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Happening Today: Nevada’s Hourly Minimum Wage Rate Increases


Effective today, July 1st, the hourly minimum wage rate in Nevada is set to increase as follows:  rising to $8/hour if the employer offers qualifying health benefits and rising to $9/hour if the employer does not offer qualifying health benefits.

Readers might be wondering, “Ok, and what exactly is a “qualifying health benefit” in Nevada?”  In order to answer that question, we need to look at a Nevada Supreme Court case from 2018, MDC Restaurants, LLC v. Eighth Judicial Dist. Court.  In that case, the Nevada Supreme Court held that under the Minimum Wage Amendment Act (which provides for the two tier minimum wage setup in the state), an employer who pays one dollar per hour less in wages must provide a benefit in the form of health insurance that is at least equivalent to the one dollar per hour in wages that the employee would otherwise receive.

The Nevada Legislature stepped in afterward and passed Senate Bill 192 in 2019 to clarify that an employer may pay the lower minimum wage rate if health benefits were available to the employee and the employee’s dependents in a health benefit plan that included:

  • Ambulatory patient services
  • Emergency services
  • Hospitalization
  • Maternity and newborn care
  • Mental health and substance use disorder services
  • Prescription drugs
  • Rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices
  • Laboratory services
  • Preventative and wellness services and chronic disease management
  • Pediatric services
  • Any other health care service or coverage level required to be included in an individual or group health benefit plan pursuant to a Nevada statute

This minimum wage hike comes on the heels of Assembly Bill 456 that was passed last year.  Under that legislation, there will be subsequent annual minimum wage increases of $.75/hour through 2024.



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