Minimum Wage

An employer with at least two employees in a work week pays each of them not less than the minimum wage payable under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. The state chapter reaches employers not already covered by the federal minimum wage.

• §IC 22-2-2-3StatuteDefinitions; exemptionsOpens iga.in.gov ↗
• §IC 22-2-2-4StatuteRates; discriminationOpens iga.in.gov ↗

For a tipped employee, an employer may count tips toward the minimum: the cash wage may be no less than $2.13 an hour, and tips make up the rest. The employer supports the tip credit it takes with the tips employees report.

• §IC 22-2-2-4StatuteRates; discriminationOpens iga.in.gov ↗

The chapter's employees do not include, among others, the following.

• People less than sixteen, people employed by their own parent, spouse or child, and students working for their own school.
• Independent businesses free from the employer's control, people on commission, outside salespeople and direct sellers.
• Executive, administrative and professional employees with authority to hire or fire earning $150 or more a week, and most agricultural labor.

• §IC 22-2-2-3StatuteDefinitions; exemptionsOpens iga.in.gov ↗

An employer who underpays owes the unpaid minimum wages and an equal additional amount as liquidated damages, plus a reasonable attorney's fee and costs, in an action brought within three years. No agreement to take less is a defense.

• §IC 22-2-2-9StatuteActions and proceedings; damages; limitation of actions; defensesOpens iga.in.gov ↗

Unless federal or state law provides otherwise, no city, town or county may set a minimum wage higher than the state's, though it may set wage rates in its own contracts.

• §IC 22-2-2-10.5StatuteProhibition against unit establishing, mandating, or requiring higher minimum wage; exceptionOpens iga.in.gov ↗