Nevada’s Minimum Wage and Daily Overtime Rates Unchanged for 2013

Labor Commissioner Thoran Towler today released the annual bulletins for Nevada’s minimum wage and daily overtime requirements that will take effect this summer.  The rates for the upcoming year will remain unchanged from last year.

The minimum wage for employees who receive qualified health benefits from their employers will remain at $7.25 per hour and the minimum wage for employees who do not receive health benefits will remain at $8.25 per hour.

The 2006 Minimum Wage Amendment to the Nevada Constitution requires minimum wage to be recalculated each year.  The rates are adjusted annually by comparing the increases in the federal minimum wage over $5.15 per hour, or, if greater, by the cumulative increase in the cost of living. “While the cost of living adjustment for this year increased over last year, it is still less than the $2.10 increase in the federal minimum wage that went into effect in 2009,” said Towler.

Likewise, Nevada employers will not see an increase in the threshold for daily overtime. Nevada is one of a few states with a daily overtime requirement in addition to the more familiar requirement to pay overtime for more than 40 hours in a workweek. “Nevada’s daily overtime requirement is tied to the minimum wage,” Towler said, “As the minimum wage goes up, so does the daily overtime requirement.  Since the minimum wage is not increasing this year, the daily overtime will remain the same as well.”

Employees who receive qualified health benefits from their employers and earn less than $10.875 per hour and employees earning less than $12.375per hour who do not receive qualified health benefits must be paid overtime whenever they work more than 8 hours in a 24-hour period.  These changes do not affect employees who are exempt from overtime under Nevada state law.

More information regarding the minimum wage and daily overtime is available through the Labor Commissioner’s office:  (702) 486-2650 in Southern Nevada; or (775) 687-4850 in Northern Nevada.  The Annual Bulletins containing the rates are available on-line through the Labor Commissioner’s website, http://www.laborcommissioner.com or in hard copy form by request to the Labor Commissioner’s office.

About the Office of the Labor Commissioner

The Office of the Labor Commissioner is a division of the Department of Business and Industry. The Labor Commissioner strives to ensure that all workers are treated fairly under the law by investigating complaints of non-payment of wages, State minimum wage, overtime, and prevailing wage disputes. The office also monitors youth employment standards, including work hours and safe, non-hazardous working conditions.

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