MINIMUM WAGE GOES TO $7.25 HR. - WV's Legal Loophole Excludes Thousands From Benefit

(07/03/2009)

About 26,000 West Virginians will find a little more in their paychecks later this month. The federal minimum wage goes up 70 cents an hour. The increase raises the minimum wage for employees from $6.55 an hour to $7.25 an hour starting July 24. That amounts to about $1,500 a year for full-time employees. Only 4 percent of West Virginia jobs are covered by federal minimum wage, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics. A 43 percent rate hike requested by area power companies could eventually siphon away nearly a third of the increase. West Virginia's wage law has a massive loophole that exempts businesses that conduct interstate commerce from paying its rate, instead allowing them to pay what has been the lower federal rate. About 74,000 of 720,000 jobs pay at or below the state's minimum wage. About a third of those jobs are in the leisure and hospitality industry.

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