BACKGROUND

There are both state and federal minimum wage laws.  Employers in the state must pay the higher of the applicable state or federal minimum wage.  The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.  The current federal minimum wage generally applies to covered employees of employers who have annual gross volume of sales made or business done of $500,000 or more.  The current state minimum wage for large employers is $6.15 an hour and for small employers is $5.25 an hour.  A large employer is defined as an enterprise whose annual gross volume of sales made or business done is not less than $625,000.  A small employer is less than $625,000.  The state also has a youth or training wage of $4.90 an hour for persons under the age of 20 for the first 90 consecutive days of work.  There are some types of employers and some types of employees that are exempted from minimum wage coverage under both federal and state law.

Section 1 raises the state minimum wage for large employers from $6.15 an hour to $7.50 an hour effective August 1, 2013.  The small employer minimum wage and the youth wage are not increased on August 1, 2013.  However, on August 1, 2014, the large employer, small employer, and youth wage must be adjusted by the increase in the cost-of-living calculated under Section 1, paragraph (d).  That adjustment must be made annually on August 1.

JCF/syl