How Much Is the Minimum Wage in South Carolina?

The minimum wage in South Carolina is $7.25 per hour. The state has never passed its own minimum wage law, so the federal rate set by the Fair Labor Standards Act applies to every non-exempt worker in the state, and has since July 2009.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 206 – Minimum Wage The U.S. Department of Labor confirms that South Carolina has no state minimum wage law and that FLSA-covered employers must pay the federal rate.2U.S. Department of Labor. State Minimum Wage Laws

Because South Carolina defers entirely to federal law on the hourly floor, any future increase would have to come from Congress. The state’s own wage law, the Payment of Wages Act, controls when and how you get paid, not the rate.

No City or County Can Set a Higher Rate

South Carolina Code Section 6-1-130 prohibits cities, counties, school districts, and other local governments from setting a minimum wage higher than the federal rate.3South Carolina Legislature. South Carolina Code 6-1-130 – Political Subdivisions; Scope of Authority to Set Minimum Wage Rates The preemption has been in place since 2002. So $7.25 is the floor in Charleston, Columbia, Greenville, and every other jurisdiction in the state.

One narrow exception: a local government can require a specific wage rate in a contract where the government itself is a party, such as a public construction project. Those rates cover only workers on that particular contract, not the general workforce.

Overtime After 40 Hours

Work more than 40 hours in a single workweek and your employer must pay you at least 1.5 times your regular rate for every extra hour.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 207 – Maximum Hours At the $7.25 minimum, that comes to at least $10.88 per overtime hour. South Carolina has no separate overtime rule, so the federal standard is the only one that applies.

Overtime is calculated one workweek at a time. Your employer defines a fixed, recurring seven-day period, and hours from one week cannot be averaged with another. Fifty hours one week and thirty the next still means ten hours of overtime for the first week, even though the two-week average is forty.

What Tipped Workers Get Paid

If you regularly receive more than $30 per month in tips, your employer can pay a direct cash wage as low as $2.13 per hour and claim a tip credit for the rest.5U.S. Department of Labor. Tip Regulations Under the Fair Labor Standards Act Your tips plus the $2.13 base still have to reach at least $7.25 for every hour worked. If they don’t, the employer owes you the difference.

Before taking the tip credit, your employer has to tell you in advance about the arrangement, including the cash wage, the credit amount, and that you keep your tips aside from valid pooling. Skip that notice and the employer loses the credit and owes the full $7.25 in direct wages.

Tip Pooling

Employers can require tipped workers to share tips through a pool. Federal law is firm on one point: managers, supervisors, and the employer itself can never take money from the pool, whether or not the employer uses a tip credit.6eCFR. 29 CFR 531.54 – Tip Pooling

Service Charges Are Not Tips

A mandatory charge on your bill, like an automatic gratuity on a large party or a banquet fee, is not a tip under federal law. Tips have to be voluntary, with the customer choosing the amount and the recipient. Service charges count as regular wages.7IRS. Tips Versus Service Charges: How to Report If your employer hands you a share of service charge revenue, that money is ordinary pay, not tips that satisfy the tip credit.

Who Can Legally Be Paid Less Than $7.25

Federal law allows a few narrow exceptions to the full minimum wage.

  • Workers under 20 can be paid a training wage of $4.25 per hour during their first 90 consecutive calendar days on the job. After that window closes, or the worker turns 20, whichever comes first, the full minimum kicks in. An employer cannot fire or cut the hours of an existing employee to bring someone in at the youth rate.8U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #32: Youth Minimum Wage – Fair Labor Standards Act
  • Full-time students working in retail, service, agriculture, or at a college can be paid 85% of the minimum wage (about $6.16 per hour) if their employer holds a special federal certificate.9eCFR. 29 CFR 519.15 – Conditions Governing Issuance of Full-Time Student Certificates
  • Student learners in vocational education programs can also receive sub-minimum wages if the employer has the appropriate DOL certificate.
  • Salaried executive, administrative, and professional employees are exempt from both minimum wage and overtime if they earn at least $684 per week (about $35,568 per year) on a salary basis and meet specific duties tests. The DOL tried to raise this threshold in 2024, but a federal court vacated that rule in November 2024, leaving the 2019 threshold in place.10U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemption

What You Can Recover If You’re Underpaid

If your employer pays you less than $7.25 an hour, or shorts you on overtime, federal law lets you recover more than just the missing wages.

  • Every dollar of unpaid wages, plus an equal amount in liquidated damages. A court will award those double damages unless the employer proves it acted in good faith with reasonable grounds to believe it was following the law.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 216 – Penalties
  • Reasonable attorney’s fees and court costs, which the court must order the employer to pay if you win.
  • DOL civil fines of up to $2,515 per violation for repeated or willful underpayment.12U.S. Department of Labor. Civil Money Penalty Inflation Adjustments

You generally have two years from the date of the violation to file a claim. If the employer’s violation was willful, meaning it knew it was breaking the law or showed reckless disregard, that deadline extends to three years.13U.S. Department of Labor. Back Pay

How to File a Wage Complaint

Minimum wage complaints in South Carolina go to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, since there is no state law to enforce on the hourly rate. Call 1-866-487-9243 or file online through the DOL website.14U.S. Department of Labor. How to File a Complaint Your complaint is confidential; the DOL will not reveal your name or the existence of a complaint to your employer.

Gather as much of the following as you can before you contact the WHD:

  • Every pay stub you received during the period you were underpaid.
  • Your own log of hours actually worked each day and week, especially if you think the employer’s records are wrong.
  • The full business name, address, and your supervisor’s or owner’s name.
  • The specific pay periods you believe you were shorted, with a rough estimate of how much you’re owed.

Investigations can take a few weeks to several months depending on how complex the case is. For separate problems like late payment, unauthorized deductions, or an employer refusing to pay wages you already earned at an agreed rate, you may also have a claim under the South Carolina Payment of Wages Act, which is handled by the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.

Your Employer Cannot Retaliate

Federal law makes it illegal for an employer to fire you, cut your hours, demote you, or punish you in any other way for filing a wage complaint or cooperating with a DOL investigation.15Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 215 – Prohibited Acts If retaliation happens, you can recover lost wages, an equal amount in liquidated damages, and attorney’s fees, the same remedies available for the underlying wage violation.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 216 – Penalties These protections apply whether or not your complaint turns out to be valid. As long as you filed in good faith, the employer cannot take adverse action against you for raising the issue.