Mississippi Minimum Wage 2026
The minimum wage in Mississippi is $7.25 per hour in 2026, effective July 24, 2009. Tipped employees can be paid a cash wage of $2.13 per hour, as long as tips bring them to the full minimum.
What is the minimum wage in Mississippi in 2026?
Mississippi has never enacted a state minimum wage law. The federal rate of $7.25 per hour, set on July 24, 2009, is the only minimum that applies, and only to employers covered by the FLSA.
What makes Mississippi different from other federal-rate states is how often the floor actually matters. With the lowest median wages in the country, a larger share of Mississippi's hourly workforce earns at or near $7.25 than almost anywhere else, so the federal minimum functions as a real pay benchmark here rather than a distant legal footnote.
Tipped minimum wage in Mississippi
Tipped employment in Mississippi runs on federal rules alone: a direct cash wage of at least $2.13 per hour, a tip credit of up to $5.12, and a guarantee that wages plus tips average at least $7.25 per hour across the workweek.
Casino and restaurant employers along the Gulf Coast handle large volumes of tipped payroll, and the weekly guarantee is where compliance breaks down most often. Any week that tips fail to close the gap, the employer owes the balance, and with no state wage agency, claims go to the federal DOL.
Mississippi minimum wage history: 2020 to 2026
| Year | Minimum wage | Tipped wage |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $7.25 | $2.13 |
| 2021 | $7.25 | $2.13 |
| 2022 | $7.25 | $2.13 |
| 2023 | $7.25 | $2.13 |
| 2024 | $7.25 | $2.13 |
| 2025 | $7.25 | $2.13 |
| 2026 | $7.25 | $2.13 |
Upcoming minimum wage increases in Mississippi
No increase is scheduled or realistically pending. Since Mississippi has no wage statute to amend, the floor moves only if Congress raises the federal minimum or the Legislature passes a state minimum wage for the first time.
Bills to establish a Mississippi minimum wage are introduced in Jackson session after session and die in committee. A 2013 preemption law forecloses the local path as well, so the $7.25 rate should be treated as fixed for 2026 and 2027 planning.
Minimum wage by city in Mississippi
A 2013 Mississippi preemption law prohibits cities and counties from adopting their own minimum wage or benefit mandates, so the federal $7.25 governs every municipality in the state.
Metro dynamics still vary. Southaven sits inside the Memphis metro, and since Tennessee also has no state minimum wage, the entire metro shares the same $7.25 floor, a rare case where crossing the state line changes nothing about the legal minimum.
Federal rate; the 2013 preemption law rules out any city ordinance
Federal rate; coastal casinos rely heavily on the tipped wage system
Federal rate applies; university hiring shapes the local entry-level market
Part of the Memphis metro, where Tennessee's lack of a state minimum keeps both sides at $7.25
What Mississippi employers need to know
Coverage
FLSA coverage determines everything in Mississippi: employers with $500,000 or more in annual revenue or workers in interstate commerce must pay $7.25. Outside that coverage there is no wage floor, since no state statute exists.
Overtime
Overtime follows the FLSA only: 1.5x the regular rate after 40 hours in a workweek. Mississippi imposes no additional overtime, break, or premium pay requirements.
Tipped employees
Apply the federal $2.13 cash wage and tip credit carefully, with weekly verification against $7.25. Gulf Coast gaming employers should also confirm tip pool rules exclude managers and supervisors.
Posting and records
Display the federal minimum wage poster and preserve payroll records for three years. Mississippi has no state wage and hour office, so the federal DOL's Wage and Hour Division is the enforcement channel.
How other states compare
See how Mississippi's $7.25 rate stacks up against other state minimum wages in 2026, or browse the full minimum wage index for all 50 states.
Last verified:
Sources: the US Department of Labor's state minimum wage table and official announcements from the Mississippi labor department. Minimum wage laws change frequently; confirm current rates with those sources or legal counsel before setting pay.
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