by Julia Shumway, Oregon Capital Chronicle
April 23, 2026
Oregon workers making minimum wage will get an additional 50 cents per hour beginning in July, the state’s Bureau of Labor and Industries announced Thursday.
The state has three different minimum wages, depending on location. Beginning July 1, minimum wage will be:
- $16.80 for workers in the Portland metro area.
- $15.55 for workers in Benton, Clatsop, Columbia, Deschutes, Hood River, Jackson, Josephine, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, Marion, Polk, Tillamook, Wasco and Yamhill counties, as well as the parts of Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties that aren’t included in Portland’s urban growth boundary.
- $14.55 for workers in the rural counties of Baker, Coos, Crook, Curry, Douglas, Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Jefferson, Klamath, Lake, Malheur, Morrow, Sherman, Umatilla, Union, Wallowa and Wheeler.
All new wages are 50 cents higher than the current minimum for that area. State law requires adjusting the minimum wage to account for inflation each year. Using the U.S. city average consumer price index of 3.3% between March 2025 and 2026, state regulators calculated a 50-cent increase to the standard minimum wage.
The rural wage is always $1 less than the standard wage, and the Portland minimum wage is always $1.25 more.
Roughly 4% of workers earn the state’s minimum wage, and most of those jobs are in the hospitality or retail industries, according to Oregon Employment Department data. But increases to minimum wage often result in higher wages for other low-paid employees.
“When wages grow for workers at the lowest end of the income scale, the effects ripple outward,” Labor Commissioner Christina Stephenson said in a press release announcing the new rates. “It helps reduce long-standing disparities and supports a more inclusive economy where every Oregonian has a fair shot to succeed.”
Oregon is one of 34 states with a higher minimum wage than the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour, which has gone unchanged since 2009. Oregon’s minimum wage is higher than in neighboring Idaho, where the minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, and higher than Nevada’s $12 per hour minimum wage.
But Oregon’s minimum wage is below its neighbors to the north and south. Washington’s minimum wage is $17.13, though Seattle and other urban areas set local wages higher than $20 per hour. California has a statewide minimum wage of $16.90, with higher rates in many cities and a requirement that fast food workers be paid at least $20 per hour.
A living wage calculator maintained by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology shows that a single Oregonian must make at least $26.46 per hour and a family with two children and two working parents must bring in a household income of more than $67 per hour to afford all basic needs.
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