How do West Virginia wage, overtime and meal break laws work in 2026?
West Virginia's minimum wage is $8.75, but only once you employ six or more people at one site. Overtime runs at 1.5 times pay after 40 hours, and a 20-minute meal break applies on a six-hour day.
· West Virginia, United States guide
Illustration · Charleston, West Virginia
West Virginia has its own minimum wage of $8.75, but it only bites above a size threshold: the state rate applies where you have six or more non-exempt employees at one separate, permanent work location. Below that, the FLSA federal floor fills the gap.
Overtime runs at 1.5 times pay after 40 hours in a week, with no daily overtime. West Virginia also requires a 20-minute meal break on any shift of six hours or more, unless the worker already gets a break or can eat on the job. See how it compares with Virginia wage law and Kentucky wage law.
What is the West Virginia minimum wage in 2026?
The West Virginia minimum wage is $8.75 an hour in 2026, unchanged since 2016 and with no increase scheduled. The state rate applies once you have six or more non-exempt employees at one separate, distinct and permanent work location, under WV Division of Labor minimum wage rules.
Tipped staff can be paid a cash wage of $2.62 an hour, with a tip credit of up to 70% of the $8.75 rate, as long as tips bring total pay to $8.75.
The six-employee threshold is the West Virginia quirk that out-of-state employers miss. Count non-exempt heads at a single permanent location: at six or more, the $8.75 state floor governs. With a smaller headcount at that site, or where the workforce is fully covered by federal law, the FLSA floor applies instead. Most employers end up on the state rate, so plan around $8.75. For comparison, Virginia and Kentucky each set their own floors without a headcount trigger.
The tip credit is the calculation that draws audits. A tipped worker paid $2.62 in cash must reach $8.75 an hour once tips are counted, and the burden of proving they did sits with you. Track tips against the floor each pay period and top up any shortfall, or the credit can be disallowed. The US DOL Wage and Hour Division enforces the federal tip-credit rules that run alongside state ones.
How does overtime work in West Virginia?
West Virginia pays overtime at 1.5 times the regular rate after 40 hours in a workweek, the same under state code and the federal FLSA. There is no daily overtime.
A worker can do a twelve-hour shift with no premium, as long as the week stays at or under 40 hours. Only hours past 40 in the seven-day week count toward overtime.
Hire a full-time West Virginia employee and you owe 1.5x the regular rate for every hour over 40 in the workweek. No daily trigger. The state overtime rule excludes employers where 80% or more of employees are covered by a federal maximum-hours act, so most payrolls run overtime under the FLSA overtime rules directly.
State and federal overtime land in the same place: 1.5 times pay after 40 hours, with no daily premium. A four-day, ten-hour roster carries no overtime because the week lands at exactly 40 hours. The regular rate still has to include non-discretionary bonuses and commissions, so the overtime figure is calculated on total earnings, not base pay alone. Get that base wrong and every overtime hour is underpaid. Your West Virginia state tax and UI obligations run alongside this payroll calculation each cycle.
What are the meal and rest break rules in West Virginia?
West Virginia requires a 20-minute meal break during any workday of six or more hours, at a time the employer reasonably sets, under WV Division of Labor wage and hour rules. It is the one break rule the state actually mandates.
The 20-minute break does not apply where the worker is already given a break, or is allowed necessary rest and can eat while working. There is no separate paid rest-break mandate for adults.
The meal break can be split into smaller increments if needed, and a period of 20 minutes or more can be unpaid only where the employee is fully relieved of duty. A working lunch at a desk or station is paid time and folds into the 40-hour overtime count. The exemption matters: if you already build a break into the shift, the separate 20-minute requirement is satisfied. See how neighbouring states compare on break obligations: Kentucky mandates a 30-minute lunch period and paid 10-minute rest breaks, a stricter regime than West Virginia's single rule.
The exposure is the interrupted break. If you treat 20 minutes as unpaid but the worker answers calls or covers a station, that time is compensable, and across a year it adds up to back-pay. Either protect the break or pay for it. Your West Virginia paid leave obligations sit separately from the break rules but layer on top of the same timesheet.
Who is exempt under federal law in West Virginia?
An employee is exempt from overtime only if they are paid at least $684 a week ($35,568 a year) on a salary basis and meet the federal duties test for an executive, administrative or professional role.
Salary alone is not enough. A worker earning over $684 a week who does not meet the duties test is still non-exempt and owed overtime after 40 hours.
The $684 weekly threshold is the 2019 federal level, restored after the 2024 increase was struck down by a federal court and formally rolled back by the US Department of Labor in May 2026. The in-force 2026 figure is $684 a week. West Virginia sets no separate exempt-salary test, so the federal bar governs.
Misclassification is the expensive error. If the salary or duties test is not met, every over-40-hour week becomes back-pay. Test the duties, not just the salary, before you classify anyone as exempt, and remember the state minimum-wage coverage question and the federal overtime test are answered separately for the same hire. Use the Employer Cost Calculator to model the real cost of a West Virginia hire at any classification before you commit.
How Teamed runs West Virginia wage and hour compliance
Teamed becomes your legal employer of record in West Virginia for $599 per employee per month flat. Zero FX mark-up, no setup fee, no exit fee. We run the timesheet-to-payslip path so overtime, the $8.75 floor and the tip credit are calculated correctly, every cycle.
You set the schedule. Teamed applies the 1.5x rate after 40 hours, tracks the 20-minute meal break, costs tipped roles against $2.62, and tests every salaried hire against the $684 bar before it becomes back-pay. Everything runs on one platform.
Real HR and legal experts handle your West Virginia hires and know the six-employee coverage rule, the tip-credit top-up and the meal-break exemption by heart. An actual person, not a chatbot or a pooled queue. Overtime, premium pay and any tip make-up are computed and pass through at cost, itemised and auditable on every invoice. No setup fee, no exit fee.
Contractor onboarding, EOR payroll and entity graduation all live on one platform: a West Virginia contractor who converts to W-2 keeps their record, and that same employee can graduate to your own US entity when the model no longer fits without switching systems. Use the Crossover Calculator to see the month the model flips. EOR is the right structure for a first West Virginia hire, until it isn't. Review your West Virginia state tax and UI and paid leave obligations alongside wage and hour to get the full employment-cost picture on one platform.
The West Virginia mistake we see most is the six-employee rule. Out-of-state employers assume the state minimum wage applies from the first hire, or that it never does, and both get the coverage wrong. The headcount at one site decides whether you are on the state floor or the federal one, and we work that out per location before the first payroll runs.
West Virginia writes its own minimum wage, then hides a switch in it.
The $8.75 state rate only applies once you have six or more people at one site. Smaller than that and the federal floor takes over instead.
Add a 20-minute meal break on a six-hour day, and the coverage question, not the rate, is the half you pay us to get right.
