U.S. minimum wages might be the highest ever after a slew of increases by cities and states over the past several years, a prominent economist contends.

Ernie Tedeschi of Evercore ISI, writing in the New York Times, says the average minimum wage nationwide has risen to $11.80 an hour in 2019.

“Adjusted for inflation, this is probably the highest minimum wage in American history,” said Tedeschi, a former Treasury Department official and now head of fiscal analysis at the investment-advisory firm.

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Washington, D.C., and 29 states have raised minimum-wage levels well above the federal baseline of $7.25, which was last changed 10 years ago. Some major cities such as New York and Seattle have been even more aggressive, raising their minimum to at least $15 an hour.

Seventeen states, mostly in the South and Midwest, have set minimum wages to equal the $7.25 federal level. Six states, all in the South, have no minimum.

Tedeshi said his research found that almost 90% of the nation’s 6.8 million minimum-wage earners work in areas in which their pay is higher than $7.25 an hour. As recently five years ago few of them did.

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For some workers the news is even better. Some large companies such as Amazon AMZN, -4.12% and Costco COST, +0.05% that employ tens of thousands of Americans have set starting pay at $15 an hour.

The companies have made the move mostly because the tightest labor market in half a century has made it harder to attract and retain good workers. They’re also reacting to political pressure ahead of the 2020 presidential election.