Washington will be the first state to require a minimum wage of more than $9 an hour when it joins seven other states on Sunday in automatically adjusting salaries to keep up with inflation.

More than a million low-wage U.S. workers will see their hourly pay go up after the adjustment but many will remain mired in the ranks of the working poor in a country where nearly one-in-six live below the poverty line, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics.

Based on a typical 2,000-hour work year, the wage increases that take effect on New Year’s Day in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont and Washington translate into annual salaries for minimum-wage workers of between $15,280 and $18,080.