
$7.25 eff. 8-1-15
$7.75 eff. 8-1-16
Indexed annual increases begin Jan. 1, 2018. (2014 legislation)
Mississippi
none

Missouri
$7.65 7

Minimum wage increased or decreased by cost of living starting Jan. 1, 2008. (2006 ballot measure)
Montana
$8.05/$4.00 8

Increases done annually based on the CPI and effective Jan. 1 of the following year. (2006 ballot measure)
Nebraska
$8.00
$9.00 eff. 1-1-16

Nevada
$8.25/$7.25 9

Increases subject to the federal minimum wage and consumer price index. Increases take effect July 1. (Constitutional amendment 2004/2006).
New Hampshire
repealed by HB 133 (2011)

New Jersey
$8.38

Indexed annual increases based on the CPI, effective Jan. 1, 2014. (Constitutional Amendment 2013)
New Mexico
$7.50

New York
$8.75
$9.00 eff. 12-31-15

North Carolina
$7.25

North Dakota
$7.25

Ohio
$8.10/$7.25 10

Indexed annual increases based on the CPI. (Constitutional amendment 2006)
Oklahoma
$7.25/$2.00 11

Oregon
$9.25

Indexed annual increases based on the CPI, rounded to the nearest five cents. (ballot measure 2002)
Pennsylvania
$7.25

Puerto Rico
$7.25/$5.08 12

Rhode Island
$9.00
$9.60 eff. 1-1-16

South Carolina
none

South Dakota
$8.50

Annual indexed increases begin Jan. 1, 2016. (2014 ballot measure.)
Tennessee
none

Texas
$7.25

Utah
$7.25

Vermont
$9.15
$9.60 eff. 1-1-16
$10.00 eff. 1-1-17
$10.50 eff. 1-1-18
Beginning Jan. 1, 2019, minimum wage increased annually by 5% or the CPI, whichever is smaller; it cannot decrease. Note: Vermont started indexing in 2007. (2014 legislation)
Virgin Islands
$7.25/$4.30 13

Virginia
$7.25

Washington
$9.47

Annual indexed increases began Jan. 1, 2001. (ballot measure 1998)
West Virginia
$8.00
$8.75 eff. 12-31-15

Wisconsin
$7.25

Wyoming
$5.15

Sources: U.S. Dept. of Labor, http://www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/america.htm; and state web sites.
http://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/state-minimum-wage-chart.aspx

And as we all know ...

... if Bernie is elected, he will magically change everything overnight, for you and for everyone else.

We also tested Bernie Sanders against the leading Republicans- he leads Trump 43/39, but trails Bush 40/39, Walker 39/38, and Rubio 40/38. On average Clinton performs a little under 7 points better than Sanders against the top quartet of GOPers in head to head match ups.

On Wednesday, I sent Michael Briggs, Sanders’ spokesman, an email with a list of questions, including personal questions about the parts of his past that to this point have gone largely unknown or unchecked. Knowing his opinions about the media and recalling the Sweetser incident, I expected at least a lecture.
Sanders has criticized the press his entire political career.
“The question of who decides what’s important and what’s not important is really the most important issue,” he said at a forum on the media in Burlington in 1988, “and the media does not have a habit of focusing on what’s important.”
Something like that.

Briggs called me a little more than an hour after I sent my questions. He said he had talked with Sanders and had answers. He ticked them off one by one.
He told me where Sanders met and married his first wife and how the marriage ended. “She got a Mexican divorce, is what I was told,” Briggs said. He explained the origin of the money Sanders used to buy the Middlesex land and the carpentry he did on the sugar shack. He said Sanders received unemployment, “for a few months,” in 1971, though Sanders can’t remember what the job was that qualified him for the benefits. He told me where Sanders had met Mott and where they lived together. He confirmed she was the mother of Sanders’ son, in spite of previous news accounts. “Whatever has been reported,” he said, “what you have is accurate.”

The last question I had sent him was whether there was anything else he thought I should know.
“Yes,” Briggs said.
“The middle class is collapsing. Income and wealth inequality is greater now than it has been at any point since before the Great Depression. The American people are working longer hours for lower wages, and they’re angry. Those kinds of things, you should know.”