South Dakota Minimum Wage Calculator
South Dakota’s minimum wage rises from $11.85 to $12.30 an hour on January 1, 2027, and the tipped cash minimum from $5.925 to $6.15, as the Department of Labor and Regulation states (checked October 16, 2026); a 40-hour week goes from $474 to $492. Through December 31 the 2026 rate of $11.85 per hour applies, and its tipped cash minimum is exactly $5.925 per hour, half the ordinary floor; the calculator applies the 2027 figures to work dates from January 1. It preserves the third decimal of the 2026 tipped floor through the calculation and rounds weekly dollar totals to cents.
Time card Calculate pay for a covered hourly job
Weekly gross including tips—
Confirm coverage to calculate.
- Hourly floor—
- Per workday—
- Weekly gross—
- Monthly average—
- Yearly gross—
- Employer cash before shortfall
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- Weekly tips retained
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- Employer shortfall payment
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- Total employer cash
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Overtime uses the full regular rate before subtracting a permitted tip credit. The employer must cover a weekly tip shortfall within the selected scope. This floor scenario does not calculate pay at a higher agreed rate. Per-workday pay divides the week by the days with hours. Annual figures repeat the rounded weekly result.
Reviewed rate period: 2026-01-01 through 2027-12-31. Gross earnings before taxes or deductions. Annual figures repeat this weekly scenario; they do not combine different rate periods.
Reviewed October 13, 2026. DLR minimum-wage guidance · 2026 workplace poster · 2027 workplace poster.
Do not round the tipped hourly floor down to $5.92
Forty eligible tipped hours at $5.925 produce $237 in initial employer cash. Using $5.92 would give $236.80, twenty cents below the published cash floor. Paying $5.93 is higher than the exact floor; this tool estimates the statutory floor rather than an employer’s chosen rounded-up rate. Official three-decimal tipped amount.
| Eligible tipped scenario | Employer cash before shortfall | Employer adjustment | Combined gross |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40 hours, $200 tips | $237.00 | $37.00 | $474.00 |
| 37.5 hours, $250 tips | $222.19 | $0 | $472.19 |
| 45 hours, $300 tips, federal overtime | $296.25 | $0 | $596.25 |
DLR requires employers to keep tip records and ensure wages plus tips reach the full minimum. The tip input is retained tips for this workweek. A low-tip week can require more employer cash even when another week had substantial tips. Tip credit and records.
State minimum wage and federal overtime are different coverage questions
South Dakota does not have its own overtime requirement. Federal overtime can still require time and a half after 40 hours for covered nonexempt employees. The state-only option must not be selected merely because an employer is small; individual federal coverage can apply through the work performed. DLR overtime jurisdiction · Federal enterprise and individual coverage.
For 45 hours at full minimum cash, federal overtime produces $562.88. A confirmed state-only scenario without an overtime obligation produces $533.25. For tipped federal work, the premium starts from the full $11.85 regular rate before subtracting the eligible credit. Neither option determines an exemption for you. Federal regular-rate calculation.
The 2027 adjustment: $12.30 from January 1
The state indexes its floor to the Consumer Price Index, rounds each increase up to the nearest five cents and does not allow a decrease. The Department of Labor and Regulation has published the result for 2027: $12.30 per hour from January 1, 2027, a 45-cent rise, with tipped cash of $6.15, still half the full floor. Because the new cash wage is a whole cent, the half-cent rounding question above applies to 2026 work only. Forty eligible tipped hours in 2027 start at $246 of employer cash, and the employer still makes up any week where cash plus retained tips stays under $492. DLR 2027 rate · 2027 poster, citing SDCL 60-11-3 and 60-11-3.2.
Pick a work date in the week you are checking: a December 2026 date uses $11.85 and a January 2027 date uses $12.30. A workweek that crosses January 1 has days at both rates, which one work date cannot represent: total those days separately, and check any overtime in that week with the regular-rate rules linked below.
Seasonal jobs are not automatically covered or exempt
The state identifies exceptions involving qualifying seasonal amusement or recreation establishments, babysitting, outside sales, training wages, apprentices and certain special licenses. Working only during summer does not by itself establish an exception. This model requires ordinary adult coverage at the full state floor, and excludes those special cases. DLR listed exemptions.
Annualize the weeks you actually expect to work
Forty hours for 52 weeks at $11.85 gives $24,648 gross, or $2,054 per month on average; at the 2027 rate of $12.30 the same schedule gives $25,584, or $2,132 a month. A 30-hour schedule for 20 weeks gives $7,110 in 2026 and $7,380 in 2027. Those results exclude taxes and deductions and do not assume paid leave. Repeating the rounded weekly total also explains why an annual overtime estimate can differ slightly from multiplying an unrounded amount.
Border-state rules differ: see North Dakota’s tipped cash floor, Minnesota’s no-tip-credit rule, Nebraska’s dated increases and Iowa’s coverage. Methodology · Sources.
Updated First published