PHOENIX – For the 10th consecutive year, minimum wage workers in Arizona are getting a raise in 2026.
Effective Jan. 1, Arizona’s minimum wage for employees who don’t regularly receive tips will climb to $15.15, the Industrial Commission of Arizona announced earlier this year. Employers can pay tipped workers $3 under the minimum.
The new pay requirement represents a 3% raise of 45 cents from the 2025 rate of $14.70.
Arizona’s minimum wage has more than doubled since 2011, when it was $7.35, or 10 cents above the federal rate. The federal minimum wage is still $7.25.
History of Arizona’s minimum wage
Arizona did not have a minimum wage law until 2007. Up to that point, the Grand Canyon State used the federal rate.
Voters established a state minimum wage through a 2006 ballot measure, setting the rate at $6.75 in 2007. The law dictated annual cost-of-living increases, and the rate inched up to $8.05 by 2016.
That year, voters approved a new measure that bumped Arizona’s minimum wage to $10 in 2017, with automatic annual raises tied to inflation as measured through the national Consumer Price Index. The wage has risen by more than 50% since then.
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