Massachusetts Minimum Wage Goes Up Jan. 1

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey issued a reminder Wednesday that, effective next week, Massachusetts' minimum hourly wage is bumping up by a dollar.

Starting January 1, the hourly minimum will be $11, up from $10 per hour in 2016.

It goes back to a July 2014 piece of legislation that introduced an incremental increase in the state's minimum wage, the first such raise since 2008.

The 2017 increase also applies to tipped employees, aka anyone who receives more than $20 a month in tips. Those employees must be paid a minimum of $3.75 per hour, provided that, with tips, the employee receives at least $11 per hour. If the total hourly rate for the employee, including tips, does not equal $11, then the employer must make up the difference.

Even as the state's minimum wage rises, the national push for a $15 per hour minimum wage is alive and well in Massachusetts.

This fall, a state Senator was among those arrested while protesting for a wage increase in Cambridge. The group behind that protest plans to draft legislation to introduce an additional wage increase bill on the heels of the current law.

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