New Year, New Minimum Wage

As the ball drops on 2014, many Oregon workers will experience an increase in their hourly earnings.

Oregon's minimum wage rate will increase to $9.25 per hour on January 1, 2015. The state's minimum wage is linked to inflation and will rise 15 cents per hour, or 1.6 percent. Oregon's minimum wage has been set at $9.10 per hour since January 1, 2014. The federal minimum wage has been set at $7.25 per hour since 2009.

State wage records show that Oregon had roughly 141,800 jobs paying less than $9.25 per hour in the first quarter of 2014. Leisure and hospitality had the highest number, with 55,600 jobs paying less than $9.25 per hour. Retail trade followed with 30,700 jobs. Industries in which a substantially larger-than-average share of jobs paid less than $9.25 per hour included leisure and hospitality, natural resources and mining, and retail trade.

Despite increasing along with inflation since 2004, minimum wage jobs remain relatively stable as a share of overall employment. In each year over the past decade, minimum wage jobs have accounted for 5 percent or 6 percent of all jobs in the state.