Wisconsin Minimum Wage: Rates and Rules

Q: What is the minimum wage in Wisconsin?

It is $7.25 an hour, the same as the federal rate, and it has been at that level since July 24, 2009. The figure sits in Wis. Stat. section 104.035(1)(a) and at the top of the rate table the Department of Workforce Development publishes for employers. Minor employees get the same $7.25 under section 104.035(2)(a), and so do agricultural employees under section 104.035(4)(a). Wisconsin once paid minors and farm workers less than everyone else, and both of those gaps closed on July 24, 2009. Because the number has not moved in seventeen years, an owner who checked years ago is usually still right, which is rare in wage and hour compliance and still worth confirming once a year.

Q: Is the Wisconsin minimum wage going up?

No increase is scheduled. Wisconsin writes its rates as fixed dollar amounts in Chapter 104 of the statutes, with no inflation index and no future effective dates, so nothing rises automatically on January 1. There is also no administrative route to a raise anymore. The Department of Workforce Development set the rates by rule for decades, but 2015 Wisconsin Act 55 moved the figures into the statute itself effective August 1, 2015 and removed the department’s ability to set rates through rulemaking. That leaves two ways the number you pay can move: the Legislature amends Chapter 104, or Congress raises the federal minimum and federal law reaches your business.

Q: Can a Wisconsin city or county set a higher minimum wage?

No. Wis. Stat. section 104.001 declares a minimum wage that is uniform throughout the state to be a matter of statewide concern, and it says a city, village, town, or county may not enact and administer an ordinance establishing a minimum wage. The same section voided any local minimum wage ordinance that was in effect on June 16, 2005. So Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay and every county pay the same $7.25 floor, and there is no local rate calendar to track. If you also employ people across a state line, do not carry the Wisconsin answer with you, because neighboring states set their own floors and some allow local ones.

Q: What is the opportunity wage in Wisconsin?

The opportunity wage is $5.90 an hour, and it applies to an employee who is not yet 20 years old during the first 90 consecutive days of employment with that employer. The count runs on calendar days, not on days actually worked, so a weekend-only hire burns through the window at the same speed as a full-time one. The rate ends at 90 days or on the employee’s twentieth birthday, whichever comes first, and the employee then moves to $7.25. A tipped opportunity employee has a $2.13 cash wage. The administrative rule also puts the burden of proving previous employment on the employee, and protects an employer who relied on that proof in good faith.

Q: Do Wisconsin employers have to post a minimum wage poster?

Not the state one. The Department of Workforce Development lists its Minimum Wage Rates poster, publication ERD-9247-P, as informational and states plainly that there is no requirement to post it. That is unusual, and it catches owners who assume every state poster is mandatory. Other postings are mandatory. The Wisconsin Fair Employment Law poster, ERD-4531-P, is required of all employers, the unemployment insurance notice is required of covered employers, and employers who hire minors post the minor hours poster. On the federal side, the Fair Labor Standards Act poster WH-1088 is required of all employers covered by that law, and it prints the $7.25 rate.

Q: Which Wisconsin jobs have their own minimum wage rate?

Four groups have their own numbers in Wis. Stat. section 104.035, and none of them are the industries people expect. There is no fast food rate and no healthcare rate in Wisconsin. Camp counselors at seasonal recreational or educational camps, including day camps, are paid weekly: $350 with no meals or lodging, $265 when meals are furnished, and $210 when both meals and lodging are furnished. Golf caddies are paid by the round, $10.50 for 18 holes and $5.90 for 9. Agricultural employees are at $7.25, the same as everyone else. Workers with disabilities may be paid a commensurate rate only under a license the department issues.

Wisconsin’s minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, unchanged since July 24, 2009. Tipped cash wage, the opportunity wage, carve-outs, and poster rules.

Nick Anisimov

FirstHR Founder

Wisconsin•

August 18, 2026

•

9 min

Wisconsin Minimum Wage

The current rate, the tipped math, and the exceptions that actually apply

The first payroll question a Wisconsin owner asks me is almost never about overtime. It is simpler and more anxious than that: what is the lowest hourly rate I can legally put on an offer letter, and did it move while I was not looking.

In Wisconsin the answer has been the same number since 2009. The state floor equals the federal floor, no city or county is allowed to set a different one, and the rate is a fixed dollar figure in the statute rather than an index that ratchets every January. That makes this a short page, and short is the honest answer here.

What trips owners up is the detail underneath the headline number. A tipped cash wage that collapses without a signed declaration each pay period. A youth rate that expires on a calendar count rather than a worked-hours count. A minimum wage poster the state does not actually require you to hang. I run FirstHR for owners who handle payroll, onboarding and compliance with no HR department behind them, so what follows is the figure, the date it took effect, and the official source for each one.

TL;DR

Wisconsin's minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and has been since July 24, 2009. No increase is scheduled. Tipped employees get a $2.33 cash wage with a $4.92 tip credit, and workers under 20 can be paid $5.90 for their first 90 consecutive days. No Wisconsin city or county may set its own rate.

Wisconsin Minimum Wage SnapshotLast checked: August 18, 2026

Minimum wage$7.25 per hour

In effect sinceJuly 24, 2009

Next scheduled increaseNone. The rate is a fixed dollar figure in the statute and is not indexed.

Tipped cash wage$2.33 per hour (tip credit $4.92)

Tipped opportunity employee$2.13 per hour (tip credit $3.77)

Opportunity wage (under 20, first 90 days)$5.90 per hour

Minor employees$7.25 per hour, same as adults

Agricultural employees$7.25 per hour

City and county ratesNone. Local minimum wage ordinances are barred by statute.

Minimum wage posterERD-9247-P, informational. The state does not require you to post it.

EnforcementEqual Rights Division, Department of Workforce Development

The Rate You Pay Today

Wisconsin's minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, effective July 24, 2009. The figure is written into Wis. Stat. section 104.035(1)(a), it is repeated in administrative rule DWD 272.03(1)(a), and it heads the rate table the Department of Workforce Development keeps on its minimum wage page.

Two groups that used to earn less now earn the same. Minor employees are at $7.25 under section 104.035(2)(a), and agricultural employees are at $7.25 under section 104.035(4)(a). Both gaps closed on the same July 2009 date, so a 17-year-old stocking shelves and a farm hand are on the general rate.

Effective date	Wisconsin general rate	What changed
September 1, 1997	$5.15	Department order; the opportunity rate was $4.25 and farm work carried lower rates
June 1, 2005	$5.70	Department order; separate minor rate of $5.30 created
June 1, 2006	$6.50	Department order; minor and opportunity rates set at $5.90
July 24, 2009	$7.25	Department order matching the federal increase; minor and agricultural rates merged into the general rate

This page was last checked on August 18, 2026. Minimum wage figures change annually in most states, and tipped rates and youth rates move even in years when the headline number does not, so re-check the state source before each new payroll year instead of trusting a page you bookmarked.

Is Another Increase Scheduled?

No. There is no scheduled increase and no indexing formula in Wisconsin, so nothing rises on its own. Chapter 104 states the rates as flat dollar amounts with no future effective dates attached.

There is also no longer an administrative shortcut. The department set minimum wage rates by rule for decades, and the state's history of minimum wage regulation records that 2015 Wisconsin Act 55 moved the rates into Wis. Stat. Chapter 104 effective August 1, 2015 and eliminated the department's ability to set rates through rulemaking. Only the Legislature can move the number now.

How to budget for this

Do not build a raise into next year's payroll model on the strength of a bill that has been introduced. Wisconsin rates change by amendment to the statute, and that has not happened since 2015.

Do model the arithmetic anyway if you employ anyone at or near the floor, because the jump from a federal increase would arrive with very little runway.

The change most likely to reach you without a vote in Madison is a federal one, and it would bind you through federal law rather than through Chapter 104.

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Tipped Employees: $2.33 and a Signed Declaration

Wisconsin allows a tip credit. The cash wage for a tipped employee is $2.33 an hour, which leaves a maximum credit of $4.92 against the $7.25 floor. A tipped employee who is also an opportunity employee has a cash wage of $2.13, a credit of $3.77 against the $5.90 opportunity rate.

The credit is conditional on your records, not on your good intentions. Section 104.035(3)(a) lets you pay the lower cash wage only if your payroll records establish that tips plus wages reached the applicable minimum for that week, and rule DWD 272.03(2)(b) adds the piece owners miss: a tip declaration signed by the employee each pay period, with the required withholding shown. When the time and payroll records do not carry those items, no tip credit is allowed at all.

Item	Wisconsin rule
Cash wage, tipped employee	$2.33 per hour
Cash wage, tipped opportunity employee	$2.13 per hour
Maximum tip credit	$4.92 per hour, or $3.77 for an opportunity employee
Combined floor	$7.25 per hour, with the employer covering any shortfall
Records required	A signed tip declaration each pay period, plus payroll records showing withholding
Missing declaration	No tip credit allowed; the full minimum wage is owed
Who qualifies	An employee who customarily and regularly receives tips, not one who gets them occasionally
Tip splitting	Amounts kept by the server and amounts passed to bus staff each count as tips of whoever keeps them
Service charges	A compulsory service charge is not a tip unless the employer distributes it to employees
Overtime	The regular rate for a tipped employee includes the tip credit the employer took

The shortfall is yours, every week

A slow week does not lower the floor. If cash wages plus tips come in under $7.25 an hour for the week, you pay the gap.

The signed declaration is not paperwork hygiene, it is the condition of the credit. The annotation to section 104.035 points to Hussein v. Jun-Yan, LLC (2020), where missing declarations meant no tip credit and a back wage claim.

City and County Rates

No Wisconsin city or county sets its own minimum wage. Wis. Stat. section 104.001 declares a uniform statewide minimum wage a matter of statewide concern, states that a city, village, town, or county may not enact and administer an ordinance establishing a minimum wage, and voided any local ordinance that was in effect on June 16, 2005.

The practical effect is that there is no local rate calendar to track. Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Kenosha and every county pay the same floor. One caution for owners near a border: do not carry the Wisconsin answer across a state line, because neighboring states set their own rates and some of them permit local ordinances on top.

Agriculture, Camps, and Caddies

Wisconsin has no fast food wage and no healthcare wage. The carve-outs that do exist are narrow and old, and they sit in the same statute as the general rate.

Who	Rate	Source and note
Agricultural employees	$7.25 per hour	Section 104.035(4); the separate farm rate ended July 24, 2009
Camp counselors, no meals or lodging	$350 per week	Section 104.035(5); seasonal recreational or educational camps, including day camps
Camp counselors, meals furnished	$265 per week	Section 104.035(5)
Camp counselors, meals and lodging furnished	$210 per week	Section 104.035(5)
Golf caddies	$10.50 per 18 holes, $5.90 per 9 holes	Section 104.035(6); paid by the round rather than by the hour
Full-time students at independent colleges	Federal minimum wage for 20 hours per week or less	Rule DWD 272.085(1); students 18 and over only, and above 20 hours the general rate applies
Workers with disabilities	A commensurate rate set by a state license	Section 104.07; the license reflects the worker’s productivity

A handful of jobs sit outside the minimum wage entirely. Section 104.035(8) exempts casual work in and around an employer's home on an irregular basis for 15 hours a week or less, a live-in companion who does 15 hours or less of general household work, and elementary or secondary students doing school worklike activities. Section 104.01(2)(b) also puts house-to-house newspaper delivery, direct retail selling and outside salespeople outside the definition of employee.

Read that as a routing instruction rather than as permission. A job outside Chapter 104 is usually still inside the federal minimum wage rules, which carry the same $7.25 rate, so the effect is that federal law governs instead of state law rather than that nothing governs.

Meal and lodging allowances, when you furnish them

Lodging: up to $58 per week or $8.30 per day. Meals: up to $87 per week or $4.15 per meal.

Opportunity employees: lodging up to $47.20 per week or $6.75 per day, meals up to $70.80 per week or $3.35 per meal.

These are ceilings, not defaults. Rule DWD 272.04 requires the meals and lodging to be genuinely furnished and accepted, and an employer may not require that meals be taken as part payment of wages.

The Opportunity Wage for Workers Under 20

Wisconsin's youth rate is $5.90 an hour and it has a precise name: the opportunity wage. Section 104.01(5m) defines an opportunity employee as a person under 20 years of age who is in the first 90 consecutive days of employment with that employer. A tipped opportunity employee has a cash wage of $2.13.

Two details decide whether you are using it correctly. The 90 days run on the calendar, not on days worked, so a student who picks up one shift a week reaches day 91 as fast as a full-time hire. And the window closes at 90 days or on the twentieth birthday, whichever comes first, at which point the general $7.25 rate applies with no further notice.

Running the opportunity wage without a claim

Diary the 90th calendar day and the twentieth birthday for every opportunity hire on the day you hire them. A missed date is a wage claim with interest, not a rounding error.

Rule DWD 272.03(8) puts the burden of proving prior employment on the employee, and shields an employer who relied in good faith on the proof the employee supplied. Keep that proof in the file.

Wisconsin's $5.90 rate sits above the federal youth wage of $4.25, so the state figure is the one you pay here.

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The Poster Rule Employers Get Backwards

Wisconsin does not require you to post its minimum wage poster. The Department of Workforce Development lists publication ERD-9247-P, Minimum Wage Rates, on its workplace posters page with the note that the document is informational and there is no requirement to post it. The board and lodging allowances print on the reverse side.

Plenty of other postings are mandatory, so treat this as one exception rather than a general reprieve. The Wisconsin Fair Employment Law poster, ERD-4531-P, is required of all employers. Employers who hire minors post the minor hours poster, and an employer holding a special minimum wage license for a worker with a disability must post the notice for workers paid at a special minimum wage, publication ERD-9116-P. The license itself is explained on the department's special minimum wage page.

Federal duties sit on top. The Fair Labor Standards Act poster WH-1088 is required of all employers covered by that law, and it is the posting that actually carries the $7.25 rate onto your wall. Our guide to workplace safety posters covers the rest of the wall.

How Wisconsin Sits on the Federal Floor

Same number, no automatic link. The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 since July 24, 2009, and Wisconsin arrived at the same figure on the same day. But Chapter 104 names a dollar amount and contains no clause that adopts future federal increases, which is a real difference from states whose statutes track the federal rate by reference.

The consequence is worth holding onto. If Congress raised the federal minimum tomorrow, a Wisconsin employer covered by federal law would owe the higher rate immediately, while the state figure would sit at $7.25 until the Legislature amended it. Employment that falls outside federal coverage would stay on the state number. Background on what is moving elsewhere sits in our guide to minimum wage increases.

What to Do When a Rate Changes

A rate change is a payroll project, not a checkbox, and in Wisconsin it will most likely arrive from Congress rather than from Madison. Work it in this order the moment a new figure is confirmed. FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a payroll provider, so run the final numbers with whoever files your payroll taxes.

Pull every rate below the new floor

Sort the roster by hourly rate and list everyone under the new number, including part-time and seasonal staff. Then look one step above it at anyone whose pay is now compressed against a junior colleague.

Redo the tipped arithmetic separately

The $2.33 cash wage and the tip credit move independently of the headline rate. Recalculate both, then re-run the weekly make-up test for each tipped employee instead of assuming last month's numbers still hold.

Re-check every opportunity employee

The $5.90 rate is tied to the general rate and to a 90 day calendar window. A rate change is a good moment to confirm nobody has quietly passed day 90 or turned 20 while still on the lower rate.

Recompute the overtime regular rate

Wisconsin overtime runs on the regular rate, and for a tipped employee that rate includes the tip credit you took. A base increase raises overtime cost by more than the base difference alone.

Put the new rate in writing

Tell each affected employee their new rate before the effective date and keep the acknowledgement in the employee file. It costs nothing and it settles the argument that otherwise happens six months later.

Refresh the postings and the reference copies

Swap the federal Fair Labor Standards Act poster for the current version, and replace the informational state rate sheet if you keep one in the break room so it stops teaching the old number.

Update the paperwork that quotes the old rate

Offer letters, job postings, the handbook pay section and any hiring budget carrying the old figure all need the new one before the next hire.

Key Takeaways

Wisconsin's minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and has not changed since July 24, 2009.

No increase is scheduled, the rate is not indexed, and 2015 Wisconsin Act 55 removed the department's power to raise it by rule.

Tipped employees get $2.33 in cash wages, but the tip credit fails unless a signed tip declaration exists for each pay period.

No Wisconsin city, village, town or county may set its own minimum wage, and any ordinance in effect on June 16, 2005 was voided.

Workers under 20 can be paid the $5.90 opportunity wage for their first 90 consecutive calendar days, and $2.13 if they are tipped.

The state minimum wage poster is informational and not required, while the federal Fair Labor Standards Act poster is.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the minimum wage in Wisconsin?

$7.25 an hour, the same as the federal rate, in effect since July 24, 2009. The figure sits in Wis. Stat. section 104.035(1)(a) and on the state rate table. Minor employees and agricultural employees are on the same $7.25, both of which used to be lower and merged into the general rate on that 2009 date.

Is the Wisconsin minimum wage going up?

No increase is scheduled, and the rate is not tied to inflation. Wisconsin writes the figures as flat dollar amounts in Chapter 104, and 2015 Wisconsin Act 55 moved them out of administrative rule and ended the department's ability to raise them by rulemaking. A change now requires the Legislature, or a federal increase that reaches your business through federal law.

What is the tipped minimum wage in Wisconsin?

The cash wage is $2.33 an hour, a maximum tip credit of $4.92 against the $7.25 floor, or $2.13 for a tipped opportunity employee. Your payroll records have to show that wages plus tips met the minimum for each week you took the credit, and the rule also requires a tip declaration signed by the employee each pay period. Without it, no credit is allowed.

Can a Wisconsin city or county set a higher minimum wage?

No. Section 104.001 makes a uniform statewide minimum wage a matter of statewide concern, bars a city, village, town or county from enacting and administering a minimum wage ordinance, and voided any such ordinance in effect on June 16, 2005. Every location in the state runs on the same floor, so there is no local rate calendar to maintain.

What is the opportunity wage in Wisconsin?

It is $5.90 an hour for an employee who is not yet 20 during the first 90 consecutive days of employment with that employer. The count runs on calendar days rather than worked days, and it ends at 90 days or the twentieth birthday, whichever comes first. A tipped opportunity employee has a $2.13 cash wage against that $5.90 figure.

Do Wisconsin employers have to post a minimum wage poster?

Not the state one. The department lists its Minimum Wage Rates poster, ERD-9247-P, as informational with no posting requirement. Other Wisconsin postings are mandatory, including the Fair Employment Law poster for all employers, and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act poster WH-1088 is required of employers covered by that law.

Which Wisconsin jobs have their own minimum wage rate?

Camp counselors, golf caddies and workers under a special minimum wage license. Counselors are paid weekly at $350, $265 or $210 depending on whether meals and lodging are furnished, and caddies get $10.50 for 18 holes or $5.90 for 9. There is no fast food or healthcare rate here. The broader picture sits in our Wisconsin compliance guide.

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