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West Virginia Minimum Wage Goes to $7.25 in July

May 5th, 2008 Posted by Amelia

On July 1, 2008 the West Virginia minimum wage will increase by 70 cents, from $6.55 per hour to $7.25 per hour. The state minimum wage applies to employers with 6 or more workers at one location.

West Virginia employers may pay workers under 20 a training wage of $5.15 per hour for the first 90 days of employment, only if certain conditions are met.

Employees in the state are entitled to overtime at 1.5 times the usual hourly rate after 40 hours, under both state and federal law.

West Virginia employers may take a 20% tip credit for employees who usually receive gratuities, so the new wage for tipped employees will be $5.80 per hour.

This increase was passed in 2006, as part of a 3-tiered increase to push the state minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to $7.25 per hour. That’s a change of $2.10 per hour in just over two years.

Under state law, West Virginia employers must provide meal breaks for most workers. Article 2 of the Safety and Welfare of Employees Act was passed in 1994. Statute 21-3-10a specifies meal breaks for almost all employees. The statute requires that employers will provide at least 20 minutes for a meal break during the course of a workday that is 6 hours long, or longer. “This provision shall be required in all situations where employees are not afforded necessary breaks and/or permitted to eat while working” under the law.

Under both federal and West Virginia law, meal breaks that are 20 minutes or longer may be unpaid, as long as the employee is completely relieved of all work duties. Employees may be required to remain on the employer’s premises during breaks.

Employees must be paid for breaks shorter than 15 minutes under both state and federal law. Title 42, Series 8 states under the West Virginia Minimum Wage and Maximum hour standards (42-5-2. Definitions, 2.6), states that “Rest periods of short duration, running from (5) to (20) minutes, must counted as hours worked.”

In addition, Title 42, Series 5 of the Wage Payment and Collection Act, states that …”when authorized by an employer, break periods and or rest periods which do not exceed (20) minutes duration must be counted as hours worked.”

The state sets stricter break standards for workers under the age of 16. Under Article 6 of the Child Labor Law 21-6-7, workers under 16 must receive a 30-minute uninterrupted meal break. Employees under 16 cannot be required to work more than 5 hours without a break, and the break may not be shorter than 30 minutes.

The West Virginia statutes include important provisions for nurses and other licensed health care workers, who provide direct patient care.

The nationwide nursing shortage has prompted several states, including Massachusetts, to limit the amount of overtime that a nurse may be required to work by her employer. West Virginia has a similar law.

In some cases, qualified nurses were leaving the field and seeking employment elsewhere because of the stresses of the profession. A major contributor to these stresses was the long hours and especially extensive mandatory overtime.

The West Virginia law limiting nurses overtime was created to safeguard the efficiency, health and general well-being of health care workers in hospitals, as well as the health and general well-being of the persons who use their services. To insure quality patient care and well-rested and alert nursing staffing, it was determined that hospitals should provide adequate and safe staffing without the use of mandatory overtime.

To insure that this happens, limitations were set on overtime required of nurses. Specific Code language can be found in the West Virginia statutes at 21-5F-3, Hospital nursing overtime limitations and requirements.

The Wage & Hour Division of the West Virginia Division of Labor enforces these and other state labor laws. The division investigates employee complaints of unpaid wages and benefits. During a single year, the Wage & Hour Division collected more than $1.7 million in unpaid wages and benefits for West Virginia workers.