The territory’s minimum wage will rise from $8.35 per hour to 9.50 per hour on\u00a0Thursday.<\/p>\n
According to the Fair Labor Standards Act, state governments have the right to set a higher minimum wage than the current federal minimum wage rate. Roughly 29 states, including California, Florida, New York and New Jersey have enacted legislation increasing their state\u2019s minimum wage.<\/p>\n
The first increase from $7.25 to $8.35 took effect June of last year; the last increase \u2014 from $9.50 to $10.50 \u2014 will take effect in 2018, according to the law. Additionally, the tourist service industry and restaurant workers who are tipped employees must be compensated at a rate of not less than 40 percent of the prevailing minimum wage.<\/p>\n
Federal minimum wages have not been increased since 2010, while the cost of living has seen a sharp uptick throughout the country, particularly here in the Virgin Islands where the cost of electricity alone rose by 11 percent between the years of 2010 through 2015.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Correction: May 31, 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n A previous version of this story, because of a text error included the wrong date for the minimum wage increase. It’s Thursday, June 1, not today.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The territory’s minimum wage will rise from $8.35 per hour to 9.50 per hour on\u00a0Thursday. According to the Fair Labor Standards Act, state governments have the right to set a higher minimum wage than the current federal minimum wage rate. Roughly 29 states, including California, Florida, New York and New Jersey have enacted legislation increasing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":30638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,191,147],"tags":[6978],"yoast_head":"\n