Kentucky Minimum Wage: Rate, Tipped Pay, Exemptions
Kentucky’s minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, unchanged since July 1, 2009. Tipped cash wage, the exemption list, the poster rule and what changes next.
Kentucky Minimum Wage
$7.25 an hour since July 1, 2009, a $2.13 tipped cash wage, no local rates, and an exemption list longer than most owners expect
A restaurant owner in Bowling Green called me the week she opened her second location. She had found three different numbers for Kentucky's minimum wage that morning and wanted to know which one to load into payroll before Friday. Two of the three came from pages that had quietly gone stale.
Kentucky is one of the easier states to get right, because the headline number has not moved in over fifteen years. Easy is not the same as obvious. The tipped rules, the exemption list and the poster requirement each sit in a different section of the statute, and the exemption list is longer than almost anyone expects.
This page covers one jurisdiction and one subject: what Kentucky requires, where each figure comes from, and what you do on the day it changes. Breaks, overtime, final pay and everything else live in the Kentucky HR compliance guide.
Kentucky's Minimum Wage Is $7.25 an Hour
Kentucky's minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, effective July 1, 2009. The rate lives in KRS 337.275, which wrote three increases into law in 2007 and has not been amended since. That is the whole of the state rate: one number, one date, statewide.
The Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet prints the same figure on the Kentucky Wage and Hour Laws poster it publishes for employers, showing $7.25 per hour with the July 1, 2009 effective date. When two sources disagree, those two are the ones that count.
| Effective date | Kentucky rate | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| June 26, 2007 | $5.85 per hour | First of three steps enacted by the 2007 act |
| July 1, 2008 | $6.55 per hour | Second step |
| July 1, 2009 | $7.25 per hour | Third and final step, still the rate today |
| None set | No change scheduled | KRS 337.275 contains no later step and no index |
One clause matters more than the rate itself. KRS 337.275(1) says that if the federal minimum hourly wage is raised above the Kentucky rate, the Kentucky rate rises to the same amount on the same effective date. Kentucky's floor is federal by default, and it moves without a vote in Frankfort.
No Increase Is Scheduled
No increase is scheduled in Kentucky. The statute sets no step after July 1, 2009, no cost-of-living index and no future review date, so nothing changes on any calendar. The next move has to come from either a new act of the General Assembly or a federal increase that pulls the state rate up with it.
Bills get filed every session and none have advanced. Senate Bill 11 in the 2025 session proposed $10 immediately and $15 by July 1, 2029; the Legislative Research Commission bill record shows its last action as a referral to Appropriations and Revenue on January 9, 2025. House Bill 270 in the 2026 session proposed $9.50 rising to $15 by July 1, 2030, with a last recorded action of a committee referral on January 15, 2026.
Tipped Employees: $2.13 Cash and a $5.12 Tip Credit
A Kentucky employer may pay a tipped employee a cash wage of $2.13 per hour and count up to $5.12 per hour in tips toward the $7.25 minimum. KRS 337.275(2) ties the cash floor to the federal tipped rate, and the Education and Labor Cabinet poster states the $2.13 figure outright.
The credit is conditional, not automatic. KRS 337.275(2) requires the employer's records to establish that for each week the credit is taken, tips added to wages reached the minimum. A slow week is the employer's problem: if the total falls short, the employer pays the gap for that week. The mechanics are the same ones covered in the guide to minimum wage for tipped employees.
| Item | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Kentucky minimum wage | $7.25 per hour | KRS 337.275(1) |
| Tipped cash wage floor | $2.13 per hour | KRS 337.275(2), Education and Labor Cabinet poster |
| Maximum tip credit | $5.12 per hour | $7.25 minus the $2.13 cash wage |
| Tip threshold to qualify | More than $30 a month in tips | KRS 337.010(2)(d) |
| Weekly shortfall | Employer pays the difference | KRS 337.275(2) |
Two tipped rules changed on April 10, 2026. KRS 337.010 now defines a tipped employee by the work performed, covering the service function a customer would tip for and work that directly supports it. KRS 337.065 now states that a tip pooling arrangement shall not include salaried employees, managers or supervisors. If you run a house pool, check who is in it against the current tip pooling rules before the next payroll.
No Kentucky City or County Sets Its Own Rate
There are no local minimum wages in Kentucky. Every employer in the state pays the same $7.25 floor, and no city, county, urban-county or consolidated local government has an ordinance in force. Under current law they do not have the authority to adopt one.
The Legislative Research Commission's local government mandate statement on Senate Bill 11 in 2025 is the clearest official statement of that. It describes the bill as one that would authorize cities and counties to adopt and enforce a minimum wage higher than the state rate. That would have been a grant of new authority, and the bill did not pass.
| Jurisdiction | Minimum wage | Local ordinance in force |
|---|---|---|
| Louisville Metro (Jefferson County) | $7.25 per hour | None |
| Lexington-Fayette Urban County | $7.25 per hour | None |
| Bowling Green, Owensboro, Covington, Richmond | $7.25 per hour | None |
| Every other Kentucky city and county | $7.25 per hour | None |
Who the Kentucky Rate Does Not Cover
Kentucky excludes a specific list of workers from its own minimum wage, and the list is in KRS 337.010(2)(a) rather than in the wage statute itself. For a small employer the two that bite are agriculture and the gross-sales test for retail and food service.
| Excluded from the Kentucky rate | Detail | Federal law still applies? |
|---|---|---|
| Agriculture | Farming in all its branches, including dairying, livestock, poultry and on-farm forestry | Yes, under separate FLSA agricultural rules |
| Small retail and food service | Retail stores, service industries, hotels, motels and restaurants averaging under $95,000 in annual gross sales over the five preceding years | Yes, if the employee is individually covered |
| Executive, administrative, professional, outside sales | Defined by regulation of the commissioner | Yes, and the federal salary test governs |
| Domestic service in a private home | With a carve-in where more than one domestic servant is regularly employed | Yes, for most household workers |
| Babysitters and companions | In the employer’s home, or companions to a sick, convalescing or elderly person, where housekeeping is not a principal duty | Yes, subject to federal companionship rules |
| Newspaper delivery, direct sellers, family members | Delivery to the consumer, direct sellers under the Internal Revenue Code, and an employer’s parent, spouse or child | Yes, coverage is decided separately |
| Nonprofit camps and conference centers | Organized nonprofit camp, religious or nonprofit educational conference center operating 210 days a year or less | Yes, coverage is decided separately |
Read the last column carefully, because it is where employers get hurt. A Kentucky exemption removes only the Kentucky obligation. Federal coverage is decided separately under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the federal floor is the same $7.25, and the white-collar exclusions still turn on the federal exempt or non-exempt salary test.
Kentucky has no fast food minimum wage, no healthcare minimum wage and no other industry-specific rate. If you have seen an industry figure quoted for Kentucky, it belongs to a different state.
Youth and Training Wages
Kentucky's minimum wage statute sets no youth wage and no training wage. Two separate things fill that space, and they work differently enough that mixing them up is a real payroll risk.
The first is federal. Under 29 U.S.C. 206(g), an employer covered by federal law may pay an employee who has not turned 20 a wage of $4.25 an hour during the first 90 consecutive calendar days after that employee is first hired. The 90 days run from the hire date, not from a training milestone, and they are calendar days rather than days worked.
The second is a Kentucky certificate. KRS 337.010(2)(a) excludes any individual the commissioner has certificated with a status of learner, apprentice, worker with a disability, sheltered workshop employee or student. There is no published rate for this: the certificate itself fixes both the sub-minimum wage and the period it covers, so an employer without a certificate in hand has no such allowance.
The Poster You Have to Put Up
KRS 337.325 requires every employer subject to the wage and hour sections to keep summaries of those laws posted in a conspicuous and accessible place in or about the premises where covered people work. The state furnishes copies on request without charge, and the statute is explicit that a failure to mail them does not excuse the employer.
The document itself is the Kentucky Wage and Hour Laws poster from the Education and Labor Cabinet Division of Wages and Hours. The circulating version is dated April 2024 and leads with $7.25 per hour and the July 1, 2009 effective date, then summarizes tipped pay, breaks, overtime, unlawful deductions and the one-year record retention rule. It instructs the employer to post it where all employees may read it.
How Kentucky Lines Up With the Federal Floor
Kentucky matches the federal minimum exactly, and by design rather than coincidence. Both are $7.25, and the federal rate has not moved since 2009. For the national picture and the states sitting above the floor, see the minimum wage by state guide and the companion guide to scheduled state increases.
The automatic clause has a boundary worth knowing. KRS 337.275(1) says that when the state rate rises to meet a higher federal rate, it takes in only the federal hourly rate, not the federal exclusions or exceptions, and the increase does not extend or modify who Kentucky law covers. Kentucky's exemption list stays Kentucky's.
What to Do the Day the Rate Moves
Because Kentucky adopts a higher federal rate automatically and on the federal effective date, the change can land without any announcement from Frankfort. The work is the same whether it arrives from Congress or the General Assembly.
Steps one and five are where small teams lose the most time, because between them they touch every rate field, every offer letter template and every posted schedule. That reconciliation is the exact chore FirstHR was built to absorb, alongside the wider overtime rules that move with the base rate. FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a payroll provider.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the minimum wage in Kentucky?
$7.25 per hour, effective July 1, 2009, under KRS 337.275. That was the last of three steps enacted in 2007, and the statute has not been amended since. The Education and Labor Cabinet poster shows the same rate and the same date.
Is Kentucky raising its minimum wage?
No increase is scheduled. The statute has no later step and no inflation index. Senate Bill 11 in the 2025 session and House Bill 270 in the 2026 session both proposed a path to $15 and both stalled in committee.
What can a Kentucky employer pay a tipped employee?
A $2.13 cash wage, with up to $5.12 an hour of tips counted toward the $7.25 minimum. The employee must customarily receive more than $30 a month in tips, and the employer must be able to show tips plus wages reached the minimum in each week the credit is taken.
Do any Kentucky cities have a higher minimum wage?
No. Louisville Metro, Lexington-Fayette and every other Kentucky jurisdiction sit at $7.25. No local ordinance is in force, and local governments do not currently hold the authority to set their own rate.
Which Kentucky workers are exempt from the state minimum wage?
KRS 337.010(2)(a) excludes agriculture, executive and professional roles, most domestic service, babysitters and companions, newspaper delivery, direct sellers, and retail or food service employers averaging under $95,000 in annual gross sales over five years, among others.
Does Kentucky have a youth or training wage?
Not in its own statute. The $4.25 rate for employees under 20 during their first 90 consecutive calendar days comes from federal law at 29 U.S.C. 206(g). Kentucky's separate route is a commissioner certificate for learners, apprentices and students that fixes the wage case by case.