• Nevada voters passed a $12.00 per hour minimum wage to take effect July 1, 2024.
• The ballot initiative will eliminate Nevada's unique two-tier minimum wage system that had differentiating wages for whether the employer offered health insurance or not.

For nearly two decades, Nevada has utilized a unique two-tier minimum wage system that permitted employers that offered qualified health benefits to employees to pay $1.00 less per hour than employers that did not offer such benefits to their employees.¹ Nevada's two-tier minimum wage system – which was exclusive to Nevada – was originally approved by Nevada voters in 2006 by a margin of 69% in favor.² Known as the Minimum Wage Amendment (MWA), the MWA not only set up this two-tiered system in years to come, but also established a method for automatically adjusting the state minimum wage based on federal minimum wage and cost-of-living increases.

Pursuant to the two-tiered system, from 2010 to 2019, Nevada's minimum wage rates were set at $7.25 and $8.25 per hour. In 2019, Assembly Bill No. 456 (AB 456) was passed, providing for successive increases to Nevada's minimum wage using a statutory schedule. This measure increased the minimum wage by 75 cents annually until it reached $11.00 per hour for employers that offered health benefits, and $12.00 per hour for employers not offering health benefits by 2024.³ By passing AB 456, the legislature preserved the two-tier system set forth in the MWA.

Nevada Voters Decide to...

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