A new year marks a new minimum wage for Johnson County.

The JoCo Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a motion setting the recommended minimum wage in Johnson County to $13.02 per hour, which goes into effect starting July 1. 

The board is calling for this hyper-specific wage amount based on a county ordinance requiring an annual inflation adjustment. The ordinance requires the board to match the new minimum wage with the Consumer Price Index, or CPI, in the Midwest Region. 

Since the CPI rose by 3 percent in 2024, the new minimum wage will increase by 3 percent, bumping from $12.64 to $13.02 per hour. 

While the ordinance recommends the new minimum wage, it is not enforceable by law.

This is because the Iowa legislature passed Iowa House File 295 in 2017, prohibiting Iowa cities and counties from setting the minimum wage higher than the state of Iowa’s established minimum wage. Currently, Iowa’s minimum wage sits at the federal level, which is $7.25 per hour.

RELATED: Johnson County Board of Supervisors call for minimum wage increase

The county’s minimum wage ordinance was first passed by the supervisors in September 2015, which established a local minimum wage above the federal and state rates, before the law prohibiting counties from raising their wage. 

Under the ordinance, the wage was planned to increase in three phases, each of which gradually aimed to raise the overall wage to $10.10 per hour by 2017.

The last time the state’s minimum wage saw an increase was in 2008, when it rose from $6.20 per hour. 

The board has continued to make these recommendations to encourage higher wages every year. Ultimately, it will be up to the businesses of Johnson County to determine if this motion will have broader impacts.