Nebraska Minimum Wage Changes: The Bottom Line

April 15th, 2007 Posted by Mark

The bottom line with the proposed Nebraska minimum wage bill is that even if it gets passed one day soon, the state’s employers might end up soon paying whatever the federal minimum wage is again soon. Remember, that is how the current Nebraska minimum wage law works—it basically says that employers in the state of Nebraska have to pay their lowest paid workers at least whatever the federal minimum wage is.

The new Nebraska minimum wage law, if passed, would increase the state minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to $6.26 per hour, over the course of three 37 cent increases over the course of three years. That would end up in the year 2009, if you do the math, after which the state would increase the minimum wage after that by the rate of inflation.

However, let’s say the federal minimum wage law gets passed soon this year. If you follow my logic here, then the federal minimum wage, before the end of 2007, will become $5.85 per hour—which would be higher than the new Nebraska minimum wage. Then many Nebraska minimum wage payers would end up paying the federal minimum wage.

Come 2008, when the federal minimum wage would go up to $6.50 per hour, that would also be higher than the new Nebraska minimum wage that year, and again, most employers in the state would be required to pay the higher federal minimum wage. The next year, in 2009, the same would be true—the Nebraska minimum wage would be $6.26 per hour and the federal minimum wage would be $7.25 per hour. The federal minimum wage would apply again for many employers in the state. So de facto, for most employers, their minimum wage would revert back to being the federal minimum wage.

Last 10 posts by Mark

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Posted in Employment Laws, Minimum Wage, Nebraska, Wage and Hour

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