BACKGROUND
There are both state and federal minimum wages. Employers in the state must pay the higher of the applicable state or federal minimum wage. The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. The current federal wage generally applies to covered employees of employers who have annual gross volume of sales made or business done of $500,000 or more. The current state minimum wage for large employers is $6.15 an hour and for small employers is $5.25 an hour. A large employer is defined as an enterprise whose annual gross volume of sales made or business done is not less than $625,000. A small employer is less than $625,000. The state also has a youth or training wage of $4.90 an hour for persons under the age of 20 for the first 90 consecutive days of work. There are some types of employers and some types of employees that are exempted from minimum wage coverage under both federal and state law.
Article 4, section 1 increases the minimum wage for large employers to $10 an hour beginning August 1, 2013 and to $10.75 an hour beginning August 1, 2014.
The minimum wage for small employers is increased to $9 an hour beginning August 1, 2013, and to $10 an hour beginning August 1, 2014.
The youth or training wage is increased to $9 an hour beginning August 1, 2013. The age of an employee who can be paid the youth wage is reduced from under 20 to under 18 years of age.
The small employer, large employer, and youth wage are to be indexed for inflation each August 1, beginning August 1, 2014 using an unspecified mechanism.
JCF/syl
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