Nebraska minimum wage jumps to $15.00 an hour in 2026

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - Starting in 2026, Nebraska will have a new minimum wage, and a new rate in how it will increase moving forward.

Since 2023, Nebraska has steadily increased the state minimum wage by $1.50 each year, and it’s set to hit $15 an hour, January 2026.

Voters approved that amount in 2022, but after 2025, it will adjust based off the cost of living.

On the surface, more money in the bank is a positive. For workers, entry level jobs become more enticing to jump in on, and for others the difference in making next month’s rent or buying groceries.

But for smaller, local or family owned businesses, another road bump to overcome.

“We’re not ready for that because so many things have changed in the past year,” said Nidia Morales Suleiaman, owner of Jerusalen Bakery off of 48th Street.

She says the change could be the difference of closing down the business she’s maintained on 48th Street since 2018, “Due to the economy, people are spending less. It used to be, like, they celebrate more. Watch, we depend here for cakes, you know, order. So now we see in the people who order large. Now they order smaller amounts, you know, the cake. And for us, it’s really affect us because due to that, people buy less every time.”

Since the bakery is run by family, Morales Suleiaman says they’ll probably have to stay open an extra hour to keep up.

For other small and local businesses, the solution could mean cutting jobs altogether, “Obviously, we’d like everyone to earn a more decent wage, but minimum wages do sometimes lead to a reduction of hours for people,” said Eric Thompson, a professor of economics at UNL, and director of bureau research.

Thompson adds that benefits could also be on the chopping block to keep up. On the other hand, he says automatically adjusting based off the cost of living will be better in the long-term, rather than raising it dramatically with noticeable inflation to follow

“I think it’s nice to have the automatic increase in the sense that we’re keeping the real minimum wage constant. That doesn’t mean we can’t, like, deliberately change it, lower it, raise it, whatever people think is appropriate at the time. But having a regular increase might be preferable to the old system, where we’d raise it a lot, and then do nothing for four or five years,” said Thompson

Overall, he says this will hit rural Nebraska harder than Lincoln or Omaha.