Minimum wage in Montana

The minimum wage in Montana is $5.15 per hour except for businesses whose gross annual sales of $110,000 or less the minimum wage is $4.00 per hour. According to Montana state law the minimum wage excludes from coverage any employment that is subject to the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act unless the state wage rate is higher than the Federal minimum wage. There is no tip credit, meal credit or training wage allowed under Montana’s wage and hour laws.

Montana Department of Labor and Industry 2003 study found that four percent, or roughly 5,000, of the state’s workers earn $5.15 per hour or below. However, the real market minimum in at least in the Billings, Montana area is actually around $8.00 per hour. Even tipped employees make more than the minimum wage. Another reason wages are high in Montana is the low unemployment rate of 4.1%. Most jobs in Montana range from $8.00 per hour to $9.41 per hour.

However, this November the voters of Montana will vote on Initiative 151 that calls for an increase in the minimum wage to be the greater of $6.15 per hour or if the federal minimum wage is higher– U.S. Congress is still debating increasing the minimum wage to $7.25 per hour – then workers in Montana will be paid the higher amount. This initiative also includes an annual cost of living adjustment that is tied to the CPI inflation factor.

Through the efforts of a broad coalition called “Raise Montana,” volunteers circulated petitions throughout the state and obtained nearly 40,000 signatures in forty-three legislative representative districts. All that was required was 22,308 signatures in thirty-four districts. Steve Bullock, the director of the “Raise Montana” coalition, stated that his group will be working to make sure that Montanans understand the issue. He stated that the increased wages are not going out of state but will be spent right on “Main Street.” In a 2005 poll conducted by Montana State University-Billings and the local Lee Newspapers found that over seventy-five percent of Montanans favored increasing the state’s minimum wage by a dollar.