I Understand the Minimum Wage in Minnesota is About to Go Up. What Are the Details?

It’s old news that Minnesota passed a minimum wage bill this past legislative session and it’s easy to forget in the after-glow that is the new Women’s Economic Security Act. Let us then remember that come August 1, 2014 the minimum wage in Minnesota will increase significantly. With that in mind, here are some of the important aspects of the new law to be aware of, compliments of the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry:

Provision	Current Law	New Law
Large Employer Wage	$6.15/hour	$8.00/hour on Aug. 1, 2014 $9.00/hour on Aug. 1, 2015 $9.50/hour on Aug. 1, 2016
Small Employer Wage*	$5.25/hour	$6.50/hour on Aug. 1, 2014 $7.25/hour on Aug. 1, 2015 $7.75/hour on Aug. 1, 2016
90-day training wage (under 20 years of age)	$4.90/hour	$6.50/hour on Aug. 1, 2014 $7.25/hour on Aug. 1, 2015 $7.75/hour on Aug. 1, 2016
Youth wage (under 18 years of age)	No youth wage	$6.50/hour on Aug. 1, 2014 $7.25/hour on Aug. 1, 2015 $7.75/hour on Aug. 1, 2016
Inflation increase	No inflation increase	Inflation indexing begins Jan. 1, 2018

Also noteworthy:

No tip credit (even though federal law allows it)

Small employers (*) are companies with gross sales < $500,000/year

You’ll need to update your posters. As of today, the state has yet to publish a free updated poster, but likely will just before August

Watch for it at http://www.dli.mn.gov/LS/minwage.asp

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