Nevada Minimum Wage Laws: $12 Rate, Overtime, and Breaks

The minimum wage in Nevada is $12.00 per hour for every covered employee, with no lower tier for workers who receive health benefits and no tip credit for servers or bartenders.¹ The rate took effect July 1, 2024, and it does not adjust automatically for inflation.

How the $12.00 Rate Was Set

Nevada used to run a two-tier system: a lower minimum for workers offered qualifying health insurance and a higher one for everyone else. Voters approved Question 2 in the 2022 general election, amending Article 15, Section 16 of the Nevada Constitution to collapse those tiers into one flat rate. The amendment also stripped out the Consumer Price Index adjustment that had previously raised the wage with inflation.

The practical result: $12.00 per hour applies across the board, and it stays at $12.00 unless the federal minimum rises above it or the legislature acts.¹

Tips Do Not Count Toward the Minimum

Unlike most states, Nevada does not allow a tip credit. If you work as a server, bartender, delivery driver, or in any other tipped role, your employer must pay you the full $12.00 per hour as base wages before tips.¹ Gratuities sit entirely on top of that floor.

Daily and Weekly Overtime

Nevada is one of a handful of states that requires overtime after eight hours in a day, not only after 40 in a week. Under NRS 608.018, whether the daily rule applies depends on your hourly rate.²

If you earn less than $18.00 per hour, you get overtime (1.5 times your regular rate) for any hours beyond eight in a workday or beyond 40 in a workweek.
If you earn $18.00 per hour or more, overtime kicks in only after 40 hours in a workweek. The daily trigger does not apply.

The $18.00 figure is 1.5 times the $12.00 minimum wage, and it moves with the minimum wage if that rate ever changes.

One exception: if you and your employer mutually agree to a four-day, ten-hour schedule, the daily rule is waived for those ten-hour shifts.² You still earn overtime for anything beyond 40 in the week. Federal law has no daily overtime requirement, so Nevada’s rule is more protective, and employers must follow whichever standard gives you the greater benefit.³

Meal and Rest Breaks

Federal law requires no breaks at all.⁴ Nevada does. Under NRS 608.019, two separate rules apply.⁵

A continuous eight-hour shift requires at least a 30-minute meal period. Anything shorter does not satisfy the rule.
You are entitled to a paid 10-minute rest break for every four hours (or major fraction of four) you work. No rest break is required if your total shift is under three and a half hours. Rest breaks count as hours worked.

Two narrow exceptions: the break rules do not apply when you are the only person at a work location, and they can be modified by a collective bargaining agreement. Employers can apply to the Labor Commissioner for an exemption only on genuine business necessity.⁵

Who Is Exempt

Not every worker qualifies for overtime. NRS 608.018 lists several categories, most mirroring federal carve-outs.² The most common include executive, administrative, and professional employees (the “white collar” exemption, which under current federal enforcement requires at least $684 per week on a salary basis); taxicab and limousine drivers; agricultural employees; railroad and air carrier employees; retail or service commission employees whose regular rate exceeds 1.5 times the minimum wage and whose pay is more than half commissions; automobile, truck, and farm equipment salespeople and mechanics; motor carrier drivers, helpers, loaders, and mechanics subject to the federal Motor Carrier Act; live-in domestic workers who agree in writing; and employees of businesses with less than $250,000 in annual gross sales.

An overtime exemption is not a minimum wage exemption. Nevada’s constitutional minimum covers nearly all employees, with very narrow exclusions under NRS 608.255.⁶ If you are an employee rather than a true independent contractor, the $12.00 floor almost certainly applies to you, and misclassification is something the Labor Commissioner actively investigates.

Final Paycheck Deadlines

Nevada enforces strict timelines when employment ends.

If you are fired or discharged, your employer must pay all earned wages immediately at the time of discharge. Not next payday. Not within a few days.⁷
If you quit, your final wages are due by your next regular payday or within seven days of resignation, whichever comes first.⁸

Missing these deadlines triggers penalty wages under NRS 608.040. Your pay keeps accruing at your usual daily rate from the date the employer should have paid you, up to a maximum of 30 calendar days.⁹ For a discharged worker, a short grace period runs before the meter starts; for someone who quit, it starts the day the final check was due.

The arithmetic adds up quickly. If you earned $15.00 per hour on eight-hour days and your employer was 30 days late, that could mean an additional $3,600 in penalty wages on top of the base amount owed.

Penalties for Wage Violations

Wage violations under NRS 608.005 through 608.195 are misdemeanors. The Labor Commissioner can also impose an administrative penalty of up to $5,000 per violation. If you take a wage case to court and win, NRS 608.140 awards reasonable attorney’s fees on top of unpaid wages and penalties, provided you made a written demand at least five days before suing.¹⁰ That fee-shifting provision exists so that small wage claims remain worth bringing.

How to File a Wage Claim

You have two paths: a state claim through the Nevada Labor Commissioner or a federal complaint through the U.S. Department of Labor.

The Labor Commissioner accepts claims through an online portal or by mail to its Las Vegas or Carson City offices.¹¹ You will need your employer’s legal name and address, your dates of employment and the pay periods in dispute, the hours worked and amount claimed, and any supporting documents such as pay stubs, your Notice of Hire, personal time logs, or bank deposit records. An investigator reviews the claim and gives your employer 15 days to respond before the case moves forward.¹²

You can also file with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division online or by calling 1-866-487-9243. The nearest field office contacts you within two business days to determine whether a federal investigation fits.¹³ Filing a state claim does not block a federal complaint, though the Labor Commissioner will not take jurisdiction while a civil lawsuit over the same wages is pending.

Deadline to File

You have two years from the violation to file a wage lawsuit under NRS 608.135, and the same two-year window applies to minimum wage claims under NRS 608.260.¹⁴ Federal FLSA claims also run two years, extended to three for willful violations.

Document what you can now: save pay stubs, screenshot time records, and note dates and amounts. Federal law requires employers to keep payroll records for at least three years and wage computation records for two.¹⁵ If an employer has destroyed records, that cuts against them during an investigation.

Retaliation Is Illegal

NRS 608.015 makes it illegal for an employer to threaten, fire, or penalize you for participating in a wage investigation or testifying in a wage proceeding.¹⁶ The protection reaches any form of intimidation meant to discourage cooperation, and violations carry the same misdemeanor and administrative penalties as other wage offenses.

Section 15(a)(3) of the FLSA offers parallel federal protection. Remedies for retaliation include reinstatement, back pay, and an equal amount in liquidated damages.¹⁷ The state and federal protections run alongside each other, so you do not have to pick one.

1
U.S. Department of Labor. State Minimum Wage Laws
2
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 608 – Statute 608.018
3
U.S. Department of Labor. Overtime Pay
4
U.S. Department of Labor. Breaks and Meal Periods
5
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 608 – Statute 608.019
6
Nevada Legislature. NRS Chapter 608 – Compensation, Wages and Hours
7
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 608 – Statute 608.020
8
Nevada Legislature. NRS Chapter 608 – Compensation, Wages and Hours – Section 608.030
9
Nevada Legislature. NRS Chapter 608 – Compensation, Wages and Hours – Section 608.040
10
Nevada Legislature. NRS Chapter 608 – Compensation, Wages and Hours – Section 608.140
11
Nevada Labor Commissioner. Forms for Employees
12
Nevada Department of Business and Industry. Office of the Labor Commissioner – Duties and Responsibilities
13
Worker.gov. Filing a Complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division
14
Nevada Legislature. NRS Chapter 608 – Compensation, Wages and Hours – Section 608.135
15
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 21 – Recordkeeping Requirements Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
16
Nevada Legislature. NRS Chapter 608 – Compensation, Wages and Hours – Section 608.015
17
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 77A – Prohibiting Retaliation Under the Fair Labor Standards Act