Minimum Wage: 6 Facts About Minnesota's Minimum Wage

Smaller employers get a break on the minimum wage in Minnesota, but tipped workers don’t have to count their tips against their paychecks. Those facts point to a state trying to strike a balance between keeping workers happy and keeping employers in business.

Here are six facts about Minnesota's minimum wage.

1. Size Matters
Smaller companies can pay a lower minimum wage – the federal minimum wage – than larger employers in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Specifically, employers with a gross annual revenue of $500,000 or more must pay the state minimum wage, which went from $8 to $9 an hour on Aug. 1, 2015. That wage goes to $9.50 an hour on Aug. 1, 2016, according to the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry.

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2. Training Wage Higher
As allowed by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, Minnesota has a training wage employers can pay to workers younger than 20 during their first 90 calendar days on the job. The state pays higher than the federal standard of $4.25. Minnesota’s training wage is $7.25 an hour effective Aug. 1, 2015, and will go to $7.75 an hour in 2016, according to the state’s Labor Department.

Minnesota’s youth wage – for workers younger than 18 – has the same rates and rate increase schedule as the state training wage, but without the 90-day provision. However, once the worker turns 18, and has been on the job 90 days or more, the regular minimum wage applies.

3. Inflation Increase
Minnesota’s minimum wages will be indexed to inflation beginning Jan. 1, 2018, according to the state Labor Department.

4. Tips Don’t Count
Employees who make tips still get paid the minimum wage in Minnesota; there’s no sub-minimum base rate beyond which they’re expected to make up the difference from their tips. This also goes into effect Aug. 1, 2015, according to the Detroit Lakes Newspapers website.

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5. Flying Higher
About 2,800 employees of airline subcontractors at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) will make $1 an hour more than the state minimum, or $10 an hour as of Aug. 1, 2015, according to a deal with the Metropolitan Airports Commission. Labor activists were pushing for $15 an hour. Commissioners opposed to the raise said state lawmakers should have decided, and cited the need to keep costs down so airlines wouldn’t relocate to other Midwestern airports, said Minnesota Public Radio.

6. There are Exceptions
Executive, professional and administrative workers aren’t covered by the minimum wage, nor are babysitters or nonprofit volunteers, the Labor Department said.

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