Kentucky Minimum Wage 2026
Figure basis: Official Kentucky Education and Labor CabinetKentucky's minimum wage is $7.25 per hour in 2026, matching the federal minimum. This Kentucky minimum wage calculator turns that hourly rate into the numbers that actually matter to you: weekly, monthly and yearly pay. At $7.25 an hour, someone working a full 40-hour week earns about $290.00 before tax, or roughly $15,080.00 across a full year. Enter your own hours per week and weeks worked to see your gross pay, and edit the rate if you are paid above the minimum. The minimum wage is a floor, not a ceiling: employers can pay more, and some cities in Kentucky set their own higher local minimums. Tipped workers can be paid a lower cash wage as long as tips bring them up to the minimum; see the tipped calculator for that. The figure here is the state rate for 2026, sourced directly from the Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet; the pay calculation is simply hours times the rate.
Kentucky's 2026 minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. Full time (40 hrs/week) that is about $290.00 a week and $15,080.00 a year before tax.
How Kentucky minimum wage pay is calculated
weekly pay = hourly rate x hours per week
annual pay = hourly rate x hours per week x weeks per year
overtime = hourly rate x 1.5 (hours over 40 in a week, FLSA)
These are gross figures before federal and Kentucky income tax, Social Security and Medicare. Your take-home pay is lower; see our Kentucky paycheck calculator for the after-tax amount.
Why no Kentucky city can beat $7.25
Kentucky's minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, equal to the federal rate and unchanged since 2009. The defining episode came in 2016, when the Kentucky Supreme Court struck down the local minimum wage ordinances that Louisville and Lexington had passed. That ruling means no Kentucky city can set a higher local floor, so the state $7.25 is uniform everywhere, about $15,080.00 a year for full-time work before tax.
Tipped pay in Kentucky follows the federal template. An employer may pay a cash wage of $2.13 an hour to workers who earn more than $30.00 a month in tips, claim a tip credit of up to $5.12, and must make up any gap so total pay reaches $7.25. Because the state does not index its minimum, the figure only changes when the legislature acts.
Geography sharpens the contrast. Several of Kentucky's neighbors, including Ohio, Illinois, Virginia, and West Virginia, pay more than $7.25, while Tennessee has no state minimum wage law of its own and defaults to the federal rate much as Kentucky effectively does. Confirm the current rate and tipped figures with the Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet before relying on them for payroll.
Kentucky minimum wage: frequently asked questions
What is the minimum wage in Kentucky in 2026?
Kentucky's minimum wage is $7.25 per hour in 2026, matching the federal minimum. At $7.25 an hour, a full-time worker (40 hours a week) earns about $290.00 a week and $15,080.00 a year before tax. This rate took effect on July 1, 2009.
How much is full-time minimum wage in Kentucky per year?
At Kentucky's $7.25 minimum wage, 40 hours a week for 52 weeks is 2,080 hours, which comes to about $15,080.00 a year ($1,256.67 a month) in gross pay before tax and deductions. Part-time hours scale down from there; use the calculator to enter your own hours.
Is Kentucky's minimum wage going up?
Kentucky does not automatically index its minimum wage to inflation, so it changes only when the law changes. The figure here is the 2026 rate verified with the Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet.
What is the tipped minimum wage in Kentucky?
Kentucky lets employers pay tipped workers a lower cash wage of $2.13 an hour and count up to $5.12 of tips toward the minimum (a "tip credit"). If cash wage plus tips does not reach $7.25 an hour, the employer must make up the difference. See our Kentucky tipped minimum wage calculator for the full breakdown.
Is Kentucky's minimum wage higher than the federal minimum wage?
No. The rate that applies in Kentucky is the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour. Where a state and the federal rate differ, workers are entitled to the higher of the two.
Official sources
- Kentucky 2026 minimum wage rate: Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet, as at July 11, 2026.
- Federal minimum wage ($7.25) and overtime rules: US Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division.
Reviewed by the CalculatorHub team, edited by James Graham, 11 July 2026. See our methodology. General information, not legal or financial advice. The state minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, equal to the federal rate.