North Dakota Minimum Wage 2026
Figure basis: Official North Dakota Department of Labor and Human RightsNorth Dakota's minimum wage is $7.25 per hour in 2026, matching the federal minimum. This North Dakota 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 North Dakota 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 North Dakota Department of Labor and Human Rights; the pay calculation is simply hours times the rate.
North Dakota'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 North Dakota 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 North Dakota income tax, Social Security and Medicare. Your take-home pay is lower; see our North Dakota paycheck calculator for the after-tax amount.
Where North Dakota parts from the federal tipped wage
North Dakota keeps its standard minimum wage locked to the federal floor of $7.25 an hour, a rate it has not changed since 2009. On the headline number that puts it alongside neighbors who also sit at $7.25, so a non-tipped worker's pay is simply the federal rate times hours worked. The tipped rules, however, are where North Dakota quietly diverges from the federal model.
Federal law lets employers drop a tipped worker's cash wage as low as $2.13 an hour. North Dakota instead caps the tip credit at 33 percent of the minimum wage, which works out to a $2.39 credit and a guaranteed cash floor of $4.86 an hour before any tips are counted. That is more than double the federal cash wage, so a restaurant here cannot pay the rock-bottom $2.13 that is legal in many other states. As always, if cash plus tips fails to reach $7.25, the employer owes the difference.
The most common error we see is applying the federal $2.13 to a North Dakota server. The right figure is $4.86, and getting it wrong understates a tipped worker's guaranteed cash by $2.73 an hour. For everyone else, the calculation stays refreshingly simple: the plain federal rate multiplied by the hours you work.
North Dakota minimum wage: frequently asked questions
What is the minimum wage in North Dakota in 2026?
North Dakota'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 24, 2009.
How much is full-time minimum wage in North Dakota per year?
At North Dakota'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 North Dakota's minimum wage going up?
North Dakota 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 North Dakota Department of Labor and Human Rights.
What is the tipped minimum wage in North Dakota?
North Dakota lets employers pay tipped workers a lower cash wage of $4.86 an hour and count up to $2.39 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 North Dakota tipped minimum wage calculator for the full breakdown.
Is North Dakota's minimum wage higher than the federal minimum wage?
No. The rate that applies in North Dakota 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
- North Dakota 2026 minimum wage rate: North Dakota Department of Labor and Human Rights, 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. Standard rate matches federal $7.25. Tipped cash wage is $4.86, not the federal $2.13.