From the U.S. Department of Labor:
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division reminds employers and employees that the federal minimum wage increases to $7.25 on Friday, July 24, 2009. With this change, employees who are covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act will be entitled to be paid no less than $7.25 per hour. This increase is the last of three provided by the enactment of the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007. A revised Federal minimum wage poster is now available for viewing, downloading, and posting. Every employer of employees subject to the Fair Labor Standard Act’s minimum wage provisions must post, and keep posted, a notice explaining the Act in a conspicuous place in all of their establishments so as to permit employees to readily read it.
#1 by Kristina Miller on September 28th, 2009
I find this very interesting that the Federal Government is increasing the minimum wage. While various states piggy back onto Federal Law, like Arizona, and don’t have their own wage and hour requirements, this has a huge impact on many of those states now. During a down turn in the economy, its an opportunity for lower cost areas to take advantage and incentivise corporation to relocate. However, with the federal minimum wage increasing at this time, it will have a dynamic trickle effect. It also increases the threshold of management/exemption pay to be above $30,160, causing employers to not only audit and increase their non-exempt employees, but to rebudget their management costs. Agreed the cost of living continues to rise, and minimum wage laws should be increased appropriately at the state and federal level, but the timing does not seem right. Just more tough times to come for small employers in remote/rural areas.