Know your rights: Minimum wage

Think fast. What’s the federal minimum wage?

If you guessed $7.25 per hour, e-mail me for your prize. Actually, don’t. There is no prize. But you can feel good about yourself. The wage increased on July 24, 2009, so there’s likely hordes of people who still don’t know what it actually is.

The minimum wage in Illinois is $8 an hour and will increase to $8.25 on July 1, 2010.

There are some exceptions to the minimum wage laws. If you fall into one of the following categories, your employer can legally pay you less:

• Employees in their first 90 days of work if they are older than 18 can be paid 50 cents less than the current minimum wage
• Employees who receive tips (if an employee’s base wage plus tips still does not equal the Illinois minimum hourly wage, the employer must make up the difference)
• Employees younger than 18 can be paid 50 cents less than the current minimum wage
• Some agricultural workers
• Domestic workers in private homes
• Some commissioned salespeople
• Some employees of religious organizations
• Certain motor carriers.

As always, this information comes from the “Workers’ Rights Manual” published by Arise Chicago.