New Hampshire Minimum Wage: Rate and Rules

The first payroll question a New Hampshire owner asks me is never about overtime. It is simpler than that: what is the number? In a lot of states that answer needs a calendar and two footnotes. In New Hampshire it needs one line. The rate is $7.25 an hour, and it has not moved since 2009.

New Hampshire arrives at that figure in an unusual way. Its wage statute, RSA 279:21 (Revised Statutes Annotated, the state code), has no dollar amount in its opening paragraph. It bars paying anyone an hourly rate below the one in the federal minimum wage law, as amended. The state took its own number out in 2011 and has pointed at Congress ever since.

That does not make the state a blank page. New Hampshire has its own tipped rule, its own 75 percent floors for young and inexperienced workers, its own capped meal and lodging deductions, and a second version of the wage statute sitting on the books, waiting for a federal increase to switch it on.

Each of those rules can change what you owe someone, and underpaying the minimum is a criminal offense in New Hampshire, not a paperwork slip. Below I take them one at a time, then cover posters, records and the steps to run when the federal rate rises.

The Current New Hampshire Minimum Wage

New Hampshire’s minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, the federal rate adopted by reference. The New Hampshire Department of Labor puts it in one sentence on its minimum wage page: no person, firm or corporation shall employ any employee at an hourly rate lower than that set forth in the federal minimum wage law, which is $7.25.

The number itself is older than that by-reference wording. According to the US Department of Labor’s state minimum wage history table, New Hampshire already required $7.25 under its own statute on January 1, 2009, months before the federal increase of July 24, 2009 brought the national floor to the same figure.

The state has not set a dollar figure of its own since a 2011 amendment removed the one it had, effective August 21, 2011. From that date RSA 279:21 has simply tracked the federal rate.

That drafting has a practical upside. Because the state floor is defined as the federal floor, most New Hampshire employers never have to reconcile two numbers. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act sets the rate, and the state statute adopts it, so there is one figure to enter into payroll and one figure to post on the wall.

The Next Scheduled Increase

No increase is scheduled. New Hampshire does not index its minimum wage to inflation, has no remaining step schedule, and sets no dollar figure that a state agency could raise. The only event that moves the New Hampshire floor is a federal increase.

There is a piece of state machinery attached to that trigger, and it is easy to miss. RSA 279:21 currently carries two versions of its opening paragraph. The first applies until the date the federal minimum wage rises above the rate in effect on July 23, 2021. The second switches on that same day.

The second version rewrites the tipped rule. Instead of 45 percent of the applicable minimum wage, the tipped base becomes the federal minimum direct wage (the minimum cash wage federal law sets for tipped employees), but in no case less than $3.27 per hour. It also adds cigar bars to the list of covered establishments.

An employer watching for a wage change in New Hampshire is really watching Congress, and when that change lands, two things move at once: the general floor and the tipped base rate.

Tipped Employees and the Tip Credit

New Hampshire allows a tip credit, meaning tips can cover part of the minimum wage. The minimum cash wage for a covered tipped employee is $3.27 per hour, and the maximum credit against tips is $3.98 per hour, as published by the US Department of Labor in its table of minimum wages for tipped employees.

The state cash wage is well above the $2.13 federal figure, so New Hampshire restaurants cannot run federal tipped payroll numbers here.

RSA 279:21 states the same amount as a percentage rather than a dollar figure: a base rate of not less than 45 percent of the applicable minimum wage. On a $7.25 floor that is $3.2625, which rounds up to $3.27. Use $3.27, because rounding down leaves you a fraction of a cent short on every tipped hour you pay.

The tip pooling rule is stricter than many owners expect. RSA 279:26-b makes tips the property of the employee who receives them and allows a pool only where employees agree voluntarily and without coercion from the employer. An employer may administer a valid arrangement, suggest customary practices, document what was agreed and mediate disputes, but may not require anyone to join.

Two cautions before you rely on the credit. First, the state provision names specific establishments, so tipped staff outside those categories are not obviously covered by it. For them, the conservative course is to pay the full $7.25 in cash and ask the Department of Labor first.

Second, the top-up obligation is measured against actual hours. If cash plus tips do not reach the minimum for all hours worked in the pay period, you owe the difference.

City and County Rates in New Hampshire

There are no city or county minimum wage rates in New Hampshire. Manchester, Nashua, Concord, Portsmouth, Dover and every county run on the same $7.25, and RSA 279:21 is the only wage floor in state law. Payroll for a multi-site New Hampshire business uses one rate.

The number that does matter for a New Hampshire employer sits across the state line. The US Department of Labor tipped wage table puts Maine at $15.10 and Massachusetts at $15.00 as of July 1, 2026.

Work performed in Maine or Massachusetts is paid under that state’s rules. A crew that crosses the border for a job is on a different floor for those hours, and the gap also shapes what you have to offer to hire at all in the southern tier.

Exemptions and Industry Carve-Outs

New Hampshire has no fast food wage, no healthcare wage and no industry rate above the general floor. What it has instead is a list of jobs that the state minimum wage does not reach at all, written into RSA 279:21 and the sections around it.

A state exemption is not a federal exemption, and that is where small employers get caught. A worker who sits outside RSA 279:21 may still be covered by federal law, and where both reach the same job, the employer follows the standard that is better for the employee.

If you run a fast food business, there is no sector rate to plan around either. There is no New Hampshire analogue to the fast food minimum wage rules that California runs.

Hospitality has one genuine carve-out, and it is a deduction rather than a rate. RSA 279:21-a lets employers in the hotel, motel, cabin, tourist home and restaurant industries deduct capped allowances for meals and lodging from the minimum wage. The caps are maximums, not default charges, and they have not been changed since an amendment that took effect January 1, 1990.

Youth and Training Wages

New Hampshire has two subminimum floors, lawful rates below the regular minimum for young workers and for workers new to an occupation. Both land on the same number: 75 percent of the statutory minimum wage, which is $5.4375 on a $7.25 floor and therefore $5.44 once rounded to the cent.

The state does not publish the rounded figure, so treat it as arithmetic from RSA 279:21 rather than as a rate you can quote back to an inspector. Students working for practical experience are a separate case: their rate is set case by case, and only when the employer or school authority applies and the commissioner approves.

The inexperience rate is the one that trips people up, because it carries a filing deadline. RSA 279:21, IV makes the 75 percent floor available only after the employer files an application with the labor commissioner within 10 days after hire. Miss that window and the exception is lost, which means the worker was owed $7.25 from day one.

Wage floors are only half of what applies to a young worker. Hour limits, school-night limits, prohibited occupations and youth employment certificates come from a separate body of New Hampshire and federal law, and the stricter rule governs.

Posting Requirements

New Hampshire requires the wage rate on the wall. RSA 279:27 says every employer subject to a statutory minimum wage shall post and make available to employees a copy of that statutory minimum wage, and that employers are furnished copies of the posters on request without charge. The Department of Labor publishes them for free download on its mandatory posters page.

The same statute sets the recordkeeping duty that sits behind the poster. RSA 279:27 requires a true and accurate record of hours worked, wages paid and classification of employment, kept for three years and open to inspection. Those records may be made, signed and retained electronically, which is worth knowing before anyone builds a paper binder for it.

New Hampshire and the Federal Floor

The New Hampshire rate and the federal rate are the same $7.25, and they are the same by design rather than by coincidence. RSA 279:21 contains no number of its own. It adopts the rate set in the federal minimum wage law as amended, so the state floor moves the moment the federal floor does, with no legislative session required.

The federal figure has not moved since July 24, 2009, and New Hampshire already required that rate before it took effect. With no federal change to follow since, the state figure has stayed put too.

One related quirk is worth flagging because it surprises people. RSA 279:21, VIII writes the state overtime requirement so that it does not apply to employees of employers covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which means overtime for most New Hampshire businesses is a federal question rather than a state one.

What to Do When a Rate Rises

A rate change is a payroll project, not a memo. In New Hampshire the trigger arrives with a federal effective date and the state floor follows automatically, so everything below has to be done before the first pay period that includes that date.

This is the kind of recurring administrative work that quietly eats a founder’s week. Keeping employee records, pay rates and signed acknowledgments in one place instead of spread across a spreadsheet and an inbox is most of the fix, and it is a large part of why I built FirstHR.

FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a payroll provider, so pair it with whatever runs your payroll.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the minimum wage in New Hampshire?

$7.25 per hour, a figure unchanged since 2009. RSA 279:21 sets no dollar figure of its own. It forbids employment at an hourly rate lower than the one in the federal minimum wage law, and the Department of Labor states that rate as $7.25 on its minimum wage page. The state removed its own number by amendment in 2011.

Is New Hampshire’s minimum wage going up?

No increase is scheduled. There is no inflation index and no step schedule, and the state sets no rate that could be raised. A federal increase is the only trigger, and it would also switch on the second version of RSA 279:21, which changes how the tipped base rate is calculated.

What can I pay a tipped employee in New Hampshire?

A cash wage of at least $3.27 per hour, with tips covering the remaining $3.98. The rule reaches tipped employees of a restaurant, hotel, motel, inn or cabin, or ballroom who customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips. If cash plus tips fall short of the minimum for the hours worked, you owe the difference.

Does any New Hampshire city or county have its own minimum wage?

No. There is no local minimum wage anywhere in the state, so Manchester, Nashua, Concord and every county sit at $7.25. Work performed across the border is a different matter, because an employee is paid under the law of the state where the work happens.

Can I pay a teenager less than $7.25 in New Hampshire?

A person 16 years of age or under may be paid 75 percent of the statutory minimum, which works out to $5.44, provided you keep evidence of age on file. That is higher than the $4.25 federal youth wage, and where both rules reach the same worker the higher figure applies.

Does New Hampshire require a minimum wage poster?

Yes. RSA 279:27 requires every employer subject to a statutory minimum wage to post a copy of it, and the Department of Labor supplies the posters free on request. RSA 275:49 adds an abstract of the wage payment law and an equal pay notice, and federally covered employers post the federal Wage and Hour notice too.