December is not the shortest month of the year, but it always seems to go by the fastest.
And with holidays and vacations, not to mention employees working remotely, it’s not unusual for matters to be put off until the new year — or for a project or two to fall through the cracks.
Oftentimes, there are no real consequences if a project gets pushed off into the new year.
But that’s not the case with new state or local wage-hour laws.
As reflected in the charts below, minimum wages increased in dozens of states and localities when the new year rang in on January 1, 2022 – and exempt salary thresholds also increased in some states effective January 1, 2022.
That means that employees need to be paid at those new rates effective January 1, 2022, irrespective of how busy things may have gotten in December.
Employers would be wise to confirm that their payroll and human resources departments in fact made the changes they needed to make to be ready to comply with the new state and local requirements.
Underpaying employees, or misclassifying them, because adjustments fell through the cracks during all of the end-of-year activities is likely to get very little sympathy from employees — and just as little from the courts and from the state and local agencies that address wage-hour complaints.
New January 1, 2022 State Minimum Wages
| State | 2021 Minimum Wage | 2022 Minimum Wage |
| Arizona | $12.15 | $12.80 |
| Arkansas | $11.00 | TBD |
| California | $14 per hour for employers with 26 or more... |
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