Oregon’s Minimum Wage Increases on July 1, 2023
June 29, 2023Oregon’s minimum wage increases on July 1, 2023, but the raises will not be the same across the state. The minimum wage increases to $15.45 per hour inside the Portland urban growth boundary, $13.20 per hour in nonurban counties, and $14.20 in other areas of the state.
Oregon’s three minimum wages will be among the top state-level minimum wages in the nation. The highest minimum wage in 2023 will be in the District of Columbia ($16.50), followed by Washington ($15.74), California ($15.50), and Massachusetts ($15.00).
Oregon’s minimum wage levels were set by Senate Bill 1532 in 2016, which established minimum wage increases on July 1 each year through 2022. There are three tiers of minimum wages based on geography.
Beginning in 2023, minimum wages in all tiers will be adjusted for inflation. This means the minimum wage will maintain purchasing power after the last step increase in 2022. The “standard” minimum wage in Oregon is adjusted based on the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U). The Portland urban growth boundary (UGB) minimum wage will be $1.25 over the standard minimum wage, and the minimum wage for nonurban counties will be $1 less than the standard minimum wage.
A Look Back at Minimum Wage Jobs in 2022
Between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023, Oregon’s minimum wages were $14.75 per hour within the Portland urban growth boundary, $13.50 standard, and $12.50 in nonurban counties. Roughly 4.1% (91,611) of all jobs (2,213,040) paid minimum wage or less in Oregon in the third quarter of 2022.
The share of jobs paying minimum wage ranged from a low of 2.0% in Morrow County (153 jobs) to a high of 8.6% in Gilliam County (74 jobs). Multnomah County had 19,204 minimum wage jobs, the most of any county, which made up 3.4% of total jobs in the county.
Oregon’s metro area counties had a slightly smaller share of minimum wage jobs (4.1%) than its nonmetro counties (4.3%). Deschutes County had the lowest percentage of jobs (3.0%) paying minimum wage among metro counties, followed by Multnomah County (3.4%) and Jackson County (3.6%). Clackamas County had the highest share of jobs paying minimum wage among metro counties at 5.6%.
Fourteen counties had a share of minimum wage jobs at or below the statewide share of 4.1%. The smallest shares were in Morrow County (2.0%), Sherman County (2.6%), Crook County (2.8%), and Deschutes County (3.0%). Counties with a higher share of minimum wage jobs tended to be in rural areas. The highest shares of minimum wage jobs were found in Gilliam (8.6%), Wheeler (8.2%), Malheur (7.8%), and Harney counties (7.4%).
See the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries website for the Oregon Minimum Wage Rate Summary.