Minimum wage will increase on Jan. 1

Montana workers earning minimum wage will see an increase from $7.65 per hour to $7.80 per hour on Jan. 1.  

“The cost-of-living rose slightly and as a result there will be a minimal increase to the state’s minimum wage,” said Labor Commissioner Keith Kelly.  

“This increase will keep those earning minimum wage on par with the increase in the cost-of-living.”

 The increase in the minimum wage is based upon any increase in the U.S. City Average Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers for All Items (CPI) from August of the preceding year to August of the year in which the calculation is made.  

This amount is to be rounded to the nearest five cents.

 The current 2012 minimum wage rate is $7.65.  Based on an increase in the CPI of 1.7 percent from August 2011 to August 2012, the calculation used for determining the minimum wage rate for 2013 is as follows:

$7.65 multiplied by .017 percent, equals  $.13, rounded to $0.15

Initiative 151, passed by Montana voters in 2006, added an annual cost-of-living adjustment to the state minimum wage.

 Information relating to Montana’s minimum wage may be downloaded from DLI’s Website at mtwagehourbopa.com.

The minimum wage was first instituted in Australia and New Zealand in the 1890s in response to frequent, bitter strikes and was adopted by Massachusetts in 1912 to cover women and children. 

It became a national law in 1938.