- A viral video falsely claims President Trump raised the federal minimum wage to $25 an hour.
- The federal minimum wage remains $7.25 an hour, unchanged since 2009.
- Florida’s minimum wage is currently $13 an hour for non-tipped employees and $9.98 for tipped employees, set to increase in September 2025.
Did President Donald Trump raise the federal minimum wage to $25 an hour? A video getting passed around on social media thinks so.
“President Trump has just signed a groundbreaking law that will change the lives of millions,” a woman’s voice on the video says. “Starting the 15th of April, in a completely unexpected move, Trump approved the largest minimum wage in U.S. history.
“As of the 8th of April 2025, no American worker will be allowed to earn less than $25 per hour,” the video says, without an explanation for the discrepancy in the dates.
It would have been, but it never happened. Trump has not announced any intentions to raise the federal minimum wage, which has remained the same for the last 16 years. The president also has no control over state minimum wage laws.
For some American workers, he’s lowered it.
In March, the Labor Department said it would no longer enforce the $17.75 per hour minimum wage for federal contractors that was started under former President Joe Biden in 2021, potentially resulting in a massive pay cut for hundreds of thousands of private sector workers.
Trump also issued an executive order eliminating collective bargaining to negotiate work conditions for agencies with national security missions. The union representing foreign service workers is suing, saying the order also strips bargaining rights from “three-quarters of the federal employees who are currently represented by federal sector unions, demonstrating that it was not a targeted assessment based on national security concerns.”
Trump administration says no minimum wage hike
When he was still president-elect in December, Trump said he would consider raising the federal minimum wage. But he has made no moves to do so, and his Treasury secretary flatly said no.
During Scott Bessent’s Senate confirmation hearing, Sen. Bernie Sanders asked him point-blank if he would work to raise the minimum wage to a living wage.
“I believe that the minimum wage is more of a statewide and regional issue,” Bessent replied. When asked again, he said simply, “No, sir.”
What is the federal minimum wage?
The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour since 2009.
Federal employers can pay less than the minimum wage to farm workers, commissioned sales employees, executives, federal criminal investigators, students, workers under the age of 20 during their first 90 consecutive calendar days of employment and a variety of other positions.
Most states, including Florida, have established higher minimum wages and 21 states raised theirs at the beginning of the year. Fourteen states pay the federal minimum rate of $7.25, Georgia, Wyoming and Montana pay less, and Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee have no state minimum wage law.
Which states have the highest minimum wage?
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the highest minimum wage in the U.S. is $17.50 an hour in Washington, D.C.
The highest state minimum wage is Washington state, with $16.66. California and parts of New York pay $16.50.
What is the minimum wage in Florida? When does it go up again?
Florida’s minimum wage is currently $13 an hour for non-tipped employees and $9.98 for tipped employees. On Sept. 30, 2025, both those rates will go up another dollar.
In 2004, Florida voters chose to amend the state constitution to establish a state minimum wage “to provide a decent and healthy life for them and their families, that protects their employers from unfair low-wage competition, and that does not force them to rely on taxpayer-funded public services in order to avoid economic hardship.”
Sixteen years later, voters approved an amendment to gradually raise the state minimum wage every year, starting at $10 an hour and raising another dollar until it reaches $15 an hour in 2026. After that, the state Department of Commerce will return to the previous method of calculating cost-of-living adjustments tied to the Consumer Price Index.
However, two bills working their way through the Florida Legislature would allow people working in apprenticeships, internships or work-study programs to choose to work for less.
Supporters say young students and teenagers are missing out on training opportunities due to high state-mandated wages.
Critics say that under SB 676 and HB 541, companies could abuse the law by labeling all entry-level jobs as “apprenticeships” or “internships.”
