Minimum Wage Updates / Increases for 2021

An update on Minimum Wage Changes for 2021

The Fair Labor Standard Act (or FLSA) is a federal law, that sets minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and young people’s work employment standards, that affect employees in the public and private sectors. FLSA has many exemptions from the minimum wage and overtime pay for construction industry, maintenance, retail, financial services, health care, and so on.

The federal minimum wage rate is set at $7.25/hour, and it hasn’t changed since July 2009.  FLSA offers states a choice to set their own state-specific minimum wage rates. As a result, many states use the federal minimum wage as their default baseline, and others establish their own rates.

The most recent increase took place on January 1, 2021, when twenty states decided to increase their minimum wage for this year. The increase is not consistent across the states, for example:

• New Mexico shows the highest increase of $1.50/hour (from $9 up to $10.50)
• California raised it by $1.00/hour (from $13 up to $14)
• Florida adjusted its rate for inflation and increased it by $0.09/hour (from $8.56 up to $8.65)

As of now, the District of Columbia has the highest minimum wage, which remains the same at $15/hour for 2021. You can find current rates by the state on the U.S. Department of Labor website.

These 9 states (California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Virginia) are planning to increase their rate to $15/hour within the next 6 years.

To learn more about the exemptions and to check how the recent minimum wage increase may impact your business, contact our office for assistance.

by Maria Climan – Content Creator at Half Full Marketing

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