Complying With the Minimum Wage Laws
Federal minimum wage laws. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires that all nonexempt employees, employees paid at an hourly rate, be paid a minimum wage of $5.15 per hour. This rate must be paid to all nonexempt employees for each hour worked up to 40 hours in a calendar workweek. Any time beyond 40 hours must be paid at time-and-a-half overtime, currently $7.73 per hour.
Though the minimum wage is expressed as an hourly rate, it applies to workers paid on any basis as long as the minimum requirement of $5.15 per hour is satisfied. For example, a salaried nonexempt employee working 40 hours a week must be paid at least $206.00 a week.
Federal law allows you to count board, lodging, and other facilities you provide to your employees as part of wages for purposes of meeting the minimum wage requirements. A common example is meals provided by a restaurant to its employees. To take advantage of the rule, however, you have to meet several criteria, and it’s unclear if you can require employees to accept these facilities as part of their pay.
While the general rule is that nonexempt employees must be paid the minimum wage, employees engaged in certain occupations don't have to be paid the federal minimum wage. Workers who don't have to be paid the federal minimum wage include:
If you're considering paying someone less than minimum wage, you must follow the rules obtain and permission from the federal government. To obtain forms, contact your local office of the Employment Standards Administration’s Wage and Hour Division.
State minimum wage laws. Many states also set minimum wages, either above or below the federal minimum wage. In some cases, a state’s minimum wage will vary by the type of worker.
If you're subject to both state and federal laws, you must pay the higher amount.
If you're not subject to federal minimum wage law, it doesn't mean that you're also exempt from state minimum wage requirements. If you're subject to state requirements but not federal ones, you must pay the minimum wage set out by your state.
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Select a state from the map below to get information on minimum wage laws: |
| Minimum Wage Law in Alaska choose another state |
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Alaska's minimum wage is $7.15 per hour. The minimum wage requirement covers most private employees but excludes agricultural workers; fishing industry workers; hand shrimp pickers; domestics; volunteers for nonprofit religious, charitable, cemetery or educational organizations; newspaper delivery persons; watchmen or caretakers of property that is not in use for four months or more; executive, administrative and professional employees; outside salespersons; workers searching for placer or hard rock materials; part-time workers under 18 years of age, working not more than 30 hours per week; houseparents at nonprofit educational or child care facilities; taxi drivers; and students participating in a University of Alaska practicum are also excluded. Exempt retail and service employees. Effective September 14, 2004, the minimum salary for exempt employees in retail and service establishments who spend up to 40 percent of their time performing duties that are nonexempt is two times the state minimum wage for the first 40 hours of employment each week. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Alabama choose another state |
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Alabama has no minimum wage law. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Arkansas choose another state |
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The minimum wage in Arkansas is $5.15 per hour. Effective October 1, 2006, the minimum wage in Arkansas is $6.25 per hour. Arkansas' minimum wage and overtime law applies to employers with four or more employees. "Employees" includes all employees except those covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act; executive, administrative or professional employees; outside salespersons; students working for schools they attend; federal or state employees (except public school employees); forestry employees; volunteers for nonprofit organizations; independent contractors; some agriculturally connected employees; and certain nonprofit child welfare agency employees who serve as houseparents. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Arizona choose another state |
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The minimum wage law in Arizona provides for wage orders that cover minors only; that is, all employees under age 18. Currently no wage orders are in effect. |
| Minimum Wage Law in California choose another state |
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The minimum wage for all occupations in California is $6.75 per hour. Higher minimums apply to city and county contractors in certain cities and counties. The minimum wage rate applies to all employees, including undocumented workers. All employees are covered by wage orders except outside sales personnel. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Colorado choose another state |
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The minimum wage rate in Colorado is $5.15 per hour. Wage orders are in effect for the following industries: food and beverage; health and medical; retail trade; service, and commercial support service. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Connecticut choose another state |
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The minimum wage rate is $7.40 per hour effective January 1, 2006, and will increase to $7.65 per hour effective January 1, 2007. The minimum wage rate for 2004 and 2005 is $7.10 per hour. All employees are covered by the state minimum wage and overtime laws, except those employed: (1) in camps or resorts that are open not more than six months a year; (2) as babysitters; (3) in a bona fide executive, administrative or professional capacity; (4) by the federal government; (5) as an outside salesperson; (6) in activities of an educational, charitable, religious, scientific, historical, literary or nonprofit organization where an employer-employee relationship does not exist or where services are rendered on a voluntary basis; (7) by a nonprofit theater that does not operate for less than seven months in any year; (8) domestics, except those in domestic service employment as defined in the federal Fair Labor Standards Act regulations; and (9) as head residents or assistants at a college or university. Wage orders are in existence for the following industries: beauty, cleaning and dyeing, laundry, mercantile trade, restaurant and hotel restaurant. |
| Minimum Wage Law in District of Columbia choose another state |
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The District of Columbia's minimum wage rate is $7.00 per hour. The minimum wage rate for 2005 was $6.60 per hour. If a higher wage is established by a wage order, the higher rate prevails. The District's minimum wage law applies to all employers, except the United States or the District of Columbia. In addition, the following are excluded from the definition of employee: (1) volunteers working in an educational, charitable, religious, or nonprofit organization, (2) lay members elected or appointed to an office within any religious organization, and (3) individuals employed in domestic service or otherwise employed in or about the employer's residence. Further, the following are exempt from the District's minimum wage and overtime laws: employees employed in a bona fide executive, administrative or professional capacity; outside salespersons; and persons delivering newspapers to the homes of customers. The rate for laundry and dry cleaning employees is $5.45 per hour and $4.95 per hour if an employer provides health benefits. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Delaware choose another state |
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Delaware's minimum wage rate is $6.15 per hour. All employees are covered under Delaware's minimum wage law except (1) agricultural employees, (2) domestics, (3) executive, administrative and professional employees, or outside commissioned salespersons (not including route drivers), (4) employees of the United States, (5) voluntary workers for educational, charitable, religious or nonprofit organizations, and (6) those employed in the catching and first processing of seafood. Also exempt are individuals under the age of 18 participating in and employed as junior counselors or counselors in training by a nonprofit organization in a summer camp program. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Florida choose another state |
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Effective January 1, 2006, the minimum wage rate in Florida is $6.40 per hour. Effective May 2, 2005, and before January 1, 2006, the minimum wage in Florida is $6.15 per hour. Local governments in Florida cannot require employers to pay a minimum wage other than the federal minimum wage. This law does not affect local living wages or minimum wage rates that are already in effect. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Georgia choose another state |
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The minimum wage in Georgia is $5.15 per hour. Georgia's minimum wage law covers all employees with the exception of farm workers, sharecroppers, land renters, those covered under federal Fair Labor Standards Act, domestic workers, high school and college students, those who receive tips, workers in companies with sales of less than $40,000 or that have five or less employees, newspaper carriers and certain occupations specified by the Commissioner of Labor. In Georgia, a local government entity may not adopt, maintain, or enforce by charter, ordinance, purchase agreement, contract, regulation, rule, or resolution, either directly or indirectly, a wage or employment benefit mandate. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Hawaii choose another state |
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Effective January 1, 2006, employers in Hawaii must pay employees a minimum wage of $6.75 per hour. The minimum wage rate before January 1, 2006 is $6.25 per hour. Effective January 1, 2007, the minimum wage rate in Hawaii is $7.25 per hour. All employees are covered by Hawaii's minimum wage law, except those employed: (1) at a monthly guaranteed salary of at least $2,000; (2) in agriculture in workweeks in which less than 20 workers are employed; (3) in domestic employment; (4) by certain relatives; (5) in a bona fide executive, administrative, professional or supervisory capacity; (6) as outside salespersons or collectors; (7) in the fishing industry; (8) as seamen; (9) as drivers of vehicles for hire operating on call from a fixed stand; (10) as golf caddies; (11) as student workers by nonprofit schools; (12) as employees subject to minimum wage and maximum hours provisions of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act; (13) as resident staff members at seasonal youth camps; or (14) any automobile salesperson employed by a licensed car or truck dealer. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Iowa choose another state |
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The minimum wage rate in Iowa is $5.15 per hour. All employees are covered, except: (1) bona fide executive, administrative, and professional employees, including persons employed as academic administrative personnel or teachers; (2) certain persons employed by retail or service establishments with the majority of its annual dollar volume of sales made within the state; (3) persons employed by an amusement or recreational establishment, organized camp, or religious or non-profit educational conference center, if it does not operate for more than seven months a year or if its average receipts for any six months of the year were not more than one-third of its average receipts for the other six months of the year; (4) persons employed in the fishing and aquaculture industries; (5) any agricultural employee who is (a) employed by an employer who did not, during any calendar quarter during the preceding year, use more than 500 man-days of agricultural labor, (b) the parent, spouse, child or other member of his employer's immediate family, (c) a hand harvest laborer, is paid on a piece-rate basis, commutes daily to the farm and has been employed in agriculture less than 13 weeks during the preceding calendar year, (d) other than in (c), under 16 years of age, is employed on the same farm as his parent and is paid at the same piece-rate as those over 16 years of age, or (e) principally engaged in the range production of livestock; (6) employees of a weekly, semiweekly, or daily newspaper with a circulation of less than 4,000; (7) switchboard operators employed by independently owned public telephone companies with no more than 750 stations; (8) seamen on non-American vessels; and (9) domestics. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Idaho choose another state |
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The minimum wage rate in Idaho is $5.15 per hour. Idaho's minimum wage and overtime law covers all employees, except those engaged in agriculture, domestic service, in a bona fide administrative, executive or professional capacity, as outside salespersons, in federal or state employment, as seasonal employees of a nonprofit camping program or to any child under 16 working not more than four hours daily with one employer at odd jobs. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Illinois choose another state |
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Effective January 1, 2005, the Illinois minimum wage rate is $6.50 per hour for individuals 18 years of age and older. The minimum wage for 2004 was $5.50 per hour. Exempted from coverage under Illinois minimum wage law are (1) employers with fewer than four employees, (2) many agricultural laborers, (3) domestic workers, (4) outside salespersons, (5) members of religious corporations or organizations, (6) students employed at an accredited college or university by the institution and covered by the federal wage law and (7) camp counselors who reside on the premises of a nonprofit organization if the counselor works 40 hours per week or more and receives a total weekly salary of not less than the adult minimum wage for a 40-hour week (counselors working less than a 40-hour week must be paid the minimum wage for each hour worked). Up to 25 percent of a counselor's total salary may be considered room and board. Camp counselors employed at day camps sponsored by nonprofit organizations are not subject to the state adult minimum wage if paid a stipend on a one-time or periodic basis and, if the individual is a minor, the minor's parent or guardian has consented in writing to the terms of payment before the employment commenced. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Indiana choose another state |
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The minimum wage rate in Indiana is $5.15 per hour. All employers with two or more employees during any workweek, including the state of Indiana and its political subdivisions, are covered by the state minimum wage laws. Excluded are those employers subject to the provisions of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Further, the term employees does not include: (1) individuals under 16 years of age; (2) independent contractors; (3) persons performing services not in the course of the employing unit's trade; (4) employees paid on a commission basis; (5) persons employed by parents or vice versa; (6) members of any religious order rendering service to such order or any priest, rabbi, minister or the like; (7) student nurses; (8) medical interns or residents; (9) student embalmers and students performing work for any school that they regularly attend; (10) "handicapped" persons employed by nonprofit organizations; (11) insurance agents paid on commission basis; (12) persons performing services for any camping or recreational facilities operated by nonprofit organizations; (13) agricultural workers; (14) persons employed in an executive, administrative or professional capacity, or as outside salespersons; (15) persons employed for not more than four weeks in any year; (16) any employee with whom the Interstate Commerce Commission has power to establish working conditions pursuant to the Motor Carrier Act of 1935; (17) employees subject to the Public Service Commission of Indiana; and (18) motion picture employees. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Kansas choose another state |
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The hourly minimum wage in Kansas is $2.65 per hour. The Kansas minimum wage law covers all employees except those individuals: (1) employed in agriculture; (2) employed in domestic service in or about a private home; (3) who are bona fide executive, administrative or professional employees; (4) employed as an outside salesperson on commission; (5) employed by the federal government; (6) who render voluntary service to a nonprofit organization; (7) 18 years of age or younger, who are employed on a part-time basis; (8) school district employees working in an executive, administrative or professional capacity during 50 percent or more of their working time; (9) whose employer is covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act; or (10) who are employed by the U.S. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Kentucky choose another state |
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The minimum wage in Kentucky is $5.15 per hour. Kentucky's minimum wage law covers all employees except: (1) those employed in agriculture; (2) executive, supervisory and professional personnel, outside salespersons and collectors; (3) federal employees; (4) those employed in domestic service (except where more than one such worker is employed in a single household); (5) employees of retail stores, service industries, hotels, motels and restaurants whose employer grossed less than $95,000 a year, or who are a parent, spouse or child of such an employer; (6) babysitters and companions in private homes; (7) newspaper deliverers; (8) emergency employees subject to regulation by the Commissioner of Revenue; (9) employees of nonprofit camps and conference centers that do not operate more than seven months per year; and (10) houseparents in licensed nonprofit child care facilities. Individuals providing companionship services who are employed by a third-party employer or agency are exempt from the minimum wage rules. Companionship services are services which provide in-home fellowship, care, and protection for a person who, because of advanced age or mental or physical infirmity, cannot care for his or her own needs. These services may include household work related to the care of the aged or infirm person such as meal preparation, bed making, clothes washing, and other similar services. These services may also include the performance of general household work, provided that the household work is incidental, meaning that it does not exceed 20 percent of the total weekly hours worked. Companionship services do not include services relating to the care and protection of the aged and infirm which require and are performed by trained personnel, such as a registered or practical nurse. Nonprofit corporations that employ handicapped and sheltered workshop employees at federally established minimum wage requirements are exempt from the state minimum wage requirements established for companies that seek rural economic development incentives. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Louisiana choose another state |
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Louisiana has no minimum wage law. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Massachusetts choose another state |
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The current minimum wage in Massachusetts is $6.75 per hour. A higher minimum applies to city contractors in Boston. Coverage is extended to agricultural employees at minimum hourly rate of $1.60. Covered by Massachusetts minimum wage law are all occupations, excluding professional service; outside sales work regularly performed away from employer's place of business; work by persons being rehabilitated or trained in charitable, educational or religious institutions and work by members of religious orders. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Maryland choose another state |
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Effective 30 days from January 17, 2006, the minimum wage rate in Maryland is $6.15 per hour. Previously, the minimum wage rate in Maryland was $5.15 per hour. The minimum wage rate applies to all employees in Maryland with the following exceptions: (1) certain persons employed in agricultural labor; (2) a physically or mentally handicapped trainee; (3) someone working in an executive, administrative or professional capacity; (4) volunteers for nonprofit organizations; (5) persons who work for not more than 20 hours in any week and who are under 16; (6) outside salespersons paid on a commission basis; (7) persons who are 62 years or older and work less than 25 hours per week; (8) persons employed in the first processing, canning, packaging or freezing of perishable fruits, vegetables, horticultural commodities; poultry or seafood; (9) persons employed by an immediate family member; (10) persons employed in motion picture theaters; (11) persons employed in restaurants, cafes, taverns, drive-ins; drugstores, or other establishments that sell food and drink on the premises and that have an annual gross income of $250,000 or less; and (12) resident or day camp personnel in organized camps in Maryland. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Maine choose another state |
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Effective October 1, 2005, the minimum wage in Maine is $6.50 per hour. Effective October 1, 2006, the minimum wage in Maine is $6.75 per hour. Effective October 1, 2004, and before October 1, 2005, the minimum wage in Maine was $6.35 per hour. Exempted from coverage under Maine's minimum wage law are individuals employed (1) in agriculture, (2) in domestic service, (3) in occupations not subject to close supervision and in which earnings are derived in whole or in part from sales commissions, (4) as taxicab drivers, (5) in public-supported or educational nonprofit organizations, (6) as counselors or student employees under 19 years old, employed at camps owned or operated by corporations without capital stock, (7) in the fishing industry, (8) as switchboard operators in public telephone exchanges with less than 750 stations, (9) as unsupervised homeworkers, (10) as relatives who live with and depend on the employer or (11) in a bona fide executive, administrative or professional capacity with a salary of not less than $175 weekly. Employers are required to give notice to all affected employees prior to decreasing the rate of pay. Employers are not required to give prior notice before returning employees to the regular wage rate, if the increase in pay is temporary in order to comply with federal prevailing wage requirements or other applicable federal or state law. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Michigan choose another state |
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Michigan's minimum wage rate is $5.15 per hour. Effective October 1, 2006, Michigan's minimum wage rate is $6.95 per hour ($7.15 effective July 1, 2007; $7.40 effective July 1, 2008). Employers of two or more people who are at least 16 years of age and who work on the premises of their employer or at a fixed site designated by that employer are covered under Michigan's minimum wage law. Exemptions apply to employers subject to the minimum wage provisions of the FLSA; persons employed in summer camps for not more than four months; and fruit, pickle, and tomato growers. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Minnesota choose another state |
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Effective August 1, 2005, the minimum wage rate in Minnesota is $6.15 per hour for large firms (those with annual receipts of $500,000 or more) and $5.25 for small firms (those with annual receipts below $500,000). Effective August 1, 2005, employers may pay employees under the age of 20 a wage of $4.90 per hour during the first 90 consecutive days of employment. Before August 1, 2005, the minimum wage rate in Minnesota is $5.15 per hour for large firms (those with annual receipts of $500,000 or more) and $4.90 for small firms (those with annual receipts below $500,000). Before August 1, 2005, employers may pay employees under the age of 20 a wage of $4.25 per hour during the first 90 consecutive days of employment. Minnesota's minimum wage law covers any employee except: (1) agricultural workers on farms with less than two full-time workers or no more than four workers at any one time; (2) farm workers under 18; (3) any individual working as a camp counselor in an organized resident or day camp; (4) bona fide executive, administrative or professional employees, or salesperson who conduct less than 20 percent of sales on an employer's premises; (5) those working gratuitously for a nonprofit organization; (6) any individual serving as an elected official for a political subdivision or on a governmental board, commission, committee or similar body or who renders service gratuitously to a political subdivision; (7) police officers and fire fighters; (8) public employees ineligible for the Public Employees Retirement Association; (9) taxi drivers; (10) babysitters; (11) part-time workers under 18 employed by a municipality as part of a recreational program; (12) anyone employed by the state as a conservation officer; (13) any motor carrier whose qualifications and hours are subject to control by the U.S. Department of Transportation; (14) seafarers; (15) overnight home care employees for up to eight hours between the hours of 10 p.m. and 9 a.m. if they are paid the minimum wage for at least four hours of an overnight stay; (16) clergy or members of religious orders working in the order's schools, hospitals and churches; (17) houseparents at county home schools; and (18) persons employed seasonally at carnivals, circuses, fairs, or ski resorts within the state. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Missouri choose another state |
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The minimum wage in Missouri is $5.15 per hour. Employers must pay workers in interstate commerce the same minimum wage rate as required by federal law. Retail or service businesses with gross annual sales or business of less than $500,000 are exempt. The minimum wage provisions in Missouri do not apply to agricultural employees or employers. In addition, executive, administrative or professional employees; volunteers; foster parents; employees covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act; camp employees; certain educational organization employees; "handymen"; persons with disabilities employed in sheltered workshops; domestics; babysitters and companions; employees covered by Part I of the Interstate Commerce Act; golf caddies and newspaper delivery persons; commissioned salespersons; federal employees; some retail or service business employees; prisoners; and local newspaper employees are not covered by the minimum wage law. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Mississippi choose another state |
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Mississippi has no minimum wage law. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Montana choose another state |
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Montana's employers must pay $5.15 per hour excluding the value of tips. However, the minimum wage rate for businesses whose annual gross sales are $110,000 or less is $4.00 per hour. Montana's minimum wage law covers all employees except: students in distributive education programs under the auspices of accredited educational agencies; persons employed in private homes whose duties are menial in nature, persons employed in households to care for children dependent on the head of the household, members of the immediate family of an employer or dependent upon an employer; volunteers of nonprofit organizations who are not regular employees; handicapped workers in training programs or who are so impaired as to be unable to engage in competitive employment; learners or apprentices for a period of up to 30 days after employment or those learners under 18 employed as farm workers (their exclusion may not exceed 180 days and the wage paid must be at least 50 percent of the minimum), retired or semiretired workers performing incidental farm work; individuals employed as executives, administrators or professionals; employees of the United States; resident managers employed in lodging establishments or personal care facilities; outside salespersons or marketing representatives paid on commission, contract or salary basis who are employed by the food distribution industry for a broker, wholesaler or association; direct sellers; or participants in certain public assistance programs. |
| Minimum Wage Law in North Carolina choose another state |
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The minimum wage rate in North Carolina is $5.15 per hour. All employees are covered by North Carolina's minimum wage law, with the following exemptions: (1) agricultural employees; (2) domestics, including babysitters and companions; (3) pages in the state general assembly or governor's office; (4) persons confined in and working for any penal, correctional or mental institution of the State or a local government; (5) models, actors or performers in motion pictures or theatrical, radio or television productions; (6) persons employed by an outdoor drama in a production role, including lighting, costumes, properties and special effects; (7) any employee of a summer youth camp or of a seasonal religious or nonprofit educational conference center; (8) persons employed in catching, processing or first sale of seafood; (9) persons employed in a bona fide executive, administrative, professional or outside sales capacity; (10) persons employed in an enterprise engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce as defined in the federal Fair Labor Standards Act; (11) volunteers in medical, educational, religious or nonprofit organizations, including volunteer firefighters, rescue and emergency medical services personnel in an incorporated, nonprofit, volunteer community fire department or rescue squad; (12) immediate family or dependents of an employer; (13) seasonal recreation program employees; (14) any person while participating in a ridesharing arrangement; and (15) computer systems analysts, computer programmers, software engineers, or other similarly skilled workers. |
| Minimum Wage Law in North Dakota choose another state |
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The minimum wage in North Dakota is $5.15 per hour for all occupations including public housekeepers. All employees, including state employees, are covered by North Dakota's minimum wage law, with the exception of: (1) employees of nonprofit youth camps; (2) golf course caddies; (3) any person working on a casual basis for less than twenty hours per week for less than three consecutive weeks as a babysitter; (4) a guide, cook, or camp-tender for a hunting or fishing guide service; (5) any person in a program for youthful or first-time offenders designed as an alternative to incarceration if the person enters the program voluntarily, does not displace regular employees; is under court supervision or control, and performs the work without contemplation of pay; (6) prison or jail inmates who do work directly associated with the incarceration program; (7) actors or extras for a motion picture; (8) volunteers who donate their time and services; and (9) student trainees where the training does not benefit the employer and the trainee benefits from the training and is not entitled to a job or wages. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Nebraska choose another state |
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The general minimum wage rate is $5.15 per hour in Nebraska. Nebraska's minimum wage law covers all employers employing four or more employees at any one time, except for seasonal employment of not more than 20 weeks in any calendar year, and those employed in: (a) agriculture; (b) as a babysitter in a private home; (c) executive, administrative, professional and supervisory employees; (d) public employment, federal, state or the state's political subdivisions; (e) the activities of an educational, charitable, religious or nonprofit organization where employer/employee relationship does not exist or where services are rendered on a voluntary basis; (f) apprentices and learners; (g) veterans in training under supervision of the Veterans Administration; (h) children in the employ of their parents and vice versa; and (i) any person who directly or indirectly receives any form of federal, state, or local aid or welfare, and who has a physical or mental disability. |
| Minimum Wage Law in New Hampshire choose another state |
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The statutory minimum wage in New Hampshire is $5.15 per hour. Persons 16 years of age or under are exempted from the minimum wage requirement, but such persons may not be paid less than 75 percent of the applicable statutory minimum wage. All other employees are covered, except those who are children employed by their parents, grandparents, or persons acting in their stead, who in turn furnish full maintenance to the child and spouses working for the other spouse on a volunteer basis; those engaged in household labor, domestic labor, farm labor, or as outside salespersons; employees in summer camps for minors; newspaper delivery persons; nonprofessional ski patrol; golf caddies; and employees subject to the FLSA. |
| Minimum Wage Law in New Jersey choose another state |
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Effective October 1, 2005, the minimum wage rate in New Jersey is $6.15 per hour. Before October 1, 2005, the minimum wage in New Jersey is $5.15 per hour. Effective October 1, 2006, the minimum wage rate is $7.15 per hour. New Jersey's minimum wage law applies to all employees except: outside salespersons; persons selling motor vehicles; part-time employees primarily engaged in the care and tending of children in the home of the employer; and minors under 18 (except that minors under 18 in the first processing of farm products, hotels, motels and restaurants are covered by wage order rates and vocational school graduates with special permits under the Child Labor Law are covered by the statutory rate). In addition, summer camps, conferences and retreats operated by any nonprofit or religious corporation or association are exempt from minimum wage and overtime rates during the months of June, July, August and September. Employees engaged on a piece-rate basis to labor on a farm must be paid for each day worked not less than the minimum hourly wage rate multiplied by the total number of hours worked. |
| Minimum Wage Law in New Mexico choose another state |
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New Mexico's minimum wage rate is $5.15 per hour. Any individual employed by an employer is covered by New Mexico's minimum wage law except: (1) domestic workers; (2) bona fide executive, administrative, or professional employees, foremen, superintendents, and supervisors; (3) public employees; (4) employees of educational, charitable, religious, or nonprofit organizations employed on a voluntary basis; (5) salespersons or employees compensated upon piece work, flat rate schedules or commission basis; (6) students working after school or on vacation; (7) apprentices and learners; (8) employees of ambulance services; (9) GI bill trainees; (10) seasonal employees of educational, charitable or religious youth camps or retreats, if the employer has acquired a valid certificate issued annually by the state labor commissioner; (11) certain agricultural workers; (12) resident-employees of charitable, nonprofit homes for the retarded or disturbed; and (13) minors under age 18 who are not students or who are not graduates of secondary, vocational or training schools. Employers furnishing food, utilities, supplies, or housing to an employee who is engaged in agriculture may deduct the reasonable value of these furnished items from any wages due to the employee. Employers covered include those with only one employee. Employees engaged in interstate commerce, whose hours of labor are governed by federal law are not covered by New Mexico's minimum wage law. Effective June 17, 2005, the Day Laborer Act is enacted and specifies duties of the third-party employer and the day labor service agency as to payment of wages, prohibits wage deductions that would lower the worker's pay below the federal rate, prohibits restrictions on agencies from preventing permanent employment with the third-party employer, allows for the agency to collect a reasonable placement fee from the third-party employer, and provides penalties for violations. Registered farm labor contractors; temporary agencies using advanced applications, screening and job interviews; labor union hiring halls; and a labor bureau or employment office operated by a business entity to employ persons for its own use are exempt from the provisions of the Day Laborer Act. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Nevada choose another state |
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The current minimum wage rate in Nevada is $5.15 per hour. Minors must be paid at least $4.38 an hour (85 percent of minimum wage). All employees in private employment in Nevada are covered by its minimum wage law except casual babysitters, live-in domestics, commissioned outside salespersons, agricultural employees working for an employer who does not use more than 500 man-days of farm labor per calendar year, taxicab and limousine drivers, and certain disabled individuals. |
| Minimum Wage Law in New York choose another state |
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Effective January 1, 2006, the minimum wage rate in New York is $6.75 per hour. The minimum wage rate for 2005 is $6.00 per hour ($5.15 for 2004). Effective January 1, 2007, the minimum wage rate in New York will increase to $7.15 per hour. Other wage rates are in effect in specific industries pursuant to wage orders. The law states that when the statutory minimum increases, existing wage order rates must be raised in the same proportion. All employees are covered by New York's minimum wage law, except: (1) part-time babysitters in the home of an employer; (2) individuals who live in the home of an employer while serving as a companion to a sick, convalescing or elderly person and whose principal duties do not include housekeeping; (3) farm laborers; (4) executive, administrative or professional employees; (5) outside salespersons; (6) taxicab drivers; (7) volunteers, learner or apprentice for a corporation, unincorporated association, community chest, fund or foundation organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable or educational purposes — no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual; (8) members of a religious orders, duly ordained, commissioned or licensed ministers, priests or rabbis, or sextons or Christian Science readers; (9) workers in or for a religious or charitable institution, when work is incidental to or in return for charitable aid conferred upon such individual and not under any express contract of hire; (10) students working in or for religious, educational or charitable institutions; (11) workers in or for religious, educational or charitable institutions if the individual's earning capacity is impaired by age or by physical or mental deficiency or injury; (12) employees of religious, educational or charitable institutions' summer camps or conferences, if employed for not more than three months annually; (13) staff counselors at children's camps; (14) students working in college or university fraternity, sorority, student associations or faculty associations (recognized by the college or university), whose net earnings do not inure to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual; or (15) federal, state or municipal government or political subdivision employees. Effective August 30, 2005, the definition of employee for minimum wage purposes excludes volunteers who are at least 18 years of age and work at a recreational or amusement event which lasts no longer than eight consecutive days, where no more than one event occurs in any calendar year. The employer must provide written notice of the minimum wage exception to the worker and keep the notice on file for 36 months. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Ohio choose another state |
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Effective June 30, 2006, the minimum wage in Ohio is $5.15 per hour. Before June 30, 2006, employers in Ohio with $500,000 or more in gross annual sales must pay a minimum wage of $5.15 per hour. Employers with less than $500,000, but at least $150,000 in gross annual sales must pay $3.35 per hour. Employers with less than $150,000 in gross annual sales must pay employees at least $2.80 per hour. Not covered by the act are employees of the United States, babysitters and live-in companions, people who deliver newspapers to the consumer, outside salespersons, executive, administrative and professional employees, certain agricultural employees, employees of charitable hospitals, police and fire fighters, students working part-time or on a seasonal basis for a political subdivision, and children's nonprofit camp and recreational employees. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Oklahoma choose another state |
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Employees in Oklahoma must be paid a wage of $5.15 per hour. All employers of ten or more full-time employees at one location or place of business or employers with a gross business of more than $100,000 annually are covered by Oklahoma's minimum wage law. All others are subject to a $2.00 minimum wage per hour. Excluded from coverage are individuals employed as: (1) farm laborers in connection with raising or harvesting any agricultural commodity or connected with the operation or management of a farm; (2) domestic service in or about private homes; (3) U.S. Government service; (4) volunteers in a charitable or religious organization; (5) newspaper vendors or carriers; (6) employees of any carrier subject to regulation by Part I of the Interstate Commerce Act; (7) employees of any employer subject to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act or any other federal wage and hour law that is paying the minimum wage under the applicable provisions; (8) any executive, administrative, professional employee or outside salesperson; (9) part-time employment of less than 25 hours per week; (10) work by a person under 18 years of age who is not a graduate of high school or a vocational training program, or a person under 22 years of age who is regularly enrolled in a high school, college, university or vocational training program; (11) feed store operators for the benefit of farmers and ranchers; (12) reserve force deputy sheriffs. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Oregon choose another state |
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Effective January 1, 2006, the minimum wage rate is $7.50 per hour. The minimum wage rate for 2005 is $7.25 per hour ($7.05 for 2004). Oregon's minimum wage law covers all employees except most agricultural laborers; domestic servants; administrative, executive or professional employees who: (a) perform predominantly intellectual, managerial, or creative tasks, (b) exercise discretion and independent judgment and (c) earn a salary and are paid on a salary basis; federal employees; employees of an institution whose primary function is education and at which the employee is a student; employees in the capacity of an outside salesperson or taxicab operator; employees who perform child care services in their homes or in the child's home; anyone domiciled at a place of employment for the purpose of being available for emergency or occasional duties; persons paid for specified hours of employment, the only purpose of which is to be available for call to duty; persons domiciled at multiunit accommodations designed to provide other people with temporary or permanent lodging for the purpose of maintenance, management or assisting in management; persons employed on a seasonal basis at an educational or organized camp generating gross annual income of less than $500,000; persons employed at nonprofit conference ground or center operated for educational, charitable or religious purposes; volunteer fire fighters; companions; golf caddies; resident managers of adult foster homes; managers of mobile home parks; and volunteer hosts at government campgrounds. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Pennsylvania choose another state |
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Pennsylvania employers must pay employees at least $5.15 per hour. All employees are covered by Pennsylvania's minimum wage and overtime law, except the following: (1) farm laborers; (2) domestic servants; (3) persons delivering newspapers to consumers; (4) certain newspaper employees; (5) executives, professionals, administrators and outside salespersons; (6) volunteer educational, religious or charitable workers; (7) certain seasonal employees; (8) employees in certain amusement or recreational establishments; (9) golf caddies; (10) telephone company switchboard operators; (11) employees not subject to civil service laws — elective office holders, their staff members or advisors; and (12) travel time for participants in ridesharing arrangements. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Puerto Rico choose another state |
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Workers not covered by the FLSA must be paid a minimum wage equivalent to 70% of the prevailing minimum wage. Different minimum wage rates are set in Puerto Rico for workers in different industries, ranging from $3.61 to $5.15. Agricultural workers are guaranteed an income of not less than $1.17 an hour. In addition, those who have worked at least 200 hours or had an income of at least $200 for agricultural work will be paid an annual bonus of the greater of $50 or 4%, up to a maximum of $80. Puerto Rico has an annual bonus law for private sector employees. For 2006, employers are to give employees a bonus of up to 3 percent of wages (3 percent of up to $10,000 in wages or up to $200); 4.5 percent in 2007 (4.5 percent of up to $10,000 in wages or up to $450); and 6 percent in 2008 (6 percent of up to $10,000 in wages or up to $600). For employers with 15 or fewer employees, the bonus for 2006 is 2.5 percent ($250); for 2007, 2.75 percent ($275); and for 2008, 3 percent ($300). The bonus rules apply to workers who work 700 or more hours, (100 hours in the case of dockworkers), and is based on a calendar year of 12 months from October of any calendar year until September 30 of the subsequent calendar year. Bonuses are not to exceed 15 percent of the employer's net annual profit. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Rhode Island choose another state |
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Effective March 1, 2006, the minimum wage rate in Rhode Island is $7.10 per hour. Before March 1, 2006, the minimum wage rate in Rhode Island is $6.75 per hour. Minors 14 and 15 years old must be paid no less than 75 percent of the minimum wage for 24 or less hours of work. However, any minor who works more than 24 hours in a workweek for any one employer must be paid the adult rate. Most employers are covered by Rhode Island's minimum wage law. Exclusions include individuals employed in (1) domestic service, (2) federal employment, (3) activities of educational, religious or nonprofit organizations where employer/employee relationship does not exist, or where services are rendered voluntarily, (4) individuals employed to deliver newspapers, shine shoes, caddie, set pins in a bowling alley, usher in theaters; (5) traveling or outside salespersons; (6) persons under 18 performing services for their family; (7) employees working between May 1 and October 1 in resort establishments serving meals to the general public and open for not more than six months a year; and (8) seasonal work in organized camps. |
| Minimum Wage Law in South Carolina choose another state |
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South Carolina has no minimum wage law. |
| Minimum Wage Law in South Dakota choose another state |
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Every South Dakota employer must pay employees 20 years of age or older at least $5.15 per hour. All employees, including common carriers, are covered by South Dakota's minimum wage law with the exception of persons under age 20 who are paid an opportunity wage, babysitters, and outside salespersons. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Tennessee choose another state |
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Tennessee has no minimum wage law. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Texas choose another state |
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Texas adopted the federal minimum wage rate by reference. This means that, unless otherwise exempt, every employer in Texas must pay each of its employees not less than the current federal minimum rate of $5.15 an hour. The Texas minimum wage law applies to all employees except: (1) persons subject to federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA); (2) any person who is a member of a religious order while performing any service for or at the direction of the order and any duly ordained, commissioned, or licensed minister, priest, rabbi, sexton, or Christian Science reader while performing services as such for a church, synagogue, or religious organization; (3) any person under 18 who is not a high school or vocational training program graduate, and any person under 20 who is a regularly enrolled high school, college, university, or vocational training program student (however, this exemption does not apply to persons employed in agriculture who are paid on a piece-rate basis); (4) bona fide executive, administrative or professional employees and public officials; (5) outside salespersons or collectors paid on a commission basis; (6) any person performing domestic service in or about private homes, including babysitting in or out of the employer's home, and any person while living in or about the home providing personal care for any resident of the home; (7) inmates of the state penitentiary or local jails; (8) any person engaged in activities of an educational, charitable, religious, or nonprofit organization in which the employer/employee relationship does not in fact exist or in which the services are rendered to the organization gratuitously; (9) any person employed by an immediate relative or in-law, guardian or person standing in place of an immediate relative, in-law or guardian; (10) handicapped persons under 22 who are clients of a vocational rehabilitation workshop and participating in a cooperative school-work program; (11) any person employed by an amusement or recreational establishment that does not operate for more than seven months of any calendar year, or whose average receipts for any six months of the preceding calendar year do not exceed 33.3 percent of its average receipts for the other six months of the same year; (12) any employee of the Boy Scouts of America, Girl Scouts of America, or affiliated organizations; (13) any person employed by any camp of a religious, educational, charitable or nonprofit organization; (14) any person employed in dairy farming; (15) any person, except those employed in agriculture, whose employer is not subject to liability for payment of contributions to the Unemployment Compensation Fund under the provisions of the Texas Unemployment Compensation Act, as amended and (16) persons employed with their spouses by nonprofit educational institutions to serve as parents of (a) orphans or children with only one living parent or (b) institutionalized children, if the employees live in and receive board and lodging from the institution. The rate established under the Texas Minimum Wage Act supercedes a wage established in an ordinance, order or charter provision governing wages in private employment, other than wages under a public contract. This provision does not apply to state or federal job training or workforce development programs or to a wage established under a contract or agreement between governmental and private entities. Provisions allowing for reduced wages where a person's earning or productive capacity is impaired by age, physical or mental deficiency, or injury, per a medical certificate, or where the person is over 65 years of age are repealed. Other exceptions under the Texas Minimum Wage Act, including the reduced wages established under programs operated through the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, remain in effect. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Utah choose another state |
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All private and public adult employees in Utah must be paid a minimum wage of $5.15 per hour. The minimum wage does not apply to any employee covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act or to the following employees: (1) Outside salespersons; (2) Any employee who is a member of the employer's immediate family; (3) Casual and domestic employees; (4) Companionship services for persons who are unable to care for themselves because of age or infirmity; (5) Seasonal employees of nonprofit camping programs, religious or recreation programs, and nonprofit educational and charitable organizations; (6) Persons employed by the U.S. government; (7) Prisoners employed through the penal system; (8) Any worker employed in agriculture if the employee: (a) is principally engaged in the range production of livestock; (b) is employed as a harvest laborer and is paid on a piece-rate basis in an operation that has been and is generally recognized by custom as having been paid on a piece-rate basis in the region of employment; (c) was employed in agriculture less than 13 weeks during the preceding calendar year; or (d) is a retired or semiretired person performing part-time or incidental work as a condition of residence on a farm or ranch; (9) Registered apprentices or students employed by the educational institution in which they are enrolled; (10) Any seasonal hourly workers employed by a seasonal amusement establishment with permanent structures and facilities that: (a) does not operate for more than seven months in a calendar year; or (b) during the preceding calendar year its average receipts for any six months of such year were not more than one-third of its average receipts for the other six months of that year may be paid less than the applicable minimum wage, provided that other direct monetary compensation from tips, incentives, commissions, end-of-season bonus, or other form of pay is sufficient to cause the average hourly rate of total compensation for the season of employees who continue to work to the end of the operating season to equal the applicable minimum wage. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Virginia choose another state |
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The minimum hourly wage rate in Virginia is $5.15 per hour. Virginia's minimum wage law covers all employees except: (1) agricultural workers; (2) domestic servants in a private home and employees of publicly-funded charitable institutions; (3) volunteers at educational, charitable, religious or nonprofit organizations; (4) persons who deliver newspapers, persons who shine shoes, golf caddies, babysitters, theater ushers, concession attendants, "doormen" and cashiers; (5) employees under age 18 working for their parents or guardians; (6) salespersons on commission and taxi drivers; (7) persons who are confined in state or local penal or mental institutions; (8) employees of children's camps; (9) employees under age 16 or over age 64; (10) employees covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act; (11) employees who work on a piece-rate basis; (12) persons with "handicaps"; (13) apprentices and trainees; (14) full-time high school, college and trade school students; and (15) employees whose employer has fewer than four employees, excluding children, parents and spouse. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Virgin Islands choose another state |
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No information available. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Vermont choose another state |
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Effective January 1, 2006, the minimum wage rate is $7.25 per hour ($7.00 for 2005). Vermont's minimum wage law covers all employers with two or more employees. The term employee does not include individuals employed in: (1) agriculture; (2) domestic service; (3) federal or state employees; (4) publicly supported nonprofit organizations except practical nurses, nurses' aides, and laundry employees; (5) bona fide executive, administrative or professional capacity; (6) individuals employed to deliver newspapers to homes; (7) taxicab drivers; (8) outside salespersons; and (9) students working during all or any part of the school year or during vacations. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Washington choose another state |
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Effective January 1, 2006, employees who are 18 years of age and older must be paid at least $7.63 per hour in Washington. This rate is scheduled to increase via inflation adjustments annually. The minimum wage for 2005 is $7.35 per hour. Washington's minimum wage law applies to all employees, except individuals employed: (1) As hand harvest laborers who are paid on a piece-rate basis in an operation that customarily pays on a piece-rate basis in the region of employment, who commute daily from their homes and who have been employed in agriculture less than 13 weeks during the preceding calendar year; (2) In casual labor in or about a private home doing work not performed in the course of an employer's trade, business or profession; (3) In a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity or as an outside salesperson; (4) By a governmental agency; (5) In activities of educational, charitable, religious or nonprofit organizations where no employer-employee relationship exists; (6) As newspaper carriers or vendors; (7) By any carrier subject to regulation by the Interstate Commerce Act; (8) In forest protection or fire prevention activities; (9) By a charitable institution charged with child care responsibilities or providing recreational opportunities for young people or members of the armed forces of the United States; (10) In duties requiring that the employee reside or sleep at the place of employment, or otherwise spend a substantial portion of work time subject to call, while not engaged in the performance of active duties; (11) While a resident, inmate or patient of a state, county or municipal correctional, detention, treatment or rehabilitative institution; (12) While holding a public elective or appointive office of the state, any county, city, town, municipal corporation or quasimunicipal corporation, political subdivision or any instrumentality thereof, or as an employee of the state legislature; (13) As vessel-operating crews of the Washington state ferries operated by the state highway commission; or (14) As a "seaman" on a foreign vessel. The payment of a salary does not in and of itself exempt a worker from minimum wage and overtime requirements. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Wisconsin choose another state |
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Effective June 1, 2006, the minimum wage in Wisconsin is $6.50 per hour. Effective June 1, 2005, and before June 1, 2006, the minimum wage in Wisconsin is $5.70 per hour. Before June 1, 2005, the minimum wage in Wisconsin is $5.15 per hour. An "opportunity wage" of $4.25 may be paid to employees under 20 for the first 90 calendar days from the initial employment date. The rate is $4.55 for adult agricultural employees; and for counselors in seasonal recreational or educational camps, it is $140 per week ($110 if board is provided, $91 if board and lodging are provided). The rate for caddies is $3.35 per hour for nine holes and $5.95 for 18 holes. Wisconsin's minimum wage law covers all employees, except individuals engaged in house-to-house delivery of newspapers or direct retail sale to consumers, real estate agents or salespersons paid solely by commission and employees of the state and its political subdivisions. |
| Minimum Wage Law in West Virginia choose another state |
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Effective July 1, 2006, the minimum wage in West Virginia is $5.85 per hour. Before July 1, 2006, the minimum wage is $5.15 per hour in West Virginia. West Virginia's minimum wage law covers all public and private employers with six or more employees in one location or establishment unless 80 percent or more of the employees are covered by federal minimum and overtime wage provisions. The following categories of employees are excluded from the definition of employee: (1) agricultural workers; (2) federal employees; (3) state-employed fire fighters; (4) individuals engaged in educational, charitable, religious, fraternal or nonprofit activities where the employer/employee relationship does not exist or where services are voluntary; (5) persons who deliver newspapers, persons who shine shoes, golf caddies, pin setters and pin chasers in bowling lanes, and ushers in theaters; (6) traveling or outside salespersons; (7) individuals employed by their immediate families; (8) individuals employed in bona fide executive, administrative or professional capacities; (9) individuals employed on a part-time basis who are students; (10) persons engaged in on-the-job training; (11) "handicapped" individuals in a nonprofit sheltered workshop; (12) individuals employed by local or interurban motor bus carriers; (13) employees of a children's summer camp; and (14) persons 62 years of age or older who receive Social Security benefits. |
| Minimum Wage Law in Wyoming choose another state |
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Wyoming's minimum wage rate is $5.15 per hour. All employees are covered by Wyoming's minimum wage law except those employed in: (1) Agriculture; (2) Domestic service; (3) Executive, administrative or professional capacities; (4) Public employment — federal or state; (5) Activities of educational, charitable, religious or nonprofit organizations where the employer/employee relationship does not exist; (6) Minors under 18 and part-time workers working 20 or less hours per week; (7) Outside salespersons paid on a commission basis; (8) Drivers of ambulances and other vehicles on call at any time; and (9) Individuals in educational or apprenticeship programs approved by the commissioner. |
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