Expert: Eric Shangle - 1/9/2007

Question
Who decides federal and state minimum wage and what factors are used in making this decision?

Answer
Brooke,
Great question.  I am going to try and answer this simply.  The federal minimum wage is handled by the Fair Labor and Standards Act (FLSA).  This is managed by the US Department of Labor (DOL).  The US Congress has to official vote to increase minimum wage on a national level though.  In other words, they have to vote to amend the FLSA.

States can impose a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum wage.  I live in California.  Our minimum wage is higher than the national wage.  Furthermore, the city of San Francisco has it's own minimum wage.  It is higher than the state's.  Each state and/or city's labor department would regulate minimum wage based upon how the city/states government is run.

San Francisco has a board of supervisors that is elected from each other "areas" in the city.  They are the ones to vote on such an increase in minimum wage.

I hope that this helped you out a bit.  Please let me know if you need more clarification or if my answer was not clear.  Also, you can rate my service on here.  Please feel free to do so.
Eric