Minimum Wage

Most employees are entitled to be paid at least minimum wage in New Jersey and New York.

Unless you fall within a legal exemption from this requirement, your employer must pay you at least the minimum wage for every hour you work. For example, if you are paid by the hour, your company probably cannot ask, require, or allow you to work “off the clock,” or to work during an unpaid lunch hour or other break.

In 2024, the minimum wage for most employees in New Jersey is $15.13 per hour.

For employees in New York, the minimum wage in 2024 is $16.00 per hour for employees who work in New York City and downstate (Westchester, Nassau or Suffolk Counties), and $15.00 per hour for those who work upstate state (any other county in New York).

For information about the special rules that apply to employees who receive tips as part of their compensation, please see our tipped employees page. For additional information about minimum wage in general, please see our articles: New York and New Jersey Raise Minimum Wage and New York Raising Minimum Wage for Fast Food Workers.

As our New Jersey minimum wage law attorneys can explain, although minimum wage requirements apply to many employees, they do not apply to everyone.

The three main categories of employees who are exempt from minimum wage law are Executive, Administrative and Professional employees. To fall into any of three categories, you have to be paid at least $684 per week prior to July 1, 2024, at least $844 per week after June 1, 2024, and at least $1,128 per week after June 30, 2025, and meet the following criteria:

Executive Employees: To fit into this category, an employee must (1) have primary responsibility for managing either the business or one of the company’s departments or subdivisions; (2) supervise at least two full-time employees (or the equivalent); and (3) either (a) have authority to hire or fire other employees, or (b) have significant input into decisions about hiring, firing, promoting or similar personnel decisions.

Administrative Employees: For this exemption to apply an employee’s primary job duty has to involve both (1) office work or other non-manual work directly related to managing or operating the company’s business; and (2) discretion and independent judgment about business matters.

Professional Employees: There are two subcategories of professional employees, learned professionals and creative professional.

Learned professionals: These are employees (1) whose primary job duties require advanced knowledge in a field involving scientific or learning that typically requires an advanced education; and (2) who frequently use discretion and judgment to perform their jobs.

Creative professionals: These are employees whose primary job duties require imagination, creativity, originality, invention or artistic or creative talent.

In addition, many other employees are exempt from the minimum wage requirement including certain outside sales employees, information technology professionals, farm workers who work on relatively small farms and casual babysitters, among others. You can learn more from one of our New Jersey minimum wage lawyers.

State and federal wage and hour laws, including the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA") and the New Jersey Wage & Hour law, provide whistleblower protection. As a result, you may have a retaliation claim if you were fired, harassed, or experienced another adverse employment action because you objected to or complained about a wage and hour violation. This includes, for example, prohibiting your employer from retaliating against you because you asked it to start paying you minimum wage.

Companies that fail to pay their employees minimum wage also often violate overtime laws. Please see our overtime pay page to learn more about this important legal right.

Related Claim: Unpaid Wages

Whether or not you have a minimum wage claim, if your employer failed to pay you all of the salary or wages you earned, then it is likely you have a legal claim for your unpaid wages.

If you have been denied minimum wage or overtime pay, or if you have experienced another violation of your wage and hour rights in New Jersey or New York, Rabner Baumgart Ben-Asher & Nirenberg, P.C. can help. Please call us at (201) 777-2250, or contact us online to schedule a meeting with an experienced New Jersey minimum wage lawyer.

Want to learn more? We recommend these articles from our Employment Law Blog:

• New Jersey Supreme Court Broadens Definition of "Employee" Under Wage and Hour Law
• Hourly Employees Must be Paid for Short Breaks