State Minimum Wage Laws: Rates, Exceptions, and Remedies

State minimum wage laws set the lowest hourly rate your employer can legally pay you for work performed in that state, and they override the federal $7.25 floor whenever they are higher.¹ Thirty states and the District of Columbia currently require more than $7.25 per hour.² The rate that applies to you depends on where you physically perform the work, not where your employer is headquartered, and it can shift based on your age, your job duties, or whether you earn tips.

Which Rate Actually Applies to You

The Fair Labor Standards Act sets the national floor at $7.25 per hour and expressly says nothing in it excuses noncompliance with a state or local law that pays more.³¹ You get the rate most favorable to you. If your state minimum is $15.00, that’s what you’re owed, not $7.25.

Five states — Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee — have no state minimum wage law of their own, so workers covered by the FLSA in those states receive the federal $7.25.² A handful of other states match the federal rate exactly, offering no additional protection. Everywhere else, the state rate controls.

In 2026, state rates range from $8.75 in West Virginia to $17.95 in the District of Columbia. California ($16.90), Connecticut ($16.94), Washington ($17.13), and New York (between $16.00 and $17.00 depending on region) all now exceed $15.00.² Some states vary the rate by employer size or by region within the state. Oregon has a standard rate, a higher Portland metro rate, and a lower non-urban rate.

Local Ordinances and State Preemption

Many cities set a minimum wage above their state’s rate to reflect higher urban living costs, and federal law protects that right.¹ But roughly half the states have passed preemption laws that bar cities and counties from going higher than the state rate. In those states, the state figure is the ceiling for local governments.

Where local ordinances are allowed, the rate attaches to the place you work. If you split time between a city with a $17.00 minimum and a suburb that only hits the $12.00 state rate, your employer has to track hours by location and pay each at the correct rate. Wage disputes often start right here, because the tracking burden sits with the employer and errors tend to run in the company’s favor. Remote workers should check the rate for the location where they actually sit, not where the company is based.

When a Lower Rate Is Legal

Several categories of workers can lawfully be paid less than the standard minimum. The rules differ by state, and some states refuse to recognize federal subminimums at all.

Tipped Workers

Federal law lets employers pay tipped employees a cash wage as low as $2.13 per hour, provided tips bring total compensation to at least the full minimum wage.⁴ The gap is called a tip credit. If tips fall short in any pay period, your employer must cover the difference. Many states require a higher cash wage than $2.13, and several require full minimum wage with no tip credit.

Workers Under 20

Employers can pay workers under 20 a reduced rate of $4.25 per hour during their first 90 consecutive calendar days on the job.⁵ The 90-day clock runs on calendar days, not days worked. Once you turn 20 or hit day 91, whichever comes first, you must be paid the full applicable minimum. Employers cannot fire or cut existing workers’ hours to make room for youth-wage hires. Some states do not recognize the youth subminimum, in which case the state rate controls.

Salaried White-Collar Employees

Workers classified as executive, administrative, or professional can be exempt from both minimum wage and overtime protections, but only if they meet specific duties tests and earn at least $684 per week on a salary basis, about $35,568 per year.⁶ Job titles do not decide this. Being called a “manager” means nothing if your actual duties don’t match the regulatory criteria, and misclassifying an hourly worker as salaried-exempt is a common violation that triggers back-pay liability.

Workers With Disabilities

Section 14(c) of the FLSA lets employers holding a special Department of Labor certificate pay subminimum wages to workers whose disabilities affect their productive capacity for the specific job.⁷ The Department attempted to phase out these certificates and then withdrew the proposal, concluding it lacked authority to end a program Congress had created.⁸ The program remains active federally, though a growing number of states ban subminimum wages regardless.

If You’ve Been Labeled a Contractor

Minimum wage protections cover employees, not independent contractors. An employer who calls you a contractor to avoid paying minimum wage has violated the law if you actually function as an employee. The Department of Labor applies an “economic reality” test that weighs how much control you have over the work and whether you have a genuine chance to earn a profit or suffer a loss based on your own business decisions.⁹ Three additional factors fill in when those two aren’t conclusive: specialized skill, permanence of the relationship, and how integrated your work is with the company’s operations. No single factor decides the question, and the actual working arrangement outweighs anything a contract says. If the company sets your schedule, provides your tools, and prohibits outside work, the arrangement looks like employment, and you can file to recover unpaid minimum wages.

How Your State Rate Changes Over Time

States raise their minimum wage in two main ways. One is scheduled legislation: a state passes a law stepping the rate up over several years on a predictable timeline. Florida, for example, passed a ballot measure raising the rate by $1.00 per year until it hits a target.

The other is automatic indexing. Roughly 20 states and the District of Columbia tie their wage floor to the Consumer Price Index, so the rate adjusts each year without new legislation. The state labor agency publishes the new figure months before it takes effect, usually on January 1. Indexed increases tend to be smaller than legislative jumps, and if your state uses CPI indexing, your rate changes every year whether or not it makes the news.

What To Do If You’re Being Paid Less Than the Minimum

You have two routes: file an administrative complaint with a labor agency, or sue your employer in court.

Filing a Complaint

The federal Wage and Hour Division takes complaints by phone at 1-866-487-9243 or online.¹⁰ Your complaint is confidential. The agency will not reveal your name or even confirm a complaint exists. After filing, your case is routed to the nearest field office and an investigator contacts you, typically within a few business days.¹¹ The investigator requests payroll records and may try to negotiate a resolution. If the employer refuses, the case can move to a hearing or enforcement action.

Most states have their own labor agencies, and many workers file at the state level because state remedies are sometimes larger. State agencies generally charge no fee.

Suing in Court

You can bypass the agency and sue in federal or state court. Under the FLSA, you can bring a lawsuit on your own behalf and on behalf of other similarly situated employees.¹² If you win, the court must award reasonable attorney’s fees and costs on top of your unpaid wages. That fee-shifting rule is what makes it possible to find a lawyer to take a minimum wage case on contingency. One limit: your right to sue privately ends if the Secretary of Labor files an enforcement action against the same employer for the same violations.

Protection From Retaliation

Federal law bars any employer from firing, demoting, cutting hours, or otherwise punishing you for filing a wage complaint, cooperating with an investigation, or raising concerns about your pay internally.¹³ Protection applies whether your complaint was written or oral, and most courts cover complaints made directly to the employer rather than to an agency. It also reaches former employees: a prior employer cannot blacklist you for having filed a claim. If retaliation happens, available remedies include reinstatement, lost wages, and liquidated damages equal to those lost wages.

Keep Your Own Records

Federal regulations make the employer keep payroll records for at least three years, and if they can’t produce them during an investigation, agencies and courts tend to credit your account of hours and pay. Hold onto pay stubs, time logs, or even calendar notes. Your own records are the backup that strengthens a claim.

How Much You Can Recover and How Long You Have

The baseline recovery in a successful claim is the full amount of unpaid wages. On top of that, the FLSA provides liquidated damages equal to the unpaid wages, effectively doubling your total.¹² So if you were shorted $5,000 over two years, your award could be $10,000 plus attorney’s fees and costs. A court can cut or eliminate liquidated damages only if the employer proves both that the violation was in good faith and that it had reasonable grounds to believe it was complying.¹⁴

State law can add to this. Some states allow damages at two or three times unpaid wages. Others impose monthly penalties that accrue until the employer pays, and a few allow wage judgments to be enforced through property liens against the employer’s assets.

You have two years from the date of each underpayment to file an FLSA claim.¹⁵ If the violation was willful, meaning the employer knew it was breaking the law or showed reckless disregard for it, the window extends to three years. The clock runs separately on each paycheck, so even if the oldest underpayments are out of reach, more recent ones can still be recovered. State deadlines can be longer or shorter than the federal limit, and some states define willful more broadly. Every pay period that passes beyond the limitation window is money you cannot get back, so filing sooner protects more of your back pay.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 218 – Relation to Other Laws
2
U.S. Department of Labor. State Minimum Wage Laws
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 206 – Minimum Wage
4
eCFR. 29 CFR Part 531 Subpart D – Tipped Employees
5
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 32 – Youth Minimum Wage – Fair Labor Standards Act
6
U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemption
7
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 39 – The Employment of Workers With Disabilities at Subminimum Wages
8
Federal Register. Employment of Workers With Disabilities Under Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act – Withdrawal
9
U.S. Department of Labor. Notice of Proposed Rule – Employee or Independent Contractor Classification Under the FLSA
10
U.S. Department of Labor. How to File a Complaint
11
Worker.gov. Filing a Complaint With the US Department of Labors Wage and Hour Division
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 216 – Penalties
13
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 77A – Prohibiting Retaliation Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 260 – Liquidated Damages
15
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 255 – Statute of Limitations