New Hampshire Minimum Wage 2024
New Hampshire’s current minimum wage is $7.25 per hour.
New Hampshire law sets its minimum wage to be the same as the federal minimum wage set forth in the Fair Labor Standards Act (See NH Statute 279:21).
New Hampshire employers must also comply with federal minimum wage laws, which currently set the federal minimum wage at $7.25 per hour.
If an employer chooses to pay employees minimum wage, the employer must pay those employees in accordance with the minimum wage law, either federal or state, that results in the employees being paid the higher wage
Tip Minimum Wage
New Hampshire’s minimum wage for tipped employees is $3.27 per hour.
New Hampshire law permits employers to pay employees not less than 45% of the applicable minimum wage if the employees:
- Work for a restaurant, including those who deliver prepared food, hotel, motel, inn, or cabin, and
- Customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips directly from customers (See NH Statute 279:21 and NH Admin. Rules, Lab 802.14).
New Hampshire defines tips as money paid by a customer to an employee in response to services performed.
If an employer chooses to pay employees tipped wages, they must ensure the employees are paid the standard minimum wage when an employee’s tipped wages are combined with tips received.
If the employee does not receive enough tips to cover the difference between the tipped minimum wage and the standard minimum wage, the employer must pay the employee the difference.
Tips are the property of the employees who receive them. An employer may not withhold, divert, or use tips in any manner not allowed by New Hampshire’s minimum wage law. For more info, check NH Admin. Rules, Lab 803.02(f).
Tip Pooling and Sharing
New Hampshire law prohibits employers from requiring or coercing employees to participate in tip pooling or tip sharing arrangements.
However, employees may voluntarily agree to participate in tip pooling or tip sharing.
Employers may administer tip pooling or tip sharing arrangements at the request of employees, provide guidance regarding the details of the arrangement, and mediate any dispute between employees arising under the tip pooling or tip sharing arrangement.
Employees participating in a tip pool may voluntarily and without coercion agree to share part of the common tip pool with other employees, regardless of their job categories, who participate in providing service to customers.
New Hampshire law defines tip pooling as the practice of intermingling tips earned by employees in the same job category to be redistributed among participating employees.
Tip sharing, on the other hand, is defined as tipped employees giving a portion of their tips to other employees who participated in providing service to customers.For more information, check NH Statute 279:1(XIV).
Subminimum wage
Employees with Disabilities
New Hampshire minimum wage laws do not allow employers to pay employees with disabilities a subminimum wage rate less than the standard minimum wage. NH Statute 279:22.
Trainees
New Hampshire minimum wage laws allow business and financial operations to pay employees with less than six (6) months experience in an occupation not less than 75% of the standard minimum wage. However, the employer must file an application with the New Hampshire Department of Labor within 10 days of the employee’s hire, and the application is approved.
The New Hampshire Department of Labor, upon application of a participating employer or proper school authority, may permit employers to pay less than the standard minimum wage or no wages at all to high school or post-secondary students employed for practical experience.
If such a program is established, the Department of Labor must create guidelines consistent with state and federal law to determine if an employer-employee relationship exists and if compensation is required.
An employer cannot displace an existing worker with a trainee who is paid a subminimum wage.
Apprentices
New Hampshire minimum wage laws do not permit employers to pay apprentices a wage rate less than the standard minimum wage.
Learners
New Hampshire minimum wage laws do not allow employers to pay learners a subminimum wage rate that is less than the standard minimum wage.
Student Learners
New Hampshire minimum wage laws allow employers to pay student learners a subminimum wage rate that is less than the standard minimum wage, but only if the employer has received approval from the New Hampshire Department of Labor to do so.
To qualify, an employee must be a student enrolled at a high school or post-secondary school who works for practical experience prior to placement with an outside employer.
There is no minimum wage the Department of Labor must approve for student learners. In fact, the Department of Labor may approve an application that permits the employer not to pay the student learner at all.
The Department of Labor will approve an application to pay student learners a subminimum wage if the following criteria are met:
- There is no employer-employee relationship between the school and student learner;
- The student learner does not displace any regular employees but must work under their close observation;
- The school provides safety training to the student learner; and
- The school is not otherwise in violation of any New Hampshire labor laws.
To know more, see NH Admin. Rules 805.02-04.
Student workers
New Hampshire minimum wage laws do not allow employers to pay student workers a subminimum wage rate that is less than the standard minimum wage unless the employee qualifies as a student learner.
New Hampshire Minimum Wage Laws 2024 FAQs
Here are more details regarding other pertinent wage laws in New Hampshire:
Are New Hampshire employees entitled to receive federal unemployment benefits?
Yes. In New Hampshire, documentation for unemployment assistance is needed to get benefits.
New Hampshire also helps unemployed citizens by giving announcements regarding the current job market climate, primarily about upcoming virtual job fairs in its recruitment portal.
What do New Hampshire minimum wage laws state about those who are part of the hospitality industry/drinking places industry?
As discussed earlier, employees from this industry (also known as tipped employees) must receive a base rate from the business owner and employer of at least 45% of the applicable minimum wage.
This type of employee wage applies similarly to minimum wage workers in similar establishments, like inns, restaurants, and cabins.
How are minimum wage increases done in New Hampshire?
As of January 1, 2024, New Hampshire still implements a $7.25-an-hour-minimum wage rate. This minimum wage rate is the same as the federal rate.
There are no mechanisms in place yet regarding increase mechanisms, which is part of the growing number of concerns in New Hampshire, including labor shortage.
This means that the next minimum wage hike in the state will probably only be possible if there occurs a federal minimum wage bump in the near future.
According to New Hampshire labor market statistics, pre-pandemic rates of unemployment were already at 2.6%.
Hopefully, this shortage of workers, as well as income inequality, resolves soon through efforts from democratic lawmakers一all in favor of benefiting low-wage workers and impacting their cost of living.The pressure on wages and the initiatives to raise them can create a proportionate wage hike that adjusts minimum wage levels. It may even prevent the so-called “starvation wage” or the lowest wages that workers still experience.
