Iowa’s Laughable Minimum Wage Turns 18 Years Old
Growing up, my family worked hard for everything we had. My dad worked in a steel mill and my mom worked everything from retail to fast food, and clothing factory. We didn’t have much, but we were fortunate to have just enough to get by–often with considerable help from my grandparents. We relied on crucial assistance programs in our roughest times, like SNAP to help put food on the table and Medicaid covered me after I was too old to stay on my dad’s insurance.
To this day, my sister and I still reflect back on the odd jobs we worked to make it through college as first-generation students–she picked up shifts at Family Video (RIP) and I did a variety of jobs ranging from working on farm to delivering packages for a friend’s stepdad to make a few extra bucks. Looking back now, it provokes both a good laugh and a reminder of how hard it is to make ends meet when you come from a working class family.
Iowans across the state live this story every day as they decide which bills to pay and which ones have a grace period before late fees kick in or it’s sent to debt collectors. But, today, our state’s inaction has allowed things to get even harder for Iowa families. As of January 1, 2026, Iowa’s minimum wage of $7.25/hour, or $290 a week for a full-time job, turns 18 years old.
As a salary, this laughable minimum wage only adds up to $15,080 a year at 40 hours a week–before taxes are taken out. For a family of two making minimum wage, their combined salary would be just $30,160. Iowa’s minimum wage isn’t even high enough for a person to afford rent in Iowa. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Iowa is $962/month and the National Low Income Housing Coalition says a single person making Iowa’s minimum wage can only afford $377/month.
Source: NLIHC calculation of weighted-average HUD Fair Market Rent. Affordable rents based on income data from BLS QCEW, 2024 adjusted to 2025 dollars; and Social Security Administration, 2025 maximum federal SSI benefit for individual.
For a young family making minimum wage, raising a child on that salary is next to impossible. Public assistance programs like SNAP, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and others are meant to help support the most vulnerable families, but instead of investing in those support systems, Iowa Republicans have instead privatized our Medicaid system, and Congress has cut funding for it. At the same time, the cost of child care has ballooned, costing Iowa families an average of $12,420 a year.
From paying rent, to putting food on the table, and shoveling thousands out for child care, Iowa’s minimum wage hasn’t changed in 18 years–leaving our children vulnerable to empty stomachs, cold bedrooms, and delayed health check-ups.
Families across Iowa deserve better than 18 years of inaction. If elected to the Iowa Legislature, I will work every day to uplift the stories of families in our district to my Republican colleagues and other leaders to finally raise Iowa’s minimum wage. I think it should be $15, and I will work every single day to make this state a more affordable place to live. An Iowa I can be proud of is one that pays our workers a livable wage–a wage that supports them and their families as they put food on the table, put their kids through school, and do what they can to make ends meet.
While Iowa’s minimum wage is laughable because it’s ridiculously low, this is not a funny situation—it’s about taking care of every Iowan. We all deserve better, and 18 years is almost two decades too long. Our leaders need to act now.
