West Virginia MINIMUM WAGES

West Virginia State Minimum Wage for 2025

Since the onset of January 1, 2025, West Virginia employers are required to pay their non-tipped employees a minimum of $11.00 per hour. For tipped employees, the base wage is set at $2.62 per hour, with the total wage needing to reach $11.00 per hour. Overtime pay is applicable at 1.5 times the regular pay for any employees working beyond 40 hours a week, with certain exemptions. 

According to House Bill 2481, the minimum wage rate will continue to rise annually until it reaches $15.00 per hour by 2029. 

West Virginia maintains a state-wide uniform rate, so none of its individual cities have a different minimum wage rate.

Workers under 22 years are entitled to receive a training wage of $9.00 per hour for the first 90 days of their employment.

In the next section, let’s discuss the minimum wages prevalent across the top cities of West Virginia. 

Minimum Wages in West Virginia Cities

Unlike certain states, like Arizona, New York, and California, West Viriginia has a consistent minimum wage rate across all its cities.  

Here’s a table of the tipped and non-tipped minimum wages of the top 30 cities of West Virginia: 

While the constant minimum wage rates across the state simplify certain calculations for employers, the various laws governing the minimum salary threshold for exempt employees paint a different picture.  

Let’s discuss it in the next section. 

Threshold For Employees Exempt

According to the Department of Labor (DOL), employees are classified under the following: 

• Non-exempt employees are the low earners dependent on the minimum wage and overtime regulations. 
• Exempt employees are high paid, salaried individuals who do not qualify for overtime benefits. 

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) increased the annual salary threshold from $35,568 to $43,888 for exempt employees from April 23, 2024. That means the employees must be paid a minimum of this threshold to maintain their “exempt” status. 

Similarly, the Department of Labor (DOL) raised the annual salary threshold for highly compensated employees from $132,964 per year to $151,164 on January 1, 2025.

If employers fail to maintain the above minimum threshold limits, they will lose their status and reach the next lower level. 

In the next section, let’s discuss the history of the gradual minimum wage changes witnessed in West Virginia in the past few decades. 

Historical Data of West Virginia Minimum Wages  

The West Virginia minimum wage rates were increased to $5.85 per hour after June 30, 2006. Later it was raised to $6.55 per hour after June 30, 2007, and to $7.25 in 2008. It remained aligned to the federal rate for a certain time. 

Later, it witnessed an increase in 2014 to $8.00 per hour. Since then, it has stayed constant at $8.75. However, the recent reenactment of §21-5C-2 Code, the minimum wage rates were raised to $10.00, effective December 31, 2023. 

Here is a table summarizing all the major changes witnessed in the West Virginia Minimum Wages from 1963 to 2023: 

* – Under the FLSA, the two rates shown in 1968, 1970, and 1976 reflect the former multiple-track minimum wage system in effect from 1961 to 1978.

** – Rates applicable to only women and minors. 

Source: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/state/minimum-wage/history

Exemptions in Minimum Wages of West Virginia 

According to West Virginia Code Chapter 21, Article 5C, the following individuals are excluded from availing the minimum wage benefits and placed under exemptions: 

• Any individual employed by the United States 
• Individuals engaged in educational, charitable, religious, fraternal, or non-profit organizations. 
• Newsboys, shoeshine boys, golf caddies, pin boys, and pin chasers in bowling lanes. 
• Traveling and outside salespeople 
• Individuals employed in their family businesses 
• Bona fide professional, executive, or administrators 
• Trainers, learners, and students 
• Agriculture employees 
• Senior individuals receiving benefits from the Social Security Administration 
• Part-time employees 
• Seasonal employees of amusement or recreational organizations.