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By Andrew Stanton

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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the federal minimum wage “needs to be raised” on Monday after Democrats retook control of the House of Representatives and Senate in Tuesday's midterm elections.

Jeffries, a New York Democrat who is considered the frontrunner to become the next House speaker, was asked whether Democrats would now be interested in passing a minimum wage increase once they control Congress in January. The federal minimum wage remains $7.25 per hour, and it was last raised in 2009. Although many states have implemented higher wages, 20 others have not done so.

“It’s a conversation that I look forward to having with not simply the members of the House Democratic caucus, but with the Senate as well, to see what is possible,” Jeffries said. “It certainly needs to be increased. It’s a disgrace that the minimum wage hasn’t been raised in 20 years and is currently $7.25 per hour.”

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A minimum wage increase would still need some bipartisan support. While it could pass the House, where Democrats have won 254 seats with 18 races to be called, the Senate remains a tougher lift.

Democrats will control anywhere between 54 and 56 Senate seats, depending on the outcome in Alaska and Mississippi, but that is still not enough to clear the filibuster, so some Republicans would need to vote to raise the wage, as well.

Whether President Donald Trump, who signaled some openness to raise the wage after his 2024 victory, would sign such legislation into law also remains an open question.

Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment via email.

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Twenty States Use Federal Minimum Wage

In total, 20 states still use the federal $7.25 minimum wage, according to data from the Department of Labor.

Those states include:

• Alabama
• Georgia
• Idaho
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Mississippi
• New Hampshire
• North Carolina
• North Dakota
• Oklahoma
• Pennsylvania
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Utah
• Wisconsin
• Wyoming

Of those states, 19 voted for Trump in the 2024 presidential race. New Hampshire is the only state won by former Vice President Kamala Harris that does not have its own, higher minimum wage.

Washington is the state with the highest minimum wage at $17.13 per hour.

Several Republican-run states have higher minimum wages. The minimum wage in Florida, Missouri and Nebraska is $15 per hour.

Several states including Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee all have no state minimum wage, so the federal minimum wage applies. Georgia and Wyoming both have minimum wages of $5.15 per hour, so the federal minimum applies there, as well.

Many of the states that gave Democrats some of their biggest wins last week still have $7.25 minimum wages. That includes Georgia and Texas, where Democrats swept most statewide races, as well as South Carolina, where Democrat Annie Andrews flipped a Senate seat.

Affordability Central to Midterms

Jeffries’ comments come on the heels of an election defined by the affordability issue. Voters, polls found, were chiefly concerned by the cost of living, and Democrats made addressing affordability a cornerstone of their pitch to take back Congress.

Trump also emphasized affordability during his 2024 presidential run, and the issue was seen as what helped propel him back into the White House.

Raising the minimum wage is a popular position, according to a recent YouGov poll, which found that 68 percent of Americans support raising it to $15 per hour and 73 percent would support raising it to $12 per hour. It surveyed 1,122 adults from August 17 to 20 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.

Democrats like Scott Colom, who has a narrow lead in the uncalled Mississippi Senate race, voiced support for raising the wage on the campaign trail.

“The federal minimum wage is still $7.25. Same as it was over 25 years ago. Cindy High Prices has voted against raising it while voting to give herself a raise. That’s corrupt. Mississippi deserves better, and this November, we’re going in a new direction,” he wrote in a September 15 X post.

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Trump Said He Would ‘Consider’ Minimum Wage Increase

Trump signaled some openness to raising the minimum wage in a December 2024 interview with NBC News, saying the current wage is “a very low number,” but that raising the wage could lead to higher prices.

“But there is a level at which you could do it, absolutely,” he said.

He said businesses are “thriving” because of the minimum wage, but that raising it “too much” is bad for business.

“I would consider it. I want to speak to the governors,” he said. “The other thing that is very complicated about minimum wage is that places are so different. Mississippi and Alabama, great places, are very different than New York or California in terms of the cost of living or other things. It would be nice to have just a minimum wage for the whole country, but it wouldn’t work.”

Bernie Sanders Called for $20 Minimum Wage After Midterms

Progressives such as Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, are calling for more significant wage increases. In a post-midterm address posted to YouTube, he said the minimum wage is a “starvation wage” that “must change.”

“Democrats must raise it to a living wage of at least $20 per hour and make it easier for workers to form unions by passing the PRO Act,” he said. “A job must lift people out of poverty, not keep them in it.”

Minimum Wage Hike Efforts Have Stalled

There have been efforts in Congress to address the federal minimum wage, but those attempts have stalled over the years.

The Living Wage for All Act, introduced by Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Representative Delia Ramirez of Illinois, both Democrats, calls for a federal minimum wage of $25 per hour.

Murphy said during a press conference earlier this year that the minimum wage “should be a living wage.”

“This is the most powerful, the most affluent, the wealthiest country in the world,” he said. “There is no reason that somebody should go to work full time in this country and not be able to pay their bills. There is no excuse for it.”

Another bill, the Raise the Wage Act of 2021, would have raised the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour, but it did not pass Congress to become law.

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