What is the Minimum Wage Law in Your State?
Although the federal minimum wage will remain unchanged at $7.25 per hour for non-tipped employees ($2.13 per hour for tipped employees), thirteen states have raised pay for minimum wage workers in 2014. Further, eleven states—Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington—index the minimum wage so that it adjusts automatically each year to keep pace with the rising cost of living. The following guide provides the specifics of the minimum wage laws for each state.
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the federal minimum wage for covered nonexempt employees is $7.25 per hour effective July 24, 2009. Where an employee is subject to both the state and federal minimum wage laws, the employee is entitled to the higher minimum wage rate.
| State | Minimum Wage Rate | Increases Tied to Federal Minimum Wage | Indexed Automatic Adjustments |
| Alabama | None | ||
| Alaska | $7.75 | ||
| Arizona | $7.90 | Yes | |
| Arkansas | $6.25 (All employers with four or more employees must pay at least $6.25 per hour. If the employer does more than $500,000 per year in business, they must pay the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.) | ||
| California | $8.00 ($9.00 effective 7/1/2014) | ||
| Colorado | $8.00 | Yes | |
| Connecticut | $8.70 (The Connecticut minimum wage rate automatically increases to 1/2 of 1 percent above the rate set in the Fair Labor Standards Act if the Federal minimum wage rate equals or becomes higher than the State minimum.) | Yes | |
| Delaware | $7.25 | Yes | |
| Florida | $7.93 | Yes | |
| Georgia | $5.15 (The State law excludes from coverage any employment that is subject to the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act when the Federal rate is greater than the State rate.) | ||
| Hawaii | $7.25 | ||
| Idaho | $7.25 | ||
| Illinois | $8.25 | ||
| Indiana | $7.25 | Yes | |
| Iowa | $7.25 | Yes | |
| Kansas | $7.25 | ||
| Kentucky | $7.25 | Yes | |
| Louisiana | None | ||
| Maine | $7.50 (The Maine minimum wage is automatically replaced with the Federal minimum wage rate if it is higher than the State minimum with the exception that any such increase is limited to no more than $1.00 per hour above the current legislated State rate.) | Yes | |
| Maryland | $7.25 | Yes | |
| Massachusetts | $8.00 (The Massachusetts minimum wage rate automatically increases to 10 cents above the rate set in the Fair Labor Standards Act if the Federal minimum wage equals or becomes higher than the State minimum.) | Yes | |
| Michigan | $7.40 | ||
| Minnesota | $6.15/$5.25 ($6.15 applies to employers with an annual sales volume of more than $625,000; $5.25 applies to employers with annual sales of $625,000 or less)(The federal minimum wage for all employers grossing more than $500,000 is $7.25 an hour as of July 24, 2009, so the Minnesota large-employer rate of $6.15 an hour is obsolete in most cases as of that date except where there are specific exemptions from the federal, but not the state, minimum wage.) | ||
| Mississippi | None | ||
| Missouri | $7.50 (In addition to the exemption for federally covered employment, the law exempts, among others, employees of a retail or service business with gross annual sales or business of less than $500,000.) | Yes | |
| Montana | $7.90/$4.00 (the $4.00 rate applies to businesses with gross annual sales of $110,000 or less; $7.80 applies to all others) | Yes | |
| Nebraska | $7.25 | ||
| Nevada | $8.25/$7.25 ($8.25 without health benefits; $7.25 with health benefits) | Yes | |
| New Hampshire | Repealed by HB 133 (2011) | Yes | |
| New Jersey | $8.25 | Yes | |
| New Mexico | $7.50 | ||
| New York | $8.00 ($8.75 effective 12/31/2014) | Yes | |
| North Carolina | $7.25 | ||
| North Dakota | $7.25 | ||
| Ohio | $7.95/$7.25 ($7.25 for employers grossing $283,000 or less) | Yes | |
| Oklahoma | $7.25/$2.00 (Employers with ten or more full time employees at any one location and employers with annual gross sales over $100,000 irrespective of number of full time employees are subject to federal minimum wage; all others are subject to state minimum wage of $2.00.) | ||
| Oregon | $9.10 | Yes | |
| Pennsylvania | $7.25 | ||
| Rhode Island | $8.00 | ||
| South Carolina | None | ||
| South Dakota | $7.25 | ||
| Tennessee | None | ||
| Texas | $7.25 | ||
| Utah | $7.25 | ||
| Vermont | $8.73 | Yes | Yes |
| Virginia | $7.25 | ||
| Washington | $9.32 | Yes | |
| West Virginia | $7.25 | Yes | |
| Wisconsin | $7.25 | ||
| Wyoming | $5.15 (The State law excludes from coverage any employment that is subject to the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act when the Federal rate is greater than the State rate.) |
District of Columbia: Currently, the minimum wage in the District of Columbia is $8.25. The District of Columbia’s minimum wage will rise to $11.50 per hour—one of the highest local levels in the nation—by July 2016, under the D.C. Minimum Wage Amendment Act (B20-459), which was signed into law by Mayor Vincent Gray on January 15, 2014. The Act also indexes the minimum to the cost of living after 2016. The Act will be implemented in three installments: 1) on July 1, 2014 it will increase to $9.50; 2) on July 1, 2015 it will increase to $10.50; and 3) on July 1, 2016 it will increase to $11.50.
