Utah Overtime and Minimum Wage: What Employers Actually Owe
Short answer: Utah's minimum wage is $7.25 an hour — identical to the federal minimum wage, which Utah has simply adopted rather than setting its own higher rate, and it hasn't changed since 2009. Utah also has no state-specific overtime law: federal law (the FLSA) controls, requiring 1.5 times your regular rate for hours worked over 40 in a single workweek. Notably, Utah has no daily overtime threshold — working a 12-hour shift doesn't, by itself, trigger overtime pay under Utah or federal law.
Who this guide is for
Utah employees trying to understand what they're actually owed for their hours worked, and employers wanting the baseline rules right.
Minimum wage
Utah's minimum wage matches the federal rate of $7.25 per hour, and no city or county in Utah is permitted to set a higher local minimum wage the way some cities in other states do. There's currently no scheduled state increase.
Two notable exceptions to the standard rate:
- Tipped employees can be paid a reduced cash wage of $2.13 per hour, as long as tips bring their total earnings up to at least the full minimum wage — if they don't, the employer has to make up the difference.
- A training wage of $4.25 per hour is permitted for workers under 20 years old, during their first 90 days of employment.
Overtime: federal law, not a Utah-specific rule
Utah has no separate state overtime statute — the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) governs overtime for Utah employees. Non-exempt employees are entitled to 1.5 times their regular rate for hours worked over 40 in a single workweek.
The detail that surprises people: no daily overtime rule
Some states require overtime pay once an employee works more than 8 hours in a single day, regardless of their total for the week. Utah has no such rule. A Utah employee who works four 12-hour shifts in a week (48 hours total) is owed overtime for the 8 hours over 40 — but working any single long day, by itself, doesn't trigger overtime pay unless the total weekly hours exceed 40.
Exempt vs. non-exempt employees
Not every employee is entitled to overtime — certain categories (many executive, administrative, professional, and outside sales roles, among others, generally meeting specific salary and duties tests under federal law) are classified as "exempt" and aren't owed overtime regardless of hours worked. Whether a specific job is correctly classified as exempt is a common, genuinely fact-specific dispute.
What to do if you think you're owed unpaid wages or overtime
See Utah Wage Theft: How to Recover Unpaid Wages for the process — generally starting with a wage claim through the Utah Labor Commission rather than a lawsuit.
Frequently asked questions
Does Utah require a higher minimum wage for any specific industries? No — Utah's $7.25 rate generally applies broadly, subject to the tipped-employee and training-wage exceptions above, without industry-specific higher minimums.
If I'm salaried, does that mean I'm automatically not owed overtime? No — being paid a salary doesn't automatically make you exempt from overtime; exemption depends on meeting specific federal salary-level and job-duties tests, not simply on how you're paid.
Can my employer average my hours across two weeks to avoid paying overtime? Generally no — overtime is calculated on a workweek-by-workweek basis under the FLSA, so working 30 hours one week and 50 the next generally still triggers overtime for the 10 hours over 40 in the second week, regardless of the two-week average.