NOTE FROM ROBIN: I have bad news and good news. The bad news is that this is the last post from the Affirmative Action and OFCCP Compliance Practice Group that will appear on Employment & Labor Insider. The good news is that the group is starting its own blog, Affirmative Action Edition, in late October. We will let you know as soon as it’s up and running. Thanks very much to Cara Crotty and her team for the excellent guest posts they have contributed over the past year. We will miss you, but we can’t wait to subscribe to and read your new blog!

On September 15, the U.S. Department of Labor announced the 2018 minimum wage rates for covered federal contractors and subcontractors. Beginning January 1, 2018, federal contractors covered by these requirements will be required to pay a minimum wage of $10.35 an hour. The minimum cash wage for tipped workers will increase to $7.25 an hour.

The current minimum wage for federal contractors is $10.20 an hour, and the current minimum cash wage for tipped workers is $6.80 an hour.

These increases are required by an Executive Order issued by President Obama in February 2014, which mandates that the DOL raise the hourly minimum wage paid by certain federal contractors every year based on inflation. The Executive Order also specifies that the minimum cash wage for tipped workers must increase by 95 cents per year until it reaches 70 percent of the minimum wage paid to other hourly workers under the Executive Order.  This requirement was met with the 2017 wage increase.