South Dakota to See a Minimum Wage Increase January 1st

If you you're a minimum wage worker in South Dakota, good news, you get a raise on Friday. It's not a big raise, but it's still a bump nonetheless.

South Dakota's minimum wage will go from $8.50 to $8.55 an hour starting on Friday, January 1, 2016.

The wage hike results from a law voters passed in November 2014, tying the minimum wage to cost of living increases. Tipped employees will see their wages go up from $4.25 to $4.28 an hour.

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The cost of living increase is determined when the South Dakota Department of Labor compares the U.S. Consumer Price Index from August of the current year to the previous to measure what kind of an increase is warranted.

Before South Dakota lifted the minimum wage to $8.50 in 2015, the rate was $7.25 an hour, the same as the federal minimum and North Dakota’s current rate.

According to Marcia Hultman, cabinet secretary for the South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation, “The majority of employers in the state were already paying wages at or above the new minimum.”

Source: Grand Forks Herald