Minimum Wage Raise Effective Today

Barbara Weltman’s site has a great “Small Business Ideas of the Day” section and today’s post deals with the raise in the federal minimum wage rate to $6.55 per hour. Here’s the full text from today’s post (since it will be gone tomorrow). “The federal minimum wage rate rises today to $6.55 per hour (it will go up again next July 24 to $7.25 per hour). If your state has a higher minimum wage, you must observe the state's hourly wage rate. Action: Update your employment poster to reflect the new minimum wage. Note: An employer is still only required to pay $2.13 per hour in wages if the amount, plus the tips received, equal at least the federal minimum wage. To rely on this lower rate, the employer must inform the employee of the tip credit being taken, the employee retains all tips (other than those in a tip pooling arrangement), and the employee customarily receives more than $30 a month in tips.” Of course, the above are federal rates and many state’s minimum wage rates override federal rates (if it is higher). For example, New York State’s minimum wage is currently $7.15 an hour but will match up to the federal rate of $7.25 by the 2009 update. For more info on minimum wage rates by state, visit www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/america.htm. Be sure to check out barbaraweltman.com for more great tips on running small businesses.