US wages, payroll and pay literacy
StateWages answers the pay questions people actually search for: what the floor is where you work, what counts as hours worked, what the deductions on a stub mean, and how to argue for more money with a market band instead of a feeling.
Every figure is the higher of the federal and state requirement, each page carries the date it was last checked, and each one ends with a short opinion rather than a restated definition. Minimum wage content is the most copied content on the web, so we add per-state tables and a view worth disagreeing with.
Minimum wage by state
The floor, where it lands, and the exceptions employers use most.
- Minimum wage by state, 2026
- The federal minimum wage and who it actually covers
- The twenty states still on $7.25
- Tipped minimum wage and the employer tip credit
- The subminimum wage for workers under 20
- State, city and county minimum wages: which one applies
- Minimum wage versus a living wage
- How the federal minimum wage got to $7.25
Overtime
Who earns time and a half, what counts as hours worked, and how the week is measured.
- Overtime rules: the forty-hour week
- Exempt and non-exempt: the three tests
- The overtime salary threshold, and why it moved back
- How the overtime rate is actually calculated
- Time rounding and the seven minute rule
- Travel time: what employers must pay for
- On-call and standby time: when you must be paid
- Unpaid overtime: how far back you can claim
Paycheck literacy
What the deductions mean, which ones are taxes, and which ones you chose.
- How to read a pay stub
- FICA explained: the employee and employer shares
- Withholding versus FICA, and why a refund is not a win
- Pre-tax and post-tax deductions: which ones lower your tax
- Gross pay, net pay and what sits between them
- Pay stub errors and how to correct them
- Final paycheck rules when you leave a job
- Self-employment tax and why the rate doubles
Salary and negotiation
Comparing offers, reading vague postings, and asking with a number behind you.