Mississippi ( MS ) Wage and Hour Laws

Since there are no Mississippi (MS) wage and hour laws, the state of Mississippi follows the federal standard. These laws exist to help both employers and employees understand their rights and responsibilities, and help establish a standard for working conditions.

Mississippi (MS) wage and hour laws do not make a specific provision for minimum wage. Instead, the Mississippi minimum wage is modeled after the federal standard, which is currently set at $5.15 per hour. The minimum wage for tipped employees is $2.13 per hour.

There is talk within the federal government about increasing the above mentioned hourly rate. If that happens it will affect not only the state of Mississippi but also several other states. Therefore, Mississippi could be required to pay up to $7.25 per hour to its employees within the next few years.

Certain exceptions exist regarding the payment of minimum wage in Mississippi. For example, employees with disabilities are not required to be paid the full minimum wage if their disabilities substantially affect their ability to work. Full-time students and those under 20 years of age within first 90 days of employment are also not required to be paid minimum wage.

No Mississippi (WA) wage and hour laws exist to make provisions towards overtime. Instead Mississippi’s policy regarding overtime is determined by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of the federal government. Overtime is paid to most workers who put in more than 40 hours in one 7-day work week. The overtime wage is one-and-a-half times the regular work wage.

Mississippi follows federal standards for offering breaks to employees as well. For example, they will either give an employee a paid rest break of 5 to 20 minutes or an unpaid lunch break of 30 minutes or more.

According to the wage and hour laws that Mississippi uses, breaks are not mandatory. However, if breaks are given they should be offered according to the standard set by the federal government, as mentioned in the above paragraph.

Sometimes federal and state overtime laws differ from one another. In some cases, such as that of the state of Mississippi (MI), wage and hour laws used are solely adopted from federal wage and hour laws.  These are the ones outlined in the Fair Labor Standard Act.