How Much Is Minimum Wage in Mississippi Per Hour?

The minimum wage in Mississippi is $7.25 per hour. The state has no minimum wage law of its own, so the federal rate set by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) applies to most workers, and state law prevents cities and counties from setting a higher local rate.¹ The $7.25 rate has been in place since July 2009.²

Who Is Covered by the $7.25 Rate

Federal wage protections reach Mississippi workers through one of two paths.³

The first is enterprise coverage. Your employer is covered if it has at least two employees and does at least $500,000 per year in gross sales or business. Hospitals, schools, and government agencies are covered regardless of revenue.

The second is individual coverage. Even if your employer falls below the $500,000 threshold, you are personally covered if your work involves interstate commerce. That includes handling goods shipped across state lines, taking orders from out-of-state customers, or regularly using the mail or phone for business with people in other states.

Between these two paths, most Mississippi workers are covered. If your position falls outside both, the FLSA minimum wage does not apply to you, and Mississippi has no state law to fill the gap.

Tipped Workers

If you regularly earn more than $30 per month in tips, federal law treats you as a tipped employee.³ Your employer can pay a direct cash wage as low as $2.13 per hour and take a “tip credit” for the rest, but only if your tips plus that cash wage add up to at least $7.25 an hour.⁴ If they don’t, your employer has to make up the difference.

Before using the tip credit, your employer must tell you in advance how much cash wage you’ll be paid, how much tip credit will be claimed, and that you have the right to keep all your own tips aside from a valid tip pool. Skip that notice, and the tip credit isn’t allowed. You’d be owed the full $7.25 in cash.

Tip pooling is allowed, but managers, supervisors, and business owners can never take money from the pool.⁵

Younger Workers and Students

Workers under 20 can be paid as little as $4.25 per hour for their first 90 consecutive calendar days on the job.⁶ The clock runs on calendar days, not days worked. When 90 days pass or the worker turns 20, whichever comes first, the pay has to rise to at least $7.25. Employers cannot use this rate to push existing workers out of their jobs.

Full-time students in retail, service, or agricultural work can be paid 85 percent of the minimum wage, or $6.16 per hour, under a special certificate issued by the Department of Labor.⁷ The certificate caps the student’s weekly hours and protects other workers from being displaced. Without a valid certificate, the student is owed the full minimum wage.

Workers Who Aren’t Entitled to the Minimum Wage

The FLSA exempts several categories of workers from both minimum wage and overtime. The most common is the white-collar exemption for executive, administrative, and professional employees.⁸ To qualify, an employee has to meet two tests.

The salary test requires pay of at least $684 per week ($35,568 per year) on a salaried basis. A federal court vacated a 2024 rule that would have raised this threshold, so the Department of Labor is enforcing the $684 level set in 2019.⁹

The duties test requires that the employee’s primary responsibilities involve managing a department, exercising independent judgment on significant business matters, or performing work that requires advanced knowledge. A job title alone doesn’t count.

Miss either test, and the employee is entitled to the full minimum wage and overtime. Outside sales employees and certain computer professionals paid at least $27.63 per hour are also exempt. A separate “highly compensated employee” exemption applies to workers earning at least $107,432 per year who perform at least one executive, administrative, or professional duty.¹⁰

Independent contractors aren’t covered by the FLSA at all. The line between contractor and employee turns on whether the worker is economically dependent on the hiring business or truly running their own operation, with federal enforcement focused on how much control the business has over the work and whether the worker has a real chance at profit or loss. Misclassifying employees as contractors to duck the minimum wage is itself a federal labor violation.

Overtime at the Mississippi Rate

Covered employees who work more than 40 hours in a workweek must be paid one and a half times their regular hourly rate for the extra hours.¹¹ For a worker earning the $7.25 minimum, that comes out to $10.88 per hour past 40.

Non-discretionary bonuses and commissions have to be folded into the regular rate before overtime is calculated. Truly discretionary bonuses, like a surprise holiday gift with no set criteria, don’t. The same white-collar exemptions that lift a worker out of minimum wage coverage also lift them out of overtime.

If You’re Being Paid Less Than $7.25

You can file a complaint with the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.¹² Start by gathering pay stubs, time sheets, and any records showing hours worked and wages received. Then call the national hotline at 1-866-487-9243 or the Jackson, Mississippi district office at 601-965-4347. Questions can also go through the DOL website.

If the Division opens an investigation, an investigator will review employer records, interview employees privately, and hold conferences with the employer about any violations. Your identity stays confidential. If the investigation finds you’re owed back wages, the investigator will request payment from the employer.

You generally have two years from the date of the violation to file a claim for unpaid wages. If the violation was willful, meaning your employer knew it was breaking the law, the deadline extends to three years.¹³

What Employers Owe for Underpayment

An employer that fails to pay the required minimum wage or overtime owes the unpaid wages plus an equal amount in liquidated damages, roughly doubling what the worker is owed.¹⁴ In a lawsuit, the court must also order the employer to pay attorney’s fees and court costs. Federal civil penalties reach up to $2,515 per violation for repeated or willful failures, and willful violations can bring criminal fines of up to $10,000 or up to six months in jail.¹⁵

You Can’t Be Fired for Complaining

Federal law makes it illegal for your employer to fire you, cut your hours, demote you, or take any other adverse action because you filed a wage complaint, cooperated with an investigation, or raised a concern with a manager. The protection applies even if your complaint turns out to be based on a mistaken understanding of your rights, as long as it was made in good faith.

If your employer retaliates, you can file a retaliation complaint with the Wage and Hour Division or bring a private lawsuit. Remedies include reinstatement, back pay, an equal amount in liquidated damages, and attorney’s fees.¹⁴ The two-year deadline (three for willful violations) also applies to retaliation claims.¹³

1
U.S. Department of Labor. State Minimum Wage Laws
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 206 – Minimum Wage
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 203 – Definitions
4
eCFR. 29 CFR 531.59 – The Tip Wage Credit
5
eCFR. 29 CFR 531.54 – Tip Pooling
6
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 32 – Youth Minimum Wage – Fair Labor Standards Act
7
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 519 – Employment of Full-Time Students at Subminimum Wages
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 213 – Exemptions
9
U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemption
10
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 17H – Highly-Compensated Employees and the Part 541 Exemption
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 207 – Maximum Hours
12
U.S. Department of Labor. How to File a Complaint
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 255 – Statute of Limitations
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 216 – Penalties
15
U.S. Department of Labor. Wages and the Fair Labor Standards Act