Georgia’s state minimum wage is $5.15 per hour, one of the lowest on the books in the country. But most workers in Georgia will never actually earn that rate. The federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour overrides the state rate for the vast majority of employers, and understanding which rate applies to you comes down to whether your employer is covered by federal labor law.
Why Most Georgia Workers Earn $7.25
Georgia law has a built-in rule: when an employer is subject to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and the federal rate is higher than the state rate, the federal rate applies. Since $7.25 is higher than $5.15, nearly every covered worker in Georgia earns at least $7.25 per hour.
The FLSA covers employers with annual gross sales of at least $500,000, as well as hospitals, schools, and government agencies regardless of revenue. It also covers individual employees who are engaged in interstate commerce or produce goods for interstate commerce. In practice, this sweeps in the overwhelming majority of businesses and workers in the state. If you work for a restaurant chain, a retailer, a manufacturer that ships products across state lines, or almost any mid-size or large employer, you are covered by federal law and your minimum wage is $7.25.
Who Could Actually Earn $5.15
The $5.15 state rate only applies to a narrow group: employees whose employer is not covered by the FLSA and who are not individually engaged in interstate commerce. This typically means very small, purely local businesses with less than $500,000 in annual revenue and no interstate activity. Think of a small neighborhood shop that buys and sells everything locally. Even then, if the employee handles credit card transactions processed across state lines or orders supplies from out of state, FLSA coverage could kick in.
Some workers are also exempt from Georgia’s minimum wage law entirely. Tipped employees, for example, are not covered by the state minimum wage statute at all. If a tipped worker’s employer is covered by the FLSA, the federal tipped-worker rules apply instead: the employer must pay a cash wage of at least $2.13 per hour, and tips must bring total earnings up to at least $7.25 per hour. If they don’t, the employer is required to make up the difference.
No City or County Can Set a Higher Rate
Georgia law explicitly prevents cities and counties from creating their own minimum wage requirements. State code preempts any local wage mandate, meaning no municipality can adopt an ordinance, resolution, or contract requirement forcing employers to pay above the state or federal minimum. This applies to direct mandates as well as indirect ones, such as requiring a higher wage for companies that do business with the local government. If you work in a major metro area, you earn the same legal minimum as someone in a rural county.
What This Means for Your Paycheck
At $7.25 per hour working 40 hours a week, a full-time worker earns about $290 per week before taxes, or roughly $15,080 per year. Georgia has not passed legislation to raise its state minimum above $5.15, and there is no automatic annual adjustment tied to inflation or cost of living at either the state or federal level.
If you believe you are being paid less than the applicable minimum wage, the key question is whether your employer falls under FLSA coverage. For most workers, the answer is yes, which means $7.25 is the legal floor. You can file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division if your employer is not meeting that standard. Georgia’s Department of Labor does not enforce the federal minimum wage directly, but it does provide information on both the state and federal rates.