Minimum Wage $15.92 / HR
As of January 1, 2026, most workers in New Jersey must be paid at least $15.92 per hour. This applies regardless of how you are employed, whether full-time, part-time, or temporary. New Jersey adjusts its minimum wage annually based on changes in the Consumer Price Index, so the rate typically increases each year. Employers cannot pay less than this amount for any hour worked, and they cannot average it across hours to bring a lower-paid period into compliance.
Tipped workers have a different calculation, but the floor still applies. Employers may apply a tip credit against the minimum wage requirement, but the credit has limits set by state regulation. If your tips combined with your base wage do not reach $15.92 per hour, your employer must make up the difference. You cannot be required to give up tips or share them in a way that undercuts that floor.
Long-term care facility direct care staff members have a higher minimum wage. State law requires that their minimum wage be $3.00 per hour more than the prevailing state minimum. That puts their floor at $18.92 per hour for 2026. If you provide direct care to residents in a long-term care facility and are being paid at the general minimum rate, you may be receiving less than the law requires.
Overtime Laws 1.5X RATE
New Jersey requires most employees to be paid at 1.5 times their regular rate for all hours worked past 40 in a workweek. At $15.92 per hour, that puts the overtime rate at $23.88. Employers cannot offer time off in place of overtime pay. Overtime must be paid in money, at the appropriate rate, in the pay period when it was earned.
Salary does not automatically exempt you from overtime. Exemptions apply to bona fide executive, administrative, and professional employees, but the title alone is not enough. The actual job duties determine whether an exemption applies. Many workers across New Jersey have been told they are salaried and therefore ineligible for overtime when their actual responsibilities do not qualify for any exemption. If your real duties involve routine tasks under supervision, you may be owed overtime regardless of how you are classified.
Trucking industry workers covered by federal Motor Carrier Act safety regulations have specific overtime rules under New Jersey law. Even if they are exempt from federal overtime requirements, New Jersey still requires them to be paid at least 1.5 times the New Jersey minimum wage for hours over 40 in a week. Trucking employers in New Jersey cannot use the federal exemption as a reason to pay nothing extra for overtime hours.
Filing a Claim 6 YEAR WINDOW
New Jersey gives workers six years to recover unpaid wages under the New Jersey State Wage and Hour Law. This is one of the longest statutes of limitations in the country. If your employer has been underpaying you for years, all of those wages within the past six years may still be recoverable. The clock runs from the date each violation occurred. Every week of unpaid or underpaid wages has its own six-year deadline.
New Jersey also provides for liquidated damages up to 200 percent of the unpaid wages. This means if you are owed $10,000 in back wages, you may be able to recover up to $30,000 total, including the original amount plus twice that in additional damages. This is a deliberate deterrent built into New Jersey law to discourage wage theft. If your employer cannot show the violation was an inadvertent, good-faith mistake, these liquidated damages apply.
Any agreement between you and your employer to work for less than the minimum wage or to waive wages owed is void and unenforceable under New Jersey law. An employer who withholds wages and then asks you to sign a release as a condition of receiving what you are owed is violating the law. That release is not valid. You are entitled to bring a claim for the full balance regardless of what you signed.
New Jersey law also establishes a "pattern of wage nonpayment" as a third-degree crime when an employer has two or more prior convictions for wage violations. Employers who repeatedly steal wages in New Jersey face criminal prosecution, not just civil penalties. This is a serious enforcement tool that makes New Jersey one of the more aggressive states when it comes to protecting workers.
Earned Sick Leave NJ SPECIFIC
New Jersey's Earned Sick Leave Law requires all employers in the state to provide paid sick leave. You earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours you work, up to 40 hours per year. This applies to all employees, including part-time and temporary workers. You can begin using accrued sick leave once you have worked for your employer for 120 days.
Earned sick leave can be used when you or a family member is sick, for medical appointments, or when you or a family member is a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking and needs to seek help, relocate, or attend legal proceedings. Employers cannot require you to find a replacement worker or provide excessive documentation as a condition of using this leave.
You have the right to take your earned sick leave and return to your job without negative consequences. Retaliating against an employee for using, requesting, or attempting to use earned sick leave is illegal. If your employer has disciplined you, cut your hours, or taken any adverse action because you used sick leave, that retaliation is a separate violation and can be pursued as part of your overall claim.
Retaliation Protections 90-DAY RULE
New Jersey law prohibits employers from taking any adverse action against a worker for making a wage complaint, cooperating with an investigation, or exercising rights under any wage and hour law. Any negative action taken within 90 days of a worker filing a complaint or initiating a claim is considered presumptive evidence of retaliation. The employer bears the burden of proving the action was taken for a legitimate, unrelated reason.
You do not need to reference a specific statute or section of New Jersey law to trigger these protections. Simply telling your employer you believe you have not been paid correctly is enough to start the clock. If negative consequences follow shortly after that conversation, they may be considered retaliation. Keep records of what you reported, when, and how your employer responded.
When retaliation is established, the employer can be required to reinstate the discharged employee, correct all discriminatory actions, pay all lost wages, and pay liquidated damages up to 200 percent of lost wages. Retaliation dramatically increases the potential recovery in a wage case. If this has happened to you, document everything and reach out as soon as possible.
Employee Misclassification ABC TEST
New Jersey uses the ABC test to determine whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor. Under this test, you are presumed to be an employee unless your employer can prove all three of the following: (A) you are free from the employer's control in how you do the work, both in your contract and in practice; (B) the service you perform is outside the usual course of the employer's business or is performed outside all of the employer's places of business; and (C) you are customarily engaged in an independently established trade or profession. All three must be true. If even one fails, you are an employee under New Jersey law.
New Jersey imposes additional penalties specifically for misclassification. On top of recovering unpaid wages, misclassified workers may be entitled to up to 5 percent of their gross earnings over the past 12 months from the employer who misclassified them. These are separate from the liquidated damages available for unpaid wages. Misclassification in New Jersey is treated as its own violation with its own set of penalties.
For construction workers, New Jersey has a separate and stricter law, the Construction Industry Independent Contractor Act. It uses the same ABC test, but knowing misclassification in construction is a criminal offense. Contracts of $75,000 or more where a worker is knowingly misclassified can result in a second-degree crime charge against the employer. Second violations trigger mandatory stop-work orders on all worksites. Third violations result in a stop-work order on all of the employer's business operations. Contractors found to knowingly misclassify workers can be debarred from public works contracts for three years.
New Jersey also makes client employers and staffing agencies jointly and severally liable for wage violations. If a staffing agency supplies workers to a business, both the agency and the business are responsible for making sure those workers are properly paid. A misclassified worker supplied by a contractor can hold the business that hired the contractor responsible for the unpaid wages, not just the contractor itself.
Think You May Be Owed Back Wages?
Josephson Dunlap reviews wage claims for New Jersey workers at no cost. There is no fee unless wages are recovered. A case manager will go through your situation and tell you where you stand.