Indiana labor laws, including Indiana labor laws 2025, impact the daily lives of employees and employers in Indiana. Residents of Indiana have many questions that affect them every day regarding Indiana labor laws from minimum wage rates, overtime, wage payments, vacation and sick leave, child labor, meal and rest breaks, and more.
In addition to Indiana labor laws, employer must also comply with federal labor laws such as the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), and many other federal laws. And when federal laws are different from state Indiana labor laws, usually companies must comply with the law that provides their workers the best protection.
Below we provide comprehensive information and resources regarding your more pressing Indiana labor law questions to help you answer the question and help you make the right decision about you and your employment.
Minimum Wage
Indiana’s current minimum wage is $7.25.
Employers in Indiana must adhere to the federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 per hour. If you are a tipped employee, your minimum wage is $2.13. However, if employers pay employees a tipped minimum wage, they must ensure that they receive the standard minimum wage when tips are combined with salary.
For more information on Indiana’s minimum wage laws, visit our Indiana Minimum Wage Laws page, which includes topics such as minimum wage, tip minimum wage, tip sharing and pooling, and subminimum wages.
Related topic covered on other pages include:
Overtime
Indiana labor laws require employers to pay employees overtime at a rate of 1½ time their regular rate of pay when they work more than 40 hours in a workweek, unless otherwise exempt. IN Minimum Wage Notice; IN Statute 22-2-2-4(f).
Federal labor laws may impose additional requirements on employers regarding overtime pay under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). See FLSA: Overtime for more information regarding overtime requirements.
Prevailing Wages
Under certain circumstances, employers in Indiana may be required to pay residents wage rates established by the federal or state prevailing wage rates and rules, including common construction wages. The prevailing wage rates may be different from the state’s standard minimum wage rates. Employees may be eligible for prevailing wages if they work on federal or state government or government-funded construction projects or perform certain federal or state government services. See the Indiana Common Construction Wage, Davis-Bacon and Related Acts, McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act (SCA), and Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act (PCA) for more information about prevailing wages.
Meals and Breaks
Indiana does not have any laws requiring an employer to provide a meal period or breaks to employees eighteen (18) years of age or older, thus the federal rule applies. The federal rule does not require an employer to provide either a meal (lunch) period or breaks. However, if an employer chooses to do so, breaks, usually of the type lasting less than twenty (20) minutes, must be paid. Meal or lunch periods (usually thirty (30) minutes or more) do not need to be paid, so long as the employee is free to do as they wish during the meal or lunch period. DOL: Breaks and Meal Periods.
Nursing Mother Breaks
Indiana labor laws require employers to allow employees to express breast milk during any period they are away from the employees’ assigned duties. Employers must allow nursing mothers to express breast milk in a private location not including toilet stalls.
Employer must either:
- provide a refrigerator or other cold storage space for keeping milk that has been expressed, or
- allow a nursing mother to provide the employee’s own portable cold storage device for keeping breast milk expressed that day until the end of the employee’s work day.
Employers are not liable, except for willful misconduct, gross negligence, or bad faith, for any harm caused by or arising from the following that occur on the employers’ premises:
- The expressing of an employee’s breast milk
- The storage of expressed milk.
Severance Pay
Indiana state laws do not require employers to provide employees with severance pay. If an employer chooses to provide severance benefits, it must comply with the terms of its established policy or employment contract.
Leave Laws
Vacation Leave
In Indiana, employers are not required to provide unpaid or paid vacation benefits. However, if an employer offers these vacation benefits, they must adhere to all terms established in the employment contract or vacation leave policy.
Employers may also establish rules regarding denying employees payment for accrued vacation leave upon the end of the contract or separation from employment. Specific requirements may also be set to disqualify an employee from receiving payment for accrued leave at the end of employment.
However, if the contract or policy requires it, an employer must pay the accrued vacation time to an employee upon the end of the contract or separation from employment. There are, however, no set laws about whether or not an employer can implement a use-it or lose-it policy.
Sick Leave
Indiana employment laws does not require employers to provide paid or unpaid sick leave benefits to its employees. However, if an employer provides sick leave benefits, they must adhere to all terms established in the sick leave policy or employment contract. In addition, employers in Indiana may be required to provide their employees with unpaid sick leave in accordance with federal laws and the federal Family and Medical Leave Act.
Holiday Leave
Indiana law states that private employers are not required to provide their employees with unpaid or paid holiday leave. Moreover, a private employer may also require that employees work on holidays.
Employers are also not required to pay their employees premium pay, such as 1.5 times the regular rate, for working during holiday hours. This is the case unless such time also coincides with overtime hours, in which case an employee will qualify under federal overtime laws.
However, if an employer provides unpaid or paid holiday leave, it must adhere to all terms and conditions established in the employment contract or holiday leave policy. There are also Indiana state holidays that are officially observed and recognized.
Jury Duty Leave
An employer in Indiana must allow employees to take time off for jury duty, as it is a legal obligation. An employer may not subject an employee to adverse employment action, whether discipline, demotion, or termination, for responding to a jury summons.
If an employer has 10 or fewer employees and one is already performing jury duty, the employer may request that the second employee’s jury duty be postponed. In addition, Indiana will not require employers to pay employees for jury duty.
Voting Leave
There are currently no laws in Indiana that require employers to grant their employees any kind of paid or unpaid leave to vote.
For more information, here’s a detailed guide.
Unemployment
Under certain circumstances, Indiana residents may be eligible for unemployment benefits while they search for another job. You are required to certify that you are unemployed on a weekly basis to receive these benefits.
To qualify for unemployment benefits in Indiana, you must have earned at least $4,200 in the entire base period, at least $2,500 in the last six months of the base period, and at least 1.5 times your wages in the highest-paid quarter in the entire base period.
Moreover, you must be out of work due to no fault of your own to qualify for unemployment benefits. You must also be unemployed but able to work, willing to work, and actively seeking employment.
See Indiana State Unemployment Benefits.
Other Indiana Labor Laws Topics and Resources
There are several other laws governing the employers and their workplaces. Below are those topics and resources:
- Indiana Child Labor Laws including work during school hours and summer hours, school days and summer days, hour restrictions, and hazardous occupations.
- Discrimination which includes violations based on race, color, national origin, ancestry, religion, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy), age (over 40), and disability.
- Indiana payday law including covering frequency and manner of wage payments, regular pay periods, deductions, direct deposit and payroll cards, pay stubs, record keeping, and notice requirements.
- Minimum wage and overtime exemptions covering non-exempt employees and exempt employees
- Hours worked including rest breaks, meal breaks, on-call, waiting, travel, sleeping, and meeting times.
- The Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration (IOSHA), which is part of the Indiana Department of Labor, enforces the safety and health laws and regulations in Indiana. IOSHA was approved by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) that is enforced by the US Department of Labor.
- Workers’ compensation
- Indiana’s Military Family Leave law applies to employers with 50 employees and provides unpaid military leave benefits to eligible employees and their family members when the employee receives active duty orders. A family members that may qualify for military leave is a spouse, parent, grandparent, child, or sibling. Active employees and veterans may also be eligible for military leave under the federal Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA).
