If your business is located in a state, city or county that just bumped up the minimum wage on January 1st (and a lot of them are), you’ll want to make sure all of your relevant pay documents reflect the change.
While there are a few narrow exceptions, the majority of businesses are required to comply with the state minimum wage regs.
The list
Here are the states that are increasing the minimum wage in 2018:
- Alaska: $9.84 (up from $9.80)
- Arizona: $10.50 (up from $10.00)
- California: $11.00 (up from $10.50)
- Colorado: $10.20 (up from $9.30)
- Florida: $8.25 (up from $8.10)
- Hawaii: $10.10 (up from $9.25)
- Maine: $10.00 (up from $9.00)
- Maryland: $10.10 (up from $9.25)
- Michigan: $9.25 (up from $8.90)
- Minnesota: $9.65 (up from $9.50)
- Missouri: $7.85 (up from $7.70)
- Montana: $8.30 (up from $8.15)
- New Jersey: $8.60 (up from $8.44)
- New York: $11.10 for most of the state, although in Long Island and Westchester Counties the rate is $10.00 (up from $9.70)
- Ohio: $8.30 (up from $8.15)
- Rhode Island: $10.10 (up from $9.60)
- Vermont: $10.50 (up from $10), and
- Washington: $11.50 (up from $11).
Washington DC’s minimum wage will also increase to $12.50, a one-dollar increase from the current $11.50 rate.
In addition to all of the hikes on the state level, there are a slew of cities and municipalities that will also bump up their minimum wage rate — although many of the increases don’t take effect until July 1. Employers in states like New York and California will have the challenge of keeping tracking of several different wage rates depending on where the employee is located. You can find a detailed list of city and municipal increases here.
A good time to review your recordkeeping
Regardless of whether your state, city or municipalities rates will change, now’s the perfect time to make sure your payroll recordkeeping is still in compliance.
That means reviewing the current record retention guidelines. After all, now’s the time of year when many employers are putting away or scanning their payroll records to clear space for the following year’s worth of documentation.
Key: Make sure your Finance team is storing enough documentation to keep you audit-prepared without holding onto so much documentation that you’re bogged down in excess paperwork.
To help, here’s a checklist of current payroll-related record retention best practices to share with your staffers:
Keep 7 years:
- cancelled payroll checks
- cancelled checks for payroll taxes
- electronic payment records
- payroll journal
- time cards and daily time reports
- garnishments
- employment agreements
- payroll tax returns
Keep 3 years:
- internal payroll reports
- Form I-9 (from date of termination)
Keep 2 years:
- payroll-related correspondence
Keep forever:
- All IRS or DOL correspondence
- financial statements
- general ledger
- Form 5500
- IRS or state adjustments
