New Mexico’s statewide minimum wage is $11.50 per hour, which is $4.25 above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. On January 2023, it will increase to $12.00.
The New Mexico minimum wage requirements count for most employees, but there are workers that are exempt, for example, tipped employees, farm workers, some student workers, and a few more exempt occupations (read more below).
The New Mexico minimum pay for tipped workers is $2.80, and this will increase to $3.00 in January 2023. Employers can pay the tipped pay to workers that regularly and customarily receive at least $30 in tips a month.
Employers must ensure the tipped employees are paid at least the state’s minimum pay rate (including tips). If an employee doesn’t reach that wage level, the employer must pay the difference.
Several New Mexico cities have different tipped minimum wages. In Albuquerque, the rate is $6.90 an hour, in Las Cruces $4.60, and in Santa Fe and Santa Fe County, $3.69.
Several New Mexico municipalities and cities have also set their own minimum pay rates. In Albuquerque, for example, the minimum pay rate is $11.50, but if an employer offers healthcare or childcare benefits, the minimum wage is $10.50 an hour. In Santa Fe and Santa Fe County, the rate is $12.95, while in Las Cruces, it is $10.50.
Employers can pay employees with disabilities no less than 50 percent of New Mexico’s minimum wage rate if they have official permission to do so.
Some domestic workers like housekeepers, casual workers like babysitters, minors under the age of 18, students that have a part-time job after school hours, some farm workers, government employees, as well as seasonal employees may all be exempt from New Mexico’s minimum wage requirements.
New Mexico Paycheck Calculator
This New Mexico Paycheck Calculator translates hourly pay to weekly, monthly, or annual wages.
How to use our New Mexico paycheck calculator
- Put in your hourly pay.
- Put in your weekly work hours.
- The paycheck calculator will display your hourly pay converted to monthly, weekly, and annual wages.
How does the New Mexico paycheck calculator work?
If you get paid by the hour, it won’t be that simple to see how your hourly pay relates to wages per week, year, or month.
Employees with periodical salaries can easily learn all about their income from their paychecks and periodical salaries. At the end of a work period, they receive their paychecks, and at the end of a year, they get their tax forms.
If you are paid by the hour, however, things are a bit different. That’s why we have created a useful paycheck calculator that will help you determine what your hourly pay means in weekly, annual, or monthly earnings.
Let’s take a look at how it works: you only have to put in your hourly wage and how many hours your work week consists of. Our paycheck calculator will instantly show you how your hourly way translates to annual, weekly, or monthly earnings.
| Time period | Equation |
| Annual pay | = hourly wage times 40 hours times 52 weeks |
| Monthly pay | = annual wage divided by 12 months |
| Weekly pay | = hourly wage times 40 hours |
These results are generated by multiplying your base hourly pay by the number of hours, weeks, or months you work annually, assuming you work 40 hours a week.
Minimum Wage in New Mexico
So in most New Mexico areas, the minimum hourly pay is $11.50. This relates to $92.00 per day, $460.00 per week (at 40 work hours), $1993.33 per month, and $23,920.00 per year.
The Santa Fe and Santa Fe County minimum rate is $12.95, which translates to $103.60 per day, $518.00 per week (at 40 work hours), $2244.67 per month, and $26,936.00 per year.
As stated earlier, not all New Mexico employees are entitled to this hourly minimum wage rate. For example, tipped workers, some non-profit workers, and some students may make less than the minimum requirements.
New Mexico minimum wage exemptions
The following list does not include all New Mexico employees that may be exempt from the state’s minimum pay requirements. The list includes the most common groups.
- Tipped workers. If, however, an employee’s hourly pay (including tips) is below the New Mexico minimum wage level of $11.50, the employer is required to compensate for the difference.
- New Mexico nonprofit, religious, educational, and charitable employees living on the premises of organizations for people with mental, emotional, or developmental disabilities.
- Employers may pay employees with disabilities 50% or more of the state’s minimum rate if they are officially certified to do so.
- Workers that handle, dry, pack, package, process, freeze, or can agricultural and/or horticultural commodities in their unmanufactured states.
- Employees in the agricultural sector, seasonal workers, and persons who are engaged in milk production or the range production of livestock.
- Agricultural workers who are direct family members or spouses of an employer.
- Salespersons or persons paid upon piecework, commission-based, or flat rate schedules.
- G.I. bill trainees while they’re under training.
- New employees under the age of 20 can get just $4.25 an hour (a sort of training pay), but only during the first 90 days.
- College students engaged in a university’s work-learn project get 85% ($9.78) of New Mexico’s minimum wage rate. The job must be part-time and no more than 20 hours a week.
- In New Mexico, executives, administrators, and professionals are also exempt from the state’s minimum wage and overtime regulations.
- Minors under 18, domestic workers, students working outside school hours, farm workers, government employees, and some seasonal workers are exempt as well from the state’s minimum wage.
All New Mexico employers are required to clearly display state-approved informational posters with the state’s minimum pay regulations and more workers’ labor rights. Failing to do so can lead to severe penalties.
New Mexico overtime pay
Under Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regulations, New Mexico employees must earn 1.5 times their common hourly pay if they work more than 40 hours during a standard work week, meaning the hourly overtime pay will be at least $17.25 per hour. But there are exceptions.
Administrators, executives, and professionals making at least $455 a week don’t have to be paid overtime, and the same applies to external salespeople that often determine their own hours and some employees in the computer-related sector.
Some transportation workers, certain farm and agricultural workers, and some domestic employees like housekeepers are exempt from New Mexico’s minimum pay regulations and overtime requirements as well.
What is considered work time?
Work hours are those hours an employee is present on the employer’s premises. This also includes locations and places that are designated by the employer. Work time includes all the time the worker is or may be expected to perform activities on the employer’s behalf.
If the job requires an employee to travel to clients or suppliers, those travel hours are regarded as work time. Commute time to travel from home to work and vice versa is, however, not considered work time.
Please note that this post doesn’t contain legal advice. If you have any questions about New Mexico’s minimum wage policies or minimum wage compliance, consult a tax professional or a tax attorney.