Just looking back at what happened with the minimum wage increase 2022 — honestly pretty interesting how fragmented things got across the country. So 21 states bumped their rates on New Year's Day alone, and another 4 followed later in the year. Some got decent raises too. Virginia jumped $1.50 (from $9.50 to $11), California went up a dollar to $15, and Washington state hit $14.49. Meanwhile, the federal minimum is still stuck at $7.25 since 2009, which is wild. That's 13 years with zero movement.

What caught my attention is how uneven it all is. Half the country moved forward with minimum wage increase 2022 initiatives, but 20 states basically did nothing and just stayed with the federal floor. Seven states don't even have their own minimum wage — they're just locked at $7.25. Do the math on that: full-time work at $7.25 is roughly $15k a year, which is basically at or below the poverty line depending on family size.

There was this Raise the Wage Act that Democrats were pushing to get to $15 federally over five years, but it's been stalled in Congress since 2019. No vote, nothing. So yeah, the minimum wage increase 2022 mostly came from states taking matters into their own hands. Some did it through automatic inflation adjustments (Arizona, Colorado, Maine), others passed new legislation. Interesting how the real action on wages is happening at the state level while federal policy just sits there.