Oregon labor laws set a regional minimum wage, require paid rest and unpaid meal breaks, guarantee protected sick time, provide paid family and medical leave, and impose some of the fastest final paycheck deadlines in the country. Most of these rules are enforced by the Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI), which handles wage claims, discrimination complaints, and employer compliance across the state.1Oregon State Legislature. Employment Law Background Brief Here is what workers and employers actually need to know.
Minimum Wage by Region
Oregon’s minimum wage depends on where the work is physically performed, not where the employer is based.2Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 653.025 – Minimum Wage Rate; Rules As of July 1, 2025, three rates apply:
- Portland Metro: $16.30 per hour, for areas inside the Metro service district’s urban growth boundary.
- Standard: $15.05 per hour, covering the Willamette Valley, the coast, and most of the state.
- Nonurban Counties: $14.05 per hour, for designated rural counties.
Rates adjust every July 1 based on the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, and BOLI announces the new numbers by April 30 each year.3Oregon Bureau of Labor & Industries. Minimum Wage Increase Schedule The Portland Metro rate always sits $1.25 above Standard, and Nonurban always sits $1.00 below it, so the spread between the tiers stays fixed as all three rise.
Overtime and Hour Limits
Non-exempt employees earn 1.5 times their regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek. The workweek is any fixed 168-consecutive-hour period the employer sets, and it doesn’t have to match the calendar week.4Oregon Revised Statutes. Oregon Code 653.261 – Minimum Employment Conditions Private employers cannot swap compensatory time off for cash overtime.
Manufacturing is different. Workers in mills and factories cannot work more than 10 hours a day or 55 hours a week, with up to three additional overtime hours allowed per day. Any hours beyond the daily or weekly cap trigger 1.5 times the regular rate, and the calculation that produces the higher pay is the one that applies.5Oregon Revised Statutes. Oregon Code 652.020 – Maximum Working Hours in Certain Industries
Not every salaried worker gets overtime. Oregon largely tracks the federal Fair Labor Standards Act for the executive, administrative, and professional exemptions. After a federal court struck down the Department of Labor’s 2024 increase, the minimum salary for exemption stays at $684 per week, or $35,568 per year.6U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemptions Salary alone isn’t the whole test. The actual job duties also have to fit the exempt category, and misclassification is one of the most common wage-and-hour violations BOLI sees.
Required Breaks During a Shift
Oregon requires both paid rest breaks and unpaid meal periods, and the number scales with shift length:7Oregon Bureau of Labor & Industries. Meals and Breaks
- 2 hours 1 minute to 5 hours 59 minutes: one 10-minute paid rest break, no meal break.
- 6 hours: one 10-minute paid rest break and one 30-minute unpaid meal break.
- 6 hours 1 minute to 10 hours: two 10-minute paid rest breaks and one 30-minute unpaid meal break.
Rest breaks should land roughly in the middle of each four-hour work segment. The meal period is only unpaid when the employee is completely relieved of all duties for the full 30 minutes. If the job prevents a true break, the employer has to pay for the entire meal period.
Tipped food and beverage servers age 18 or older can waive their meal period in writing, but only after at least seven days on the job. The server still needs an opportunity to eat on shifts of six hours or longer, and shifts over eight hours require a full duty-free meal period regardless of any waiver. Employers must keep the signed waiver for six months after the employee leaves.
Sick Time You Earn
Every Oregon employee accrues at least one hour of protected sick time for every 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours per year. Whether the time is paid depends on employer size:8Oregon Revised Statutes. Oregon Code 653.606 – Employee Count; Paid and Unpaid Sick Time; Rules
- 10 or more employees (or 6 or more if the employer has a Portland location): sick time must be paid.
- Fewer than 10 employees: sick time is protected but may be unpaid.
Sick time covers your own physical or mental health, caring for a family member, and absences tied to domestic violence, harassment, sexual assault, or stalking. Unused hours carry over year to year, though employers can cap actual usage at 40 hours annually.9Oregon Bureau of Labor & Industries. Sick Time Employers can skip the hour-by-hour accrual math by front-loading the full 40 hours at the start of the year, and either method satisfies the law.
Paid Leave Oregon
Paid Leave Oregon is a separate statewide insurance program for longer absences. Sick time handles short, everyday needs. Paid Leave Oregon provides up to 12 weeks of wage replacement for more serious situations, with up to two additional weeks for pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition.10Oregon Bureau of Labor & Industries. Paid Leave Oregon Protections
You qualify if you earned at least $1,000 in Oregon wages during the year before applying. The program covers three leave types:11Paid Leave Oregon. Paid Leave Oregon Home
- Family leave: bonding with a new child during the first year after birth, adoption, or foster placement, or caring for a family member with a serious health condition.
- Medical leave: caring for your own serious health condition.
- Safe leave: recovering from or dealing with the aftermath of sexual assault, domestic violence, harassment, stalking, or bias crimes.
Payroll contributions fund the program. The total 2025 contribution rate is 1% of wages up to $176,100. Employees pay 60% of that, and employers with 25 or more workers cover the remaining 40%. Smaller employers don’t owe the employer share, but their employees still pay in.12Paid Leave Oregon. Employees and Paid Leave Oregon Weekly benefits follow a sliding scale tied to the state average weekly wage, capping at $1,636.56 for claims beginning on or after July 6, 2025.
Scheduling Rights for Retail, Hospitality, and Food Service Workers
Oregon’s Fair Work Week Act covers retail, hospitality, and food service employers with at least 500 employees worldwide. If that’s your employer, you’re owed a written work schedule at least 14 calendar days before the first day on it.13Oregon Bureau of Labor & Industries. Predictive Scheduling When the employer changes the schedule after that deadline, you earn predictability pay:14Oregon Revised Statutes. Oregon Code 653.455 – Compensation for Work Schedule Changes; Exceptions
- Adding hours, changing shift times, or scheduling an extra shift: one additional hour of pay at your regular rate.
- Subtracting hours, canceling a shift, or not calling you in for a scheduled on-call shift: half your regular rate for each scheduled hour you don’t work.
Covered employees also get at least 10 hours off between the end of one shift and the start of the next. If the employer schedules you inside that window without your agreement, you earn time-and-a-half for the hours that fall in the rest period. On hire, the employer must also give you a good-faith estimate of the hours you can expect.
Discrimination and Harassment Protections
Oregon prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, marital status, age (for those 18 and older), and expunged juvenile records. These protections apply to hiring, firing, pay, promotions, and every other term of employment.15Oregon Revised Statutes. Oregon Code 659A.030 – Discrimination Because of Race, Color, Religion, Sex, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, National Origin, Marital Status, Age or Expunged Juvenile Record Prohibited Oregon’s list is broader than federal law, and sexual orientation and gender identity are covered regardless of employer size.
You have up to five years to file a complaint with BOLI or sue over discrimination or harassment, one of the longest windows in the country for employment claims.16Oregon Bureau of Labor & Industries. Discrimination at Work The five-year limit applies to incidents on or after September 29, 2019.
The Oregon Workplace Fairness Act also limits what employers can put in settlement and separation agreements. Nondisclosure, non-disparagement, and no-rehire clauses cannot be required of an employee who has alleged discrimination. Those terms can only appear if the employee specifically asks for them, and the employer cannot condition the deal on that request.17Oregon Revised Statutes. Oregon Code 659A.370 – Employer Prohibited From Entering Into Agreement
Final Paychecks and Penalties
Oregon’s final paycheck deadlines are among the strictest in the country, and the deadline depends on how the job ended:18Oregon Revised Statutes. Oregon Code 652.140 – Payment of Wages on Termination of Employment
- Fired or laid off: all earned wages due by the end of the next business day.
- Quit with at least 48 hours’ notice: final paycheck due on your last day of work, or the next business day if that falls on a weekend or holiday.
- Quit without 48 hours’ notice: payment due within five business days or by the next regular payday, whichever comes first.
These deadlines cover all earned wages up to separation, including accrued but unused vacation if the employer’s own policy says it must be paid out. Oregon doesn’t require employers to offer vacation, but once a vacation policy exists, it’s enforceable.19Oregon Bureau of Labor & Industries. Benefits, Holiday and Vacation Pay
Missing the deadline is expensive. When an employer willfully fails to pay final wages on time, penalty wages run at the employee’s regular rate for eight hours per day, starting the day the check was due and continuing until the employer pays or the employee sues. The penalty caps at 30 days’ worth of wages.20Oregon Revised Statutes. Oregon Code 652.150 – Penalty Wage for Failure to Pay Wages on Termination For a worker earning $20 per hour, that is up to $4,800 on top of the actual wages owed. If the employee sends written notice of nonpayment and the employer pays in full within 12 days, the penalty is capped at 100% of the unpaid wages instead.