Wyoming Minimum Wage 2026
The minimum wage in Wyoming 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 Wyoming in 2026?
Wyoming technically has a state minimum wage of $5.15 per hour, one of only two states with a statutory rate below the federal minimum. Because the higher rate always wins, the federal $7.25 applies to nearly every Wyoming worker in 2026, and it has since the last federal increase on July 24, 2009.
The $5.15 figure survives only for the narrow slice of employees outside FLSA coverage. For everyone else, Wyoming pay is shaped less by law than by geography and industry: energy-sector jobs in the Powder River Basin pay multiples of the minimum, and neighboring Colorado ($15.16) and Montana ($10.85, with no tip credit at all) set the regional benchmarks that Cheyenne and Laramie employers hire against.
Tipped minimum wage in Wyoming
For FLSA-covered employers, which is nearly all of them, the tipped minimum wage in Wyoming is $2.13 per hour in cash wages, with tips required to bring each employee to $7.25 per hour every workweek. Wyoming's own statute lists an even lower $2.13-equivalent structure against the $5.15 state rate, but the federal standard controls in practice.
Hospitality hiring around Jackson and the national parks complicates the picture: tourism wages there routinely dwarf the tipped minimum, and many resort employers skip the tip credit entirely to compete with Montana, where employers must pay the full minimum with no tip credit whatsoever.
Wyoming 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 Wyoming
No increases are scheduled. Wyoming's Legislature has left the $5.15 statute untouched for decades, so any effective change to the $7.25 floor depends on Congress raising the federal minimum or Cheyenne passing a state increase, and neither is in motion.
Bills to modernize the state minimum surface occasionally in the Legislature but rarely progress. The practical driver of Wyoming wages remains the energy cycle: when drilling and mining activity rises, pay across the state climbs with it, minimum wage or not.
Minimum wage by city in Wyoming
Wyoming municipalities do not set their own minimum wages, so the $7.25 federal rate governs in Cheyenne, Casper, Laramie, and Gillette alike.
Regional pay pressure comes from outside the state instead. Cheyenne sits under an hour from Colorado's $15.16 minimum along the Front Range corridor, and northern Wyoming employers compete with Montana's $10.85, which means border-area hourly postings rarely resemble the legal floor.
Federal rate; Colorado's $15.16 minimum just down I-25 pressures local pay
Federal rate; oil and gas services set the wage bar during energy upswings
Federal rate; the University of Wyoming anchors a student-driven labor pool
Federal rate; coal and mineral extraction pay far above the minimum
What Wyoming employers need to know
Which rate applies
Pay $7.25 unless you are certain the employee falls outside FLSA coverage, a rare situation. The state's $5.15 rate applies only to that small non-covered group.
Tipped employees
FLSA-covered employers may pay $2.13 in cash wages with a tip credit up to $5.12, provided tips lift total pay to $7.25 hourly each workweek. Document tips per pay period.
Overtime
Wyoming has no general state overtime law, so the FLSA rule applies: 1.5x the regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek.
Posting and records
Post the federal FLSA notice and keep standard payroll records. Employers near state lines should also document how they benchmark against Colorado and Montana rates for recruiting purposes.
How other states compare
See how Wyoming'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 Wyoming labor department. Minimum wage laws change frequently; confirm current rates with those sources or legal counsel before setting pay.
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