Twenty states are stuck with the federal minimum wage of $7.25 this year despite minimum wage increases for around half of the U.S.

Minimum wage increases took effect in 22 states on January 1, boosting baseline pay to as much as $16 an hour for workers in California, New York and Washington. Three more states — Oregon, Nevada and Florida — will implement new minimum wages throughout the year.

The higher wages come at a time when low-wage workers are struggling with higher costs of living. Though inflation is falling, the cost of groceries, rent and other goods and services remains higher than pre-pandemic levels.

“Everyone from workers in auto factories to retail stores to Amazon warehouses to white collar workers is pretty much in need of a raise,” said Daphna Thier, program coordinator at Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC). The organization has been helping workers organize for better workplace conditions, including fair wages, since 2020. Retail and food service workers represent the largest share of workers who reach out to EWOC but low wages are a top concern for workers in all industries, Thier said.

Thier said while the new wages are an improvement, they aren’t necessarily livable and many workers will likely continue to live below the poverty line.

“We know that any improvement in workers’ lives is an important relief, but this isn’t enough. It’s not quite where we need to be,” she said. “So many Americans have to work more than one job because the minimum wage is just that: a minimum. The goal should be a living wage. We’re nowhere near there.”

In Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee, states that haven’t adopted a minimum wage, and in Georgia and Wyoming, where the state minimum wage is set at $5.15, workers will continue earning a federal minimum wage of $7.25 hourly.

Iowa is also among the states that will continue to adhere to the federal minimum wage, which has remained unchanged since 2009, the longest stretch since the minimum wage was introduced in 1938. However, polling shows a significant portion of voters are prioritizing issues related to the economy and inflation this election cycle. Some 81 percent of Republican caucus goers indicated the economy and inflation as a top concern in one NBC poll.

Experts have long advocated for a minimum wage increase of up to $17 an hour, noting how it would benefit Black workers and women of color who make up a disproportionate share of low-wage workers in the U.S. Legislation on the matter has stalled in Congress.

According to Thier, workers in these states will likely have to get organized in order to win a fair wage.

“Workers don’t have to take whatever is given to them and assume it’s the best that they can do,” she said. “There’s nothing we’ve gotten, ever, that wasn’t won through struggle and organizing. The eight hour workday, the weekend, these things didn’t exist before people struggled for it. Just because something is currently the law does not mean it’s the final say or that you can’t achieve more.”