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← Back to Raise minimum wage to $15 an hour, with automatic inflationary increases

State's minimum wage remains at $7.25 an hour

Gov. Tony Evers drew criticism from open records advocates and journalists after his office refused to release a day’s worth of emails. The governor said state law doesn’t allow it. Amid criticism, Evers later decided to release the emails. AP

By D.L. Davis July 5, 2022

Wisconsin's minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour since 2009.

As a candidate in 2018, Tony Evers pledged to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, with automatic inflationary increases.

His first budget took steps to do that — albeit relatively small ones — by proposing an increase to $8.25 in 2020, then 75 cents per year for three years after that and then growing at the rate of inflation. That failed in the GOP-controlled Legislature.

In his 2021-'23 budget, Evers wanted to immediately raise the minimum wage to $8.60. The proposal called for it to go up to $10.15 by 2024 and increase by the rate of inflation annually after that. Again, the matter failed in the Legislature.

This promise was previously rated In the Works. But with the end of Evers' term approaching, we need to offer a final rating. Our policy with the Evers-O-Meter, like the Walk-O-Meter before it, is to rate outcomes, not intent.

Despite Evers' efforts, this promise is not in place. If he wins a second term, we'll revisit next year. But for now, we rate it Promise Broken.

See Figure 1 on PolitiFact.com