Indiana employers will be updating their minimum wage posters again, as another minimum wage change looms.
On July 24, 2009 when the federal minimum wage increases from $6.55 to $7.25 per hour, the Indiana minimum wage will increase as well. This 70-cent increase is the third in as many years, resulting in an Indiana minimum wage that is $2.10 higher than in early 2007.
Under both Indiana and federal law, tipped employees can be paid less than the full minimum wage. In this respect, the federal and Indiana minimum wages law are similar.
On one significant point they differ, however. Indiana law covers many smaller businesses that would not be affected by the federal minimum wage law.
Both the federal and the Indiana minimum wage rates will go up by 70 cents on July 24, 2009. The old rate under both is $6.55 an hour and the new hourly rate will be $7.25. For Indiana and other employers, the good news is that no federal minimum wage hike is scheduled for 2010.
The federal Fair Labor Standards Act, also known as the FLSA, establishes the national minimum wage. For more information, visit www.dol.gov, the website of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The enforcing agency is the Wage and Hour Division of the DOL.
Indiana statute mandates that the state mirror the federal law and schedule regarding the minimum wage. As a result, both rates increased from $5.15 to $5.85 an hour in 2007 and from $5.85 to $6.55 in 2008.
Under the FLSA, employers must pay the federal minimum wage unless they conduct interstate commerce or earn revenues of less than $500,000 a year. Indiana law, however, provides for coverage of smaller employers as well. Incidentally, if just a single worker in a company conducts interstate commerce, then that employee is covered by the federal minimum wage law even if no other workers in the firm receive that protection.
