Effective January 1, 2015 the West Virginia minimum wage increases from $7.25 to $8.00 per hour. The WV minimum wage law, signed by Governor Earl Tomblin in 2014, also provides an increase to $8.75 per hour in 2016. Economists project that this increase will affect the 22,000 minimum wage workers (of 446,000 total workers) as well as anyone who is currently paid more than the minimum wage, but less than $8.00 per hour.
Under the West Virginia minimum wage law, employers can pay a training wage of $6.40 per hour to employees who are less than 20 years old, but only during the employees first 90 days of work. New companies that have been in business may pay workers the training wage of $6.40 per hour for an additional 90 days. After that period, employees must be paid the full minimum wage. However, employers may be required to pay a higher minimum wage ($7.25 per hour) under federal law, even during a training period.
Tipped employees can generally be paid 20% less than the minimum wage, or $6.40 per hour in 2015. However, some tipped employees such as restaurant servers may be entitled to only $2.13 per hour, under the federal law.
The minimum wage law also requires that employers pay workers overtime at a rate of 1.5 times the employees average rate, when the employee works more than 40 hours in the payroll week.
The West Virginia Division of Labor, Wage and Hour Section enforces both the Minimum Wage Act, and the Wage Payment & Collection Act or WPC. The WPC covers payment for all hours worked, timely payment of final wages, payment of benefits earned under company policy and illegal withholdings from paychecks.
