About MinimumWageRates

Minimum wages in the United States are set at three levels: the federal government, the states and, in some places, cities and counties. The rates are published by dozens of agencies, each in its own format and on its own schedule. We bring them together so that a worker, a job seeker or an employer can see the rate that applies to a job, when it changes next and where to check it. The site covers 50 states and DC, 69 local minimum wages and 9 guides to the rules that apply everywhere.

MinimumWageRates is an independent publication. We are not a government agency or a law firm, and nothing on the site is legal advice.

How we research

• Official sources for every figure. Every rate is read from the agency that sets or enforces it: a state labor department, a city labor standards office, the ordinance or statute itself, or the U.S. Department of Labor. Where an official page could not be reached directly, we use an archived copy of it. A few pages also list a published law collection or a research inventory as background; these are marked “Secondary reference” and never support a figure on their own.
• Every figure is cited. Rates link to numbered sources at the end of each page, and each source shows the date we checked it.
• Announced versus set in law. A future rate is marked “announced” when the agency has published it, and “set in law” when a statute or ordinance fixes it in advance. Rates that depend on inflation and have not been published yet are described, not estimated.
• Dates move the site forward. Each page shows the rate in effect on the day the site was last built. We rebuild on every change date, such as January 1 and July 1, so a scheduled increase appears on the day it takes effect.
• Regular re-checks. Every page is checked against its sources at least every 90 days, and when an agency announces a new rate, usually between August and December.

How pages are made

The figures, dates and sources are gathered from the official publications listed on each page with the help of AI research tools and stored as structured data, one file per state, city or county. A separate automated check then re-reads every rate, announced change and tipped wage against its official source, and corrections are made before publication. The explanatory text is drafted with AI tools from that data and those sources. Tables, rankings and comparisons are generated from the same data, so a rate is the same on every page where it appears. The site is published by the company identified on our privacy page.

What we cover, and what we do not

We cover the general minimum wage set by federal law, every state and DC, and every city or county with its own general minimum wage, together with tipped, youth, training and other special rates that those laws set. A few local wages that apply only to some industries, such as SeaTac's hospitality and transportation wage, are included and marked as such. Each state page also gives the state's overtime rules and the salary level for overtime-exempt employees, read from the same kind of official sources. We do not yet cover wages that apply only to particular sectors elsewhere, such as hotel, airport or health care wages, minimums for app-based workers or government contractors, or paid leave and child labor rules, although some pages mention them where they matter.

Two tools are built on the same data: the pay calculator, which turns any state or local rate into weekly, monthly and yearly pay with overtime, and the data downloads, which provide every rate as CSV files.

Corrections

If you find a rate that is wrong or out of date, use the “Report an error” link at the end of any page or contact us, ideally with a link to the official announcement. We check every report against the source and update the page and its review date.

Publisher

The company that publishes MinimumWageRates is identified in our privacy policy. You can reach us at [email protected].