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The federal minimum wage is a paltry $7.25 per hour, but that only tells part of the story of minimum wage in the US. That's because a little more than half of the states set their own minimum wage above the federal minimum wage, and state minimum wages vary by a few dollars an hour. In other words, what you get take home for low-wage work can vary a huge amount depending on what state you live in — as this new visualization from personal finance website HowMuch makes clear:

 

The first thing you notice upon glancing at the visualization is that two states — Georgia and Wyoming — have state minimum wages below the federal minimum wage. However, the federal minimum wage supersedes the state minimum wage in those two states. Additionally, "There are five states — Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee — that have no state minimum wage laws and therefore the federal minimum wage is the default," HowMuch explains.

It should come as no surprise that the state with the highest minimum wage, Washington, DC, is actually a city. Though this visualization doesn't capture it, many large cities have set their own minimum wages in response to the Fight for $15 campaign. Seattle, for instance, has a minimum wage of $15 for the employees of large companies, and New York City's minimum wage is currently $13 for workers at large companies. Of course, these cities also feature sky-high costs of living, so your mileage may vary trying to get by on minimum wage in these urban areas.

[HowMuch]

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