Quick Hits

• Effective July 1, 2024, Nevada’s minimum wage will increase to $12.00 per hour.
• Nevada’s two-tiered minimum wage structure will be retiring, which means, the minimum wage for all employees will be $12 per hour regardless of whether the employer provides qualified health benefits.
• The minimum wage increase will raise the earnings threshold to be exempt from daily overtime pay to $18 per hour.

The Nevada Office of the Labor Commissioner recently confirmed an increase of $0.75 per hour to the state’s minimum wage starting on July 1, 2024. The latest increase will be the final incremental increase provided by Assembly Bill (AB) 456, which was passed in 2019 and required $0.75 per hour yearly minimum wage increases for five years.

Elimination of Two-Tiered Overtime

Nevada voters approved a ballot measure in November 2022 to eliminate the two-tiered minimum wage system, which will also go into effect with this last increase in the minimum wage on July 1, 2024. The previous tiered system allowed employers to pay a reduced minimum wage if they offered certain “qualified health benefits.” Thus, the new $12 minimum wage will apply to all employees in the state of Nevada, regardless of whether they offer “qualified health benefits,” as that term is defined under Nevada law.

Overtime Pay

The increase will also impact overtime rates for employees except those exempted from overtime requirements under Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS) 608.018. Employees who earn less than one and one-half times the minimum wage, which will be $18 after the increase, will be entitled to daily overtime pay. That means that employees who earn less than $18 per day will be entitled to premium overtime pay in the amount of one and one-half times their rate of pay for hours worked over eight hours in a 24-hour period, or over forty hours in a week. Notably, Nevada NRS 608.0126 defines a “workday” differently from the typical twenty-four-hour calendar day, instead defining it as “a period of 24 consecutive hours which begins when the employee begins work.”

However, under Nevada law, employees who earn at least one and one-half times the minimum wage, (i.e., $18 per hour or more) will only be eligible for premium pay of one and one-half times their regular rate of pay for all hours worked over forty hours in one week.

Next Steps

Employees in Nevada will be entitled to a minimum wage of $12 per hour and will be subject to daily overtime if they make less than $18 per hour. These are both increases from the prior requirements and significant increases from the requirements of just a few years ago. Moreover, with potentially more employees being subject to daily overtime, employers may want to assess the impacts on their businesses and whether it makes financial sense to increase hourly rates to avoid daily overtime payments. They may further want to review their policies and procedures for scheduling and tracking hours worked.

The Nevada Office of the Labor Commissioner has published new minimum wage and overtime bulletins, which can be found here.