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A new year has brought a new pay rate for more than 8.3 million Americans. The minimum wage is going up in 19 states this week which will see workers in Hawaii earning as much as $2 more an hour. Collectively, these pay increases will boost pay checks by a total of $5 billion, according to the Economic Policy Institute. While the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour hasnt budged in nearly two decades, and still applies in eight states, many states and cities have steadily been increasing their minimum wages to well over double that amount. Seattles minimum wage, at $21.30 per hour, is now nearly triple that federal threshold. As is the case with Seattle, 47 cities and counties around the country have also increased their minimum wages, effective January 1. Heres a look at whats changed. PAY IS GOING UP MOST IN HAWAII Hawaii leads the 19 states with the biggest pay increase for workers this year, as its minimum wage has jumped to $16 per hour, up from $14 previously. And more than 21% of its workforce will benefit from this new legislation, according to the Economic Policy Institute. But not all pay increases are alike. Several states have increased their minimum wages by less than 50 cents an houran amount that adds up to a difference of only several hundred dollars per year in gross earnings. Minnesota workers are only seeing a 28 cent hourly increase, for example. Arizona 2026 minimum wage: $15.15, up 45 cents from $14.70 in 2025 California 2026 minimum wage: $16.90, up 40 cents from $16.50 in 2025 Colorado 2026 minimum wage: $15.16, up 35 cents from $14.81 in 2025 Connecticut 2026 minimum wage: $16.94, up 59 cents from $16.35 in 2025 Hawaii 2026 minimum wage: $16, up $2 from $14 in 2025 Maine 2026 minimum wage: $15.10, up 45 cents from $14.65 in 2025 Michigan 2026 minimum wage: $13.73, up $1.25 from $12.48 in 2025 Minnesota 2026 minimum wage: $11.41, up 28 cents from $11.13 in 2025 Missouri 2026 minimum wage: $15, up $1.25 from $13.75 in 2025 Montana 2026 minimum wage: $10.85, up 30 cents from $10.55 in 2025 Nebraska 2026 minimum wage: $15, up $1.50 from $13.50 in 2025 New Jersey 2026 minimum wage: $15.92, up 43 cents from $15.49 in 2025 New York 2026 minimum wage: $16, up 50 cents from $15.50 in 2025 Ohio 2026 minimum wage: $11, up 30 cents from $10.70 in 2025 Rhode Island 2026 minimum wage: $16, up $1 from $15 in 2025 South Dakota 2026 minimum wage: $11.85, up 35 cents from $11.50 in 2025 Vermont 2026 minimum wage: $14.42, up 41 cents from $14.01 in 2025 Virginia 2026 minimum wage: $12.77, up 36 cents from $12.41 in 2025 Washington 2026 minimum wage: $17.13, up 47 cents from $16.66 in 2025 WASHINGTON CITIES LEAD WITH HIGHEST PAY The $21.30 per hour minimum wage that went into effect in Seattle this week isnt even the highest in Washingtonthe pay in several localities are even higher. In Tukwila and Burlen, two Seattle suburbs, certain employers must pay workers a minimum of $21.65 and $21.63, respectively, in 2026. While some cities, like San Francisco and Los Angeles, updated their minimum wage thresholds at the mid-year mark, most opt for pay changes to coincide with the calendar shange. Some localities explicitly tie their increases to inflation, as measured by the consumer price index that grew at a less-than-3% rate in 2025. Workers in major metropolitan areas can potentially earn several dollars more than the states minimum wage. Employers in the following cities must pay their workers more this week. New York City, Long Island, and Westchester 2026 minimum wage: $17, up $1 from $16 in 2025 San Jose 2026 minimum wage: $18.45, up 50 cents from $18.95 in 2025 Denver 2026 minimum wage: $19.29, up 48 cents from $18.81 in 2025 Minneapolis 2026 minimum wage: $16.37, up 40 cents from $15.97 in 2025
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Even when Americans have health insurance, they can have a hard time affording the drugs theyve been prescribed. About 1 in 5 U.S. adults skip filling a prescription due to its cost at least once a year, according to KFF, a health research organization. And 1 in 3 take steps to cut their prescription drug costs, such as splitting pills when its not medically necessary or switching to an over-the-counter drug instead of the one that their medical provider prescribed. As pharmacy professors who research prescription drug access, we think its important for Americans to know that it is possible to get prescriptions filled more affordably, as long as you know how before you go to the pharmacy. Cost of copays ranges widely When you have health insurance and have to pay for a prescription drug at the pharmacy, youre usually covering the cost of your copay. This is the amount patients or their caregivers are expected to pay after insurance covers the rest of the tab. If you get your health insurance through Medicaid, the government program that covers low-income Americans and people with disabilities, you should not have to pay anything at all to obtain prescription drugs. If there is a copay, it should be low probably less than US$5. And if youre insured through Medicare, the government program that mainly covers people who are 65 and older, or get your coverage through a private health insurance company, its important to understand what to expect when you visit a pharmacy. Most private insurance companies charge US$5 to $50 for prescription drug copays. The copays are tiered based on what the drug costs. Brand-name and specialty medications have higher copays; older generics have lower copays. Some generic drugs and vaccines may even require no copay at all. While a copay is a flat fee, it can change over the course of the year based on whether or not you have met your deductible. The deductible is the amount of money you have to pay out of pocket before your insurance starts covering your prescriptions. Before your deductible is fully paid, you may be responsible for the full cost of your medications. After youve met your deductible for the year, you will only be required to pay the copay. As newer, more expensive drugs enter the market, cost-sharing at the pharmacy has increasingly shifted from a copay to coinsurance. In contrast with a flat copay, coinsurance means your insurance company will cover a certain percentage of the drugs cost, and youll pay the rest. Since the patients share is based on a percentage of the medications price, coinsurance often results in higher out-of-pocket costs than copays do. New help for patients with Medicare coverage Two new government programs could help make prescription drugs more affordable for millions of older Americans. Starting in 2026, people who are insured through Medicare will pay no more than $2,100 out of pocket on prescription drugs over the year. That cap may be much lower than $2,100 due to a quirk in Medicares rules. Prescriptions filled after someone has paid the maximum allowable amount will cost them nothing at all. In addition, the government launched the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan in 2025. This program, which is available to people over 65, helps spread what patients spend out of pocket on prescription drugs throughout the year, making that expense more predictable and easier to budget for. Early data indicates that very few Americans are enrolled in the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan. Patients insured through private companies do not have similar opportunities. Consumers should find out if they qualify for state or federal programs on their medications. Coupons and discount cards What if you cant afford a copay for your prescription drug? Before giving up on ever getting it, ask the pharmacist about your options. It may be worth trying to use a free online tool, such as RxAssist, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, or a discount card from GoodRx, which is a publicly traded company. GoodRx cards are free. They help people compare local pharmacy prices and to locate coupons that make prescriptions more affordable. GoodRx works by searching for the lowest available price for the prescription at various pharmacies. Other copay coupons provided by the drug manufacturer may also work similarly by lowering the cost of the medication. On some occasions, the cash price at the pharmacy may actually be cheaper than the copay, and the pharmacist should be able to help you navigate these options. Heres what you should know before giving GoodRx a try: GoodRx collects individual data on patients, raising significant privacy concerns. Some pharmacies do not accept GoodRx. You may have to visit more than one pharmacy to be able to activate its discounts. These cards may make the most sense for uninsured or underinsured patients, but do not always help those whohave insurance because you might not get a better price. Whats more, if you use a discount card, the amount you pay may not count toward your insurance deductible for the year. You should weigh the caveats closely depending on your circumstance. Prescription assistance programs Prescription assistance programs provide another cost-saving tool for Americans. Drugmakers, nonprofits, and government agencies sponsor those programs, which help patients who are uninsured or underinsured even if they are on Medicare fill prescriptions either at a discount or for free. These programs include manufacturer-specific programs as well as charitable pharmacies like Dispensary of Hope, NOVA Scripts Central, and the Patient Advocate Foundation. Qualifying criteria vary for these programs, but typically you must have a low income and be a citizen or a legal U.S. resident. The Patient Access Network Foundation and RxAssist, two nonprofits that help Americans pay their medical bills, also offer helpful tools to identify programs that could work for you. Assistance from these programs could cut your copay or even provide a prescription drug at no cost. Separately, the Trump administration announced in November 2025 that a new White House prescription drug pricing program will soon begin to connect consumers to companies that have agreed to sell certain prescription drugs at a big discount. Many experts dont expect the program, known as TrumpRx, to help people who have health insurance. Instead, it could be most likely to help those with no insurance at all. The new government program is slated to begin to roll out in 2026. Direct-to-consumer models Beyond coupons and assistance programs, a more radical shift is in the works: direct-to-consumer platforms and cash-payment models. In 2025, several manufacturers offered to sell medications directly to patients on websites and patient portals at cash prices. For example, the drug manufacturer Eli Lilly is offering its popular weight-loss medication, Zepbound, on its website. These websites have out-of-pocket costs that can run upward of $300 a month, making them too high for many, if not most, Americans to afford. And insurance companies have so far refused to cover them. To be sure, the systems underlying these programs are still being built. We believe that the Trump administration would need to make a bigger effort to make it easier for millions of Americans to be able to afford filling their prescriptions. Sujith Ramachandran is an associate professor of pharmacy administration at the University of Mississippi. Adam Pate is a clinical professor of pharmacy practice at the University of Mississippi. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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E-Commerce
Tesla lost its crown as the worlds bestselling electric vehicle maker on Friday as a customer revolt over Elon Musks right-wing politics, expiring U.S. tax breaks for buyers, and stiff overseas competition pushed sales down for a second year in a row. Tesla said that it delivered 1.64 million vehicles in 2025, down 9% from a year earlier. Chinese rival BYD, which sold 2.26 million vehicles last year, is now the biggest EV maker. It’s a stunning reversal for Musk, who once dismissed BYD as a threat as Tesla’s rise seemed unstoppable, crushing traditional automakers with far more resources and helping make him the world’s richest man. For the fourth quarter, sales totaled 418,227, falling short of the 440,000 that analysts polled by FactSet expected. The sales total was impacted by the expiration of a $7,500 tax credit that was phased out by the Trump administration at the end of September. Tesla stock was up 0.5% at $451.60 in early trading Friday. Even with multiple issues buffeting the company, investors are betting that Tesla CEO Musk can deliver on his ambitions to make Tesla a leader in robotaxi service and get consumers to embrace humanoid robots that can perform basic tasks in homes and offices. Reflecting that optimism, the stock finished 2025 with a gain of approximately 11%. The latest quarter was the first with sales of stripped-down versions of the Model Y and Model 3 that Musk unveiled in early October as part of an effort to revive sales. The new Model Y costs just under $40,000 while customers can buy the cheaper Model 3 for under $37,000. Those versions are expected to help Tesla compete with Chinese models in Europe and Asia. For fourth-quarter earnings coming out in late January, analysts are expecting the company to post a 3% drop in sales and a nearly 40% drop in earnings per share, according to FactSet. Analysts expect the downward trend in sales and profits to eventually reverse itself as 2026 rolls along. Investors have largely shrugged off the falling numbers, choosing to focus on Musk’s pivot to different parts of business. He has been saying that plunging car sales dont matter as much now because the future of the company lies more with his new driverless robotaxis service, the companys energy storage business and building robots for the home and factory. To make his task worthwhile, Teslas directors awarded Musk a potentially enormous new pay package that shareholders backed at the annual meeting in November. Musk scored another huge windfall two weeks ago when the Delaware Supreme Court reversed a decision that deprived him of a $55 billion pay package that Tesla doled out in 2018. Musk could become the world’s first trillionaire later this year when he sells shares of his rocket company SpaceX to public for the first time in what analysts expect would be a blockbuster initial public offering. This story has been corrected to show that BYD sold 2.26 million vehicles last year, not 2.26. Associated Press
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