Utah Minimum Wage: Rate, Tip Credit, and Rules

Q: What is the minimum wage in Utah?

$7.25 per hour. That figure is the last of three increases written into Utah Administrative Code R610-1-3(A): $5.85 from September 8, 2007, $6.55 from July 24, 2008, and $7.25 from July 24, 2009, and it has not changed since. The Utah Labor Commission still lists the same rate on its Wage Claim Unit page. The match with the federal minimum wage is deliberate. Under Utah Code § 34-40-103, the Labor Commission may adopt a state rate by rule, but that rate may not go higher than the federal one in effect. On top of that, most Utah employers fall under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, and Utah Code § 34-40-104 takes workers who already have a federal minimum wage out of the state rate altogether. Whichever law reaches your staff, the figure you enter in payroll is $7.25.

Q: Can a Utah city or county set its own minimum wage?

No. Local governments in Utah have no power to raise the wage floor. Utah Code § 34-40-106 prohibits any city, town, or county from establishing, mandating, or requiring a local minimum wage higher than the federal one. The statute also shuts two indirect routes. A local government cannot make the companies it contracts with pay their staff more than the federal rate, and it cannot favor a bidder for a goods or services contract because that bidder pays more than the minimum. The only carve-out is narrow: it covers projects paid for wholly or partly with federal money when federal law itself sets a specified wage. So Salt Lake City, Park City, Provo, and all of Utah’s counties sit at the same $7.25 as the rest of the state, and no local ordinance can move them.

Q: What is the minimum wage in Salt Lake City?

$7.25 per hour, which is also the statewide Utah rate and the federal rate. Neither Salt Lake City nor Salt Lake County has an ordinance setting a higher figure, and state law means neither can pass one. Utah Code § 34-40-106 forbids a city, town, or county from creating a minimum wage that exceeds the federal level. The same law prevents a local government from pushing its contractors above that level or from rewarding vendors in purchasing decisions for paying more. Its single exception is for work funded wholly or partly by federal money, where federal law dictates a specified wage. A business inside city limits therefore works with the same numbers as one in any other Utah town: $7.25 as the floor, $2.13 as the tipped cash wage, and $4.25 as the minor training wage. The labor market is what differs in Salt Lake City, not the legal minimum.

Q: What can I pay a tipped employee in Utah?

You can pay as little as $2.13 per hour in cash, as long as tips bring the employee up to the full minimum. Utah sets these terms in its own regulation, Utah Administrative Code R610-1-4, rather than relying on the federal version. No credit is available until the employee actually receives and reports $30 or more in tips in a month. The biggest credit you can take is $5.12 an hour, and when cash pay and tips together come to less than $7.25 for a pay period, you must top up the cash wage to make up the difference. Three further conditions are easy to miss. You have to explain the tip credit to the employee when you hire them. A tip pool or tip sharing arrangement must be written down, with a copy given to every employee it affects. And dishwashers, chefs, cooks, and janitors do not count as tipped employees, so they cannot be placed in a mandated tip pool.

Q: Can I pay a teenager less than the full rate in Utah?

Yes, for the first 90 days, and which rule sets the age limit depends on federal coverage. Under Utah Administrative Code R610-1-3(B), a minor can start at no less than $4.25 an hour for the first 90 days of employment with your business, then the full $7.25 applies. The Utah Labor Commission’s Wage Claim Unit page applies that rule to workers under 18. Most small employers, though, are covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, and Utah Code § 34-40-104(1)(a) takes any employee entitled to the federal minimum wage out of the state act. For those employees the federal youth wage governs: $4.25 an hour for workers under 20 during their first 90 consecutive calendar days, so an 18- or 19-year-old qualifies too. The Utah rule decides only for workers the federal law does not reach, and for them the lower rate stops at 18. Under the federal rule you may not displace other employees, or cut their hours, wages or benefits, to hire at the youth wage.

Q: Is Utah’s minimum wage going up?

No. Nothing is on the calendar. Utah’s rate is not tied to inflation, there are no remaining steps in a multi-year schedule, and the Labor Commission cannot lift the rate on its own authority. Utah Code § 34-40-103 limits any rate the commission sets to the federal minimum wage then in force, so the Utah figure cannot rise above $7.25 until Congress raises the federal floor. That statute also requires the commission to revisit the rate at least once every three years, and in particular whenever the federal minimum changes, which is how a federal increase would find its way into Utah law. Lawmakers have introduced bills for a higher state rate in recent legislative sessions, but the Labor Commission still publishes $7.25, so none of them has taken effect. For budgeting, treat the Utah number as fixed and keep an eye on federal action instead.

Q: Does Utah require a state minimum wage poster?

No. There is no stand-alone Utah minimum wage poster. Employees see the rate on the federal Wage and Hour poster, which shows the $7.25 hourly rate that began July 24, 2009 plus short summaries of the rules on overtime, child labor, and tip credits. The Labor Commission keeps a copy of that federal poster on its site, filed under the posters federal law requires. On the state side, the commission names exactly two notices employers must post: occupational safety and health, and workers’ compensation. The same page also offers a pregnancy accommodation notice and the Employee Polygraph Protection Act notice. Separately, the Utah Department of Workforce Services requires a notice to workers about unemployment insurance. Every one of these can be downloaded and copied at no cost, and the law says each must hang in a spot employees can readily see.

Utah’s minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, unchanged since July 2009. Tip credit, minor training wage, local preemption, and posting rules for employers.

Nick Anisimov

FirstHR Founder

Utah•

August 18, 2026

•

11 min

Utah Minimum Wage

$7.25 an hour since July 24, 2009, no city or county rates, a $2.13 tipped cash wage, and a $4.25 training wage for minors

Every time I help a Utah owner set up their first payroll run, the same question comes first: what am I actually required to pay? In most states that answer takes a paragraph and a calendar. In Utah it takes one line. The rate is $7.25 an hour and it has not moved since July 24, 2009.

That is not an accident of neglect. Utah wrote the answer into statute twice over. The Utah Labor Commission may set a state rate by rule, but it is forbidden from setting one above the federal floor, and cities and counties are barred from going higher on their own. So the number stays put until Congress moves.

What follows is the whole Utah wage floor picture: the rate, the tip credit, city and county rules, the exemptions, the training wage for minors, the posters, and a payroll checklist for the day the rate does move.

TL;DR

Utah’s minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, the rate that took effect July 24, 2009. No increase is scheduled and none can be scheduled by the state. Tipped employees may be paid a $2.13 cash wage. Minors may be paid $4.25 for their first 90 days. No Utah city or county may set a higher rate.

The Current Utah Minimum Wage

Utah’s minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, effective July 24, 2009. The Utah Labor Commission publishes that figure on its Wage Claim Unit page, and Utah Administrative Code R610-1-3(A) sets it out as the final step of a three-step schedule adopted alongside the federal increases of the same period.

Effective date	Utah minimum wage	Note
September 8, 2007	$5.85	First step in Utah Admin Code R610-1-3(A)
July 24, 2008	$6.55	Second step, tracking the federal increase
July 24, 2009	$7.25	Third step, still the rate in force
Current	$7.25	Unchanged for the entire period since

There is a wrinkle worth understanding, because it explains why Utah employers rarely think about the state law at all. Utah Code § 34-40-104 exempts from the state minimum wage any employee who is already entitled to a minimum wage under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

Most staff at a small Utah business are federally covered, so their $7.25 comes from federal law, and the state law picks up the workers federal law leaves out. For a small employer this distinction changes nothing about the number on the paycheck. It changes where a wage claim gets filed and which agency investigates.

State-covered claims go to the Labor Commission’s Wage Claim Unit. Under Utah Administrative Code R610-1-5, that unit treats a shortfall affecting more than one employee as a class action (one case for the whole group), and penalties come under Utah Code § 34-40-204.

The Next Scheduled Increase

No increase is scheduled. Utah does not index its minimum wage to inflation, has no step schedule left to run, and does not give the Labor Commission authority to raise the rate on its own initiative.

Utah Code § 34-40-103 is the reason. It lets the commission set a minimum wage by rule, then caps that wage at the federal minimum wage in effect under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The same section directs the commission to review the rate at least every three years, and specifically whenever the federal minimum wage changes. That review is the channel through which any future federal increase would reach Utah’s rule.

In practice, a Utah employer watching for a wage increase should be watching Congress, not the Utah Legislature.

Beware generic annual wage increase roundups

The January roundups of state wage increases that payroll newsletters publish do not apply here. Utah has had no state-level increase to report for over a decade. Because Utah moves only when the federal rate moves, a vendor list that shows a new Utah rate with no federal change behind it is simply wrong. Confirm any claimed Utah change against the Labor Commission before you change a pay rate.

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Tipped Employees and the Tip Credit

Utah allows a tip credit, which means an employer may count part of a tipped employee’s tips toward the minimum wage. The minimum cash wage for a tipped employee is $2.13 per hour, and the maximum credit an employer can claim against tips is $5.12 per hour.

Utah runs its own tip credit rule at Utah Administrative Code R610-1, separate from the federal rule, so read its conditions rather than assuming the federal ones carry over.

Item	Amount or rule	Source
Full Utah minimum wage	$7.25 per hour	Utah Admin Code R610-1-3(A)
Minimum cash wage for tipped staff	$2.13 per hour	Utah Admin Code R610-1-4(B)
Maximum tip credit	$5.12 per hour	The gap between $7.25 and $2.13
Tips required before any credit applies	At least $30 per month, received and reported	Utah Admin Code R610-1-4(A)
If cash plus tips fall short	Employer raises the cash wage to close the gap	Utah Admin Code R610-1-4(B)
Compulsory service charges	Not tips. They are the employer’s gross receipts	Utah Admin Code R610-1-4(C)
Credit card processing fee on a charged tip	May be deducted, but no more than the card company charges	Utah Admin Code R610-1-4(F)
Pay period the tip counts in	The period in which the tip was earned	Utah Admin Code R610-1-4(G)

Three conditions catch Utah restaurant owners more often than the arithmetic does. First, the employer must inform the affected employee of the tip credit at the time of hire. Second, any tip pooling or sharing arrangement has to be in writing and handed to each affected employee at hire or before it starts.

The third condition is about who counts as tipped. Dishwashers, chefs, cooks, and janitors are not tipped employees under the Utah rule, so they cannot be paid the $2.13 cash wage and cannot be put into a mandated tip pool.

Service charges follow their own rule. If the business imposes a service charge on the customer and the employee receives no tips from it, the employer owes the full minimum wage and any overtime on top.

City and County Rates in Utah

There are no city or county minimum wage rates in Utah, and there cannot be any. Utah Code § 34-40-106 removes the power from local government entirely, and it closes the obvious side doors as well.

What a Utah city, town, or county may not do	Effect on employers
Establish, mandate, or require a minimum wage above the federal rate	Salt Lake City, Provo, Park City, and every county sit at $7.25
Require a person who contracts with it to pay employees above the federal rate	No local living wage clause in municipal contracts
Prefer a vendor in a goods or services contract because that vendor pays above the minimum	No procurement scoring advantage for paying more

The statute carves out one exception to the contractor limit: it does not apply where federal law requires a specified wage on a project funded in whole or in part with federal funds. That is prevailing wage territory, and it is the only way a Utah worksite ends up with a mandated rate above $7.25 that did not come from the employer’s own pay scale.

What an Employer Pays in Salt Lake City

The Salt Lake City minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, the same figure as the rest of the state. No city ordinance and no Salt Lake County ordinance sits on top of it, and § 34-40-106 is the reason none can. For a downtown employer, the base floor, the $2.13 tipped cash wage, and the $4.25 minor rate are identical to the ones in Logan or St. George.

What changes inside the city is the market rather than the law. Posting an opening at the statutory floor is legal along the Wasatch Front and almost never competitive, so treat $7.25 as the number that keeps you out of a wage claim, not the number that fills a shift.

Exemptions and Industry Carve-Outs

Utah has no fast food wage, no healthcare wage, and no industry-specific rate of any kind. The carve-outs that exist are exemptions from the state minimum wage in Utah Code § 34-40-104, and several of them concern agriculture and seasonal work.

Exempt from the Utah minimum wage	Practical read
Employees already entitled to a minimum wage under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act	Covers most staff at a typical small business
Outside sales staff	Field sales, not inside or counter sales
A member of the employer’s immediate family	Family-run operations
Companionship service for someone unable to care for themselves because of age or infirmity	In-home companion care, not skilled nursing
Seasonal staff of nonprofit camping, religious, or recreation programs and nonprofit educational and charitable organizations	Summer camps and similar seasonal nonprofits
Range production of livestock, piece rate harvest laborers, farm work under 13 weeks in the prior calendar year, and retired or semiretired people doing incidental work as a condition of living on a farm or ranch	The agricultural carve-outs, each narrowly drawn
Seasonal hourly staff of seasonal amusement establishments with permanent structures and facilities	Narrow, and seasonal work alone does not qualify
Registered apprentices and students employed by the school in which they are enrolled	Work-study and registered apprenticeship

Two cautions come with this list. First, a state exemption is not a federal exemption. An agricultural or seasonal worker exempted by Utah Code § 34-40-104 may still be covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, and where both laws apply, the employer follows the standard more favorable to the employee.

The second caution is paperwork. Utah Administrative Code R610-1-3(C) requires an employer claiming the seasonal amusement establishment exemption at Utah Code § 34-40-104(1)(k) to give the Labor Commission a statistical report of the average wage paid within 60 days of the end of the regular operating season.

The same exemptions statute also permits a subminimum wage, meaning pay below the minimum that is tied to productivity, for a worker whose earning or productive capacity is impaired. That is a narrow authorization with conditions, not a general discount, so check the current requirements with the Labor Commission before you use it.

The Training Wage for Minors

Utah allows $4.25 per hour for a minor employee during the first 90 days of employment with an employer, after which the full $7.25 applies. The rule is Utah Administrative Code R610-1-3(B), which ties back to the Employment of Minors Act at Utah Code § 34-23-301 and to the minimum wage statute at § 34-40-103.

The Labor Commission states the same rule in plain language: minors under 18 must be paid minimum wage, except that an employer may pay a minor $4.25 per hour during the first 90 days of their employment. The 90 days count from the minor’s first day with you, not from their first job anywhere.

Which youth rate applies: federal coverage decides

The federal youth wage under the Fair Labor Standards Act is also $4.25, but it reaches employees under 20 for their first 90 consecutive calendar days. Utah Code § 34-40-104(1)(a) takes any employee entitled to the federal minimum wage out of the state act, so for a federally covered worker the federal rule governs, and an 18- or 19-year-old can start at $4.25. Utah’s own rule, which the Labor Commission applies to minors under 18, matters only for workers the federal law does not reach. When you use the federal youth wage, federal law bars displacing other employees, including cutting their hours or pay, to hire at that rate.

The training wage sits inside the wider set of rules on hours, school nights, and prohibited occupations for young workers. Utah state limits and federal limits differ, and the stricter one governs.

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Posting Requirements

Utah has no separate state minimum wage poster. The wage rate reaches the wall through the federal Wage and Hour poster, which carries the line about $7.25 per hour beginning July 24, 2009 together with the overtime, child labor, and tip credit summaries.

The Labor Commission is explicit about what it requires: employers must post two notices, workers’ compensation and occupational safety and health. It publishes those alongside the Employee Polygraph Protection Act notice and a pregnancy accommodation notice on its required posters page, with Spanish versions of the state notices.

Notice	Who requires it	Carries the wage rate?
Federal Wage and Hour poster	US Department of Labor	Yes. $7.25 per hour beginning July 24, 2009
Workers’ compensation notice	Utah Labor Commission	No
Utah Occupational Safety and Health notice	Utah Labor Commission	No
Employee Polygraph Protection Act notice	Federal law, published by the Labor Commission	No
Pregnancy and related conditions notice	Utah Antidiscrimination Act, published by the Labor Commission	No
Unemployment insurance notice to workers	Utah Department of Workforce Services	No

All of these are free to download, print, and copy from the agencies that publish them. The posting standard is the same for every one: hang it where employees can readily see it, which in a small office means the break room or wherever the team already looks for schedules, not a binder in a drawer.

Utah and the Federal Floor

Utah’s rate and the federal rate are the same $7.25, and they have been since July 24, 2009, the day the last federal step took effect. The two numbers come from different legal sources, and Utah law is written to keep them identical.

Because Utah Code § 34-40-103 caps the state rate at the federal one, Utah can never sit above the federal floor, and it would fall below it only while a federal increase waits to be adopted by rule.

Last checked: September 28, 2026

Every figure on this page was verified on that date against the Utah Labor Commission, Utah Administrative Code R610-1, the Utah Code, and the US Department of Labor. Utah’s rate has not moved since July 24, 2009 and moves only when the federal rate does, so a federal increase is the event that would change this page.

What to Do When a Rate Rises

A rate change is a payroll project, not a memo. Because Utah moves only when the federal floor moves, the trigger will arrive with a federal effective date, and everything below has to be finished before the first pay period that includes that date.

Find everyone within a dollar of the floor

Pull hourly rates and sort ascending. Anyone at or below the new rate has to move. Anyone just above it usually needs a look too, because compressing a shift lead down to the same rate as a new hire creates a retention problem you will pay for later.

Recalculate the tipped cash wage math

The $2.13 cash wage floor does not move with the minimum wage, but the tip credit ceiling does. If the floor rises, the maximum credit widens and the top-up calculation changes for every shift where tips fall short.

Check every youth-rate worker past day 90

The $4.25 rate expires 90 days into employment with you, and under the federal youth wage also when the worker turns 20. Run that list at the same time, because a missed rollover is a straight underpayment and it compounds every pay period until someone notices.

Recompute the regular rate for overtime

Overtime is 1.5 times the regular rate, so a base rate increase changes every overtime hour. Nondiscretionary bonuses and shift differentials feed into that same calculation and need rerunning.

Notify employees in writing before the effective date

Utah does not mandate a specific wage change notice, but a dated written record of the new rate is what settles a dispute cheaply. Store it with the employee record rather than in an email thread.

Replace the poster

Order or download the current federal Wage and Hour poster and swap the old one. An out-of-date poster showing a superseded rate is the first thing an investigator photographs.

Audit the first two pay runs after the change

Compare the first two post-change payrolls against the last pre-change run line by line. Most rate change errors are configuration errors in one pay code, and they surface immediately if you look.

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 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.

Key Takeaways

Utah’s minimum wage is $7.25 per hour and has been since July 24, 2009, under Utah Administrative Code R610-1-3(A).

No increase is scheduled and the Labor Commission cannot create one: Utah Code § 34-40-103 caps the state rate at the federal minimum wage in effect.

Tipped employees may be paid a $2.13 cash wage with a maximum $5.12 tip credit, but only after $30 in monthly tips, with notice at hire and a written tip pooling agreement.

No Utah city, town, or county may set a higher rate, require its contractors to pay more, or prefer vendors who pay more, under Utah Code § 34-40-106.

Minors may be paid $4.25 for their first 90 days with an employer; for federally covered employees, whom Utah Code § 34-40-104(1)(a) leaves to federal law, the federal youth wage of $4.25 reaches anyone under 20 for 90 consecutive calendar days.

Utah requires no state minimum wage poster: the rate is posted through the federal Wage and Hour poster, alongside the two notices the Labor Commission does require.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the minimum wage in Utah?

$7.25 per hour, effective July 24, 2009. Utah Administrative Code R610-1-3(A) sets it as the last of three steps, and the Utah Labor Commission publishes the same figure today. It matches the federal rate because Utah Code § 34-40-103 forbids the state rate from exceeding the federal one.

Can a Utah city or county set its own minimum wage?

No. Utah Code § 34-40-106 bars a city, town, or county from establishing a minimum wage above the federal rate, from requiring its contractors to pay above it, and from favoring vendors in procurement because they pay above it. The one exception is where federal law requires a specified wage on a federally funded project.

What is the minimum wage in Salt Lake City?

$7.25 per hour, the same as everywhere else in Utah. No city or county ordinance raises it, because Utah Code § 34-40-106 removes that power from local government, and the only exception covers federally funded projects carrying a specified wage. The tipped cash wage and the minor training wage are unchanged inside city limits too.

What can I pay a tipped employee in Utah?

A cash wage of at least $2.13 per hour, with tips covering the remaining $5.12. The employee must receive and report at least $30 in tips per month, must be told about the tip credit at hire, and any tip pool must be in writing. Dishwashers, chefs, cooks, and janitors are not tipped employees under Utah Administrative Code R610-1-4.

Can I pay a teenager less than the full rate in Utah?

Yes, for the first 90 days. For an employee the FLSA covers, Utah Code § 34-40-104(1)(a) leaves the floor to federal law, so anyone under 20 can start at $4.25 for 90 consecutive calendar days. For a worker outside the FLSA, the Utah rule allows $4.25 only for minors, for the first 90 days of employment with you. After that, the full $7.25 applies.

Is Utah’s minimum wage going up?

No increase is scheduled. There is no inflation index and no remaining step schedule, and the Labor Commission cannot exceed the federal floor. The commission must review the rate at least every three years and whenever the federal minimum wage changes, so a federal increase is the realistic trigger.

Does Utah require a state minimum wage poster?

No. The Labor Commission requires two notices, workers’ compensation and occupational safety and health, and the wage rate itself appears on the federal Wage and Hour poster. The Department of Workforce Services separately requires an unemployment insurance notice to workers.

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