Oregon Minimum Wage: Rates by Region for Employers

The first Oregon payroll I helped set up had two worksites: a shop in Portland and a small fulfillment space an hour out of the metro area. Same company, same job title on both timesheets, two different legal wage floors, and the owner had budgeted one number for both.

Oregon is the only state in the country that splits its minimum wage into three geographic tiers, and the rate follows the place where the employee actually works, not the address on the business registration. Get that backwards and you underpay someone by a dollar or more an hour for a year before anybody notices.

This page covers the Oregon number and nothing else: what the rate is, when it moves, how it treats tipped and young workers, and what you have to change on your side when it rises.

The Rate Right Now

Oregon minimum wage is $16.80 per hour in the Portland metro area, $15.55 per hour under the standard rate, and $14.55 per hour in non-urban counties. All three took effect on July 1, 2026 and hold until June 30, 2027. The rates come from the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI), the agency that sets and enforces them.

Which tier you owe depends entirely on where the work happens. The Portland metro rate covers worksites inside the Metro urban growth boundary, the line that separates urban from rural land around Portland, in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties. The standard rate covers 15 counties in full plus the parts of those three counties that fall outside the boundary. The non-urban rate covers 18 counties, mostly in eastern and southern Oregon.

When an employee works in more than one region, Oregon's rule starts with the fixed worksite. Someone who works at your fixed Oregon location for at least half the pay period is paid that location's rate, and so is a delivery driver who starts and finishes the day there.

Employees who spend less than half the pay period at a fixed location are paid by where the work happens, and for them you have a choice. Track hours by region and pay each block at its own rate, or pay all hours in that period at the highest rate that applied. For roving field technicians, the top rate is usually cheaper than the tracking.

The Next Scheduled Increase

The next Oregon minimum wage increase takes effect July 1, 2027, and its size is not known yet. Since July 2023 the standard rate has been indexed to inflation rather than fixed by statute, so the number is calculated fresh each spring instead of being written into law years ahead.

The mechanism is published in the state minimum wage increase schedule. By April 30 each year, BOLI calculates the change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), US City Average, from March of the prior year to March of the current year. The result is rounded to the nearest five cents and takes effect the following July 1.

The two other tiers are pinned to the standard rate: Portland metro sits $1.25 above it and non-urban sits $1.00 below it. That is why the July 2026 adjustment moved all three tiers by exactly fifty cents. Once you know the standard rate, you know the other two.

Put a reminder on the calendar for the first week of May. That is when the following year's rate is public and you still have almost two months to model the payroll impact, adjust offers in flight, and decide whether people already above the new floor need a matching bump to keep your pay bands from compressing.

Tipped Employees and the Tip Credit

Oregon allows no tip credit at all. The state says it in one line: tip credits are illegal in Oregon, and tips belong to the employee and cannot be counted against hourly pay. Every tipped worker is owed the full regional minimum wage in cash from the employer, with tips sitting on top of it.

In practice, a server inside the Portland urban growth boundary is owed $16.80 per hour before a single tip is counted. The $2.13 cash wage that the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) allows does not exist here, and neither does a top-up calculation or a tip credit notice.

If you have run restaurants in a tip credit state, this gap between Oregon and the federal tipped wage rules is the single most expensive thing to get wrong here. Here is how the two compare line by line.

The US Department of Labor confirms the picture. Its state tipped wage table shows no maximum tip credit for Oregon and lists all three regional rates as the amount a tipped employee must be paid in cash. There is no federal fallback that lets an Oregon employer claim a credit.

Piece rate and commission pay follow the same logic. Whatever the pay structure, total wages divided by hours worked has to clear the applicable minimum for every hour, and the test runs per workweek rather than per month or per quarter.

A piece rate arrangement that produces $14 an hour in a Portland metro week leaves the employer owing the difference up to $16.80. Record the hours behind every piece rate and commission check, because without them you cannot show the floor was met.

City and County Rates Inside Oregon

No Oregon city or county sets its own minimum wage, and none can. Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) 653.017 preempts, or overrides, all charter and statutory authority of local governments to set minimum wage requirements. That is why the state built the three-tier map in the first place: geography is handled at the state level rather than city by city.

The statute keeps three narrow exceptions, none of which creates a local wage floor for ordinary private employers. A local government may set wage requirements for its own public employees, inside the specifications of its own public contracts, and as a condition of granting direct tax abatements or subsidies to private employers with 10 or more employees. Unless you hold a city contract or a negotiated subsidy, the state rate is the only number that binds you.

Every rate in that table is a state rate, not a city ordinance. For worksites near the edge of the Portland metro area, confirm the address against the Metro urban growth boundary lookup rather than reading the city name, because the boundary cuts through unincorporated land and through parts of several suburbs.

Industry Carve-Outs

Oregon has no industry-specific minimum wage. There is no separate fast food rate, no separate healthcare rate, and no separate rate for retail, hospitality or construction. The three regional tiers are the whole schedule, and every industry reads from the same map.

Agriculture is the one area with real complexity, and the complexity is about overtime rather than the wage floor. The state minimum wage applies to farmworkers on the same regional basis as everyone else, so a crew in Umatilla County is owed $14.55 and a crew in Marion County is owed $15.55.

The farm exemptions from the minimum wage that BOLI recognizes are narrow. Two of them do not depend on how the worker is paid: immediate family members of the employer, and workers mainly engaged in range production of livestock.

The other three farm exemptions all involve piece rate pay: local hand harvest and pruning workers paid a piece rate who worked fewer than 13 weeks in the prior year, migrant hand harvest workers aged 16 or younger paid the same piece rate as older workers, and piece rate harvest workers at operations that did not exceed 500 piece-rate workdays in any quarter of the previous calendar year.

Agricultural overtime is phasing down on its own schedule. The threshold has been 48 hours in a workweek since January 1, 2025, and it drops to 40 hours on January 1, 2027. Budget for that now if you run a seasonal operation, because it lands six months before the next wage adjustment.

Youth and Training Wage

Oregon has no youth wage and no training wage. The minimum wage is the same for adults and for minors, and it applies during every stage of employment, including any period of on-the-job training. A 16-year-old in a first job on day one is owed the same regional rate as a 20-year veteran standing next to them.

The state is explicit about the training question on its student learners page: Oregon rules do not provide for a student-learner or training wage at less than the applicable state minimum wage. There is no 90-day introductory rate and no probationary rate to build into an offer letter.

Employing minors carries separate paperwork that has nothing to do with the rate. An employer needs an employment certificate, renewed every year, to employ any minor under 18, and one certificate covers every minor on the payroll rather than one named hire.

Hazardous work is the other limit. State and federal child labor rules bar every minor under 18 from the 18 hazardous occupations the Bureau of Labor and Industries lists, including roofing, demolition and power-driven metal working machines. Minors aged 14 and 15 face further limits on both hours and permitted tasks. The pay rate stays at the full regional minimum either way.

The Poster Requirement

Oregon employers must display the current minimum wage poster in a clearly visible place where employees regularly see it, at every worksite the business operates. A company with a Portland office and a Bend warehouse posts at both locations, not only at the head office.

The state refreshes its poster set annually, with the updated version taking effect July 1 alongside the new rates. All required posters are free from the Bureau of Labor and Industries. The agency's online store also offers a composite poster that carries all the general workplace postings required by state and federal law.

Minimum wage is one poster among several. Oregon employers also post the Workplace Fairness Act policy, the workers compensation notice of compliance and the employment insurance notice, with an accommodations notice required once you reach six employees.

Oregon Against the Federal Floor

The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 per hour since July 24, 2009, the last step of the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007. It does not index to inflation and it does not rise unless Congress passes a new law. Oregon has raised its own floor every year since 2016, according to the state rate schedule.

When a federal and a state wage floor both cover the same employee, the employer owes the higher one. In Oregon that is always the state rate: the lowest tier, $14.55, is more than double the federal figure, and the Portland metro tier sits $9.55 above it. No Oregon employer pays $7.25 to a covered employee.

Federal wage law still matters for everything that is not the hourly floor: the salary basis test for exempt employees, federal recordkeeping and the youth employment rules under the FLSA all continue to apply.

What to Do When the Rate Rises

A July 1 increase in Oregon is a payroll task with a hard deadline, not a memo. Hours worked on or after 12:01 a.m. on July 1 must be paid at the new applicable rate, which means a pay period straddling the date has to be split rather than paid at a blended figure.

Tell people before the check lands. A raise that arrives with no explanation reads as a payroll error to the person receiving it, and a one-line note attached to the first July pay statement costs nothing and prevents the question. Keep a dated copy of what you sent.

The recordkeeping side is what saves you in a wage claim two years later. Keep the rate history, the worksite assignment for each employee, and the dated poster replacement for every location. FirstHR keeps employee records, worksite assignment and policy acknowledgements in one place so the paper trail exists without anyone having to rebuild it from memory.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Oregon minimum wage right now?

Oregon has three rates, all effective July 1, 2026: $16.80 per hour in the Portland metro area, $15.55 under the standard rate, and $14.55 in 18 non-urban counties. The Portland metro rate applies inside the Metro urban growth boundary in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties. The applicable rate is set by where the employee performs the work.

Which Oregon rate applies when an employee works in two regions?

An employee who works at your fixed Oregon location for at least half the pay period gets that location's rate, as does a delivery driver who starts and ends the day there. Everyone else is paid by where the work happened: track hours by region, or pay every hour in the period at the top rate the employee worked under. Keep the records behind whichever you use.

Can an Oregon employer count tips toward the minimum wage?

No. Tip credits are illegal in Oregon. Tipped employees are owed the full regional minimum wage in cash from the employer, and tips are additional income on top of it. There is no cash wage of $2.13, no top-up calculation and no tip credit notice requirement, because no credit exists to claim.

Does any Oregon city or county set its own minimum wage?

No. ORS 653.017 preempts local authority to set minimum wage requirements. The three exceptions cover a local government setting wages for its own public employees, inside its own public contract specifications, and as a condition of direct tax abatements or subsidies for private employers with 10 or more employees. None creates a general local floor.

Can an Oregon employer pay a lower training or youth wage?

No. The rate is the same for adults and minors, and the state says its rules do not provide for a student-learner or training wage below the applicable minimum. Minimum wage applies during every stage of employment, including on-the-job training. Employing anyone under 18 requires an annual certificate, and hazardous occupation limits apply on top of it, but the rate itself never drops.

When does the Oregon minimum wage go up again?

July 1, 2027. The size is not knowable yet, because the standard rate is indexed: the state calculates the adjustment by April 30 each year from the March to March change in CPI-U for the US City Average, rounded to the nearest five cents. Portland metro sits $1.25 above the standard rate and non-urban $1.00 below it.

Does the federal $7.25 rate ever apply to an Oregon employer?

In practice, no. The federal floor has been $7.25 since July 24, 2009, and the employer owes the higher of the state and federal rates. Every Oregon tier is more than double the federal figure. Beyond the hourly floor, BOLI says the federal exempt salary level is currently the more generous one, so it sets the salary floor for exempt staff, and federal recordkeeping and FLSA youth employment rules also apply.