Nevada Employer Alert: Two-tier minimum wage to be eliminated, final increase to $12 per hour effective July 1, 2024

Quick hits

• Effective July 1, 2024, Nevada’s minimum wage will increase to $12.00 per hour.
• Nevada’s two-tier minimum wage structure will be eliminated. This means that the minimum wage for all workers will be $12 per hour, regardless of whether the employer offers qualified health insurance benefits.
• The increase in the minimum wage raises the earnings limit for exemption from daily overtime pay to $18 per hour.

The Nevada Office of the Labor Commissioner recently approved a $0.75 per hour increase in the state’s minimum wage, effective July 1, 2024. The latest increase is the last incremental increase under Assembly Bill (AB) 456, passed in 2019, which calls for an annual $0.75 per hour increase in the minimum wage for five years.

Abolition of two-stage overtime regulations

Nevada voters approved a ballot proposal in November 2022 to eliminate the two-tiered minimum wage system, which will take effect with this latest minimum wage increase 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 applies to all workers in the state of Nevada, regardless of whether they offer “qualified health benefits,” as that term is defined in Nevada law.

Overtime pay

The increase will also affect overtime rates for employees, except those exempt from overtime regulations under Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS) 608.018. Employees earning less than one and a half times the minimum wage, which is $18 after the increase, will be eligible for daily overtime pay. This means that employees earning less than $18 per day will be eligible for overtime premiums of one and a half times their hourly wage for hours worked in excess of eight hours in a 24-hour period or forty hours in a week. Notably, Nevada NRS 608.0126 defines a “workday” differently than the typical 24-hour calendar day, namely as “a period of 24 consecutive hours that begins when the employee begins work.”

Under Nevada law, employees earning at least one and a half times the minimum wage (that is, $18 or more per hour) are only entitled to a premium payment of one and a half times their regular hourly wage for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours per week.

Next Steps

Workers in Nevada are entitled to a minimum wage of $12 per hour and must work overtime daily if they earn less than $18 per hour. These are both increases from previous requirements and significant increases from the requirements of just a few years ago. Additionally, with potentially more workers required to work overtime daily, employers should evaluate the impact on their business and consider whether it makes financial sense to increase hourly rates to avoid daily overtime payments. They should also review their policies and procedures for scheduling and tracking hours worked.

The Nevada State Labor Commissioner’s Office has released new minimum wage and overtime bulletins, which can be found here.

The Ogletree Deakins Client Portal provides subscribers with up-to-date information on wage and hour laws, including minimum wage. Our updated summaries on minimum wage and minimum wage tipping laws include State and larger town current Minimum wage and tip credits, new rates Entry into force mid-2024and other Future Minimum wage and tip credit rates that states and large localities have published and/or announced. (Complete law summaries are available for bonus-level subscribers; Snapshots And Update are available to all registered Client users.) For more information about the Client Portal or to purchase a Client Portal subscription, contact [email protected].

Ogletree Deakins’ Las Vegas office will continue to monitor developments and update the Nevada and Wage and Hour blogs as new information becomes available.

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