What is the Vermont minimum wage in 2026?

Fourteen dollars forty two cents an hour from 1 January 2026, up from $14.01. The basic wage rate for service and tipped employees is $7.21, half the minimum, and the maximum tip credit is the same figure. A tipped employee here means hotel, motel, tourist place or restaurant staff taking more than $120 a month in tips.

How often does Vermont require wages to be paid?

Weekly, with payday no more than six days after the last day covered. An employer may move to biweekly or semi-monthly after giving notice to each employee, and a collective bargaining agreement can stretch the lag to thirteen days for the workers it covers. If you are discharged the employer has seventy-two hours; if you quit, the last regular payday.

Can my Vermont employer pay me on a payroll card?

Only with your voluntary written consent, given after a plain language disclosure in at least ten point type of your options and of every known fee. The account has to allow three free withdrawals a pay period including one for the whole balance, cannot be linked to credit, cannot charge you to participate, and you can stop using it at any time without penalty.

How does Vermont index its minimum wage?

Each 1 January the rate rises by the smaller of five percent or the twelve month increase in the CPI-U for the United States city average measured to the previous September, rounded to the nearest cent. The cap at five percent is the unusual part: in a high inflation year Vermont deliberately lags the index rather than tracking it.

Pay stub requirements in Vermont

Vermont keeps the payday rule in statute and the content of the stub in the wage and hour publication the Department of Labor writes from its own Minimum Wage Rules. Employers must pay each week, or biweekly or semi-monthly after giving notice to each employee, with payday falling within six days of the last day of the pay period, and must provide a wage statement with each payment setting out at a minimum the total hours worked, the hourly rate, gross pay and each deduction fully itemized. A discharge shortens the clock to seventy-two hours. The minimum wage, indexed each January by the smaller of five percent or the CPI-U, reached $14.42 on 1 January 2026.

Pay stub required: Yes, hours, hourly rate, gross pay and itemized deductions
Electronic delivery: Direct deposit and payroll cards need written authorization
Minimum wage (2026): $14.42/hour from 1 January 2026
Pay frequency: Weekly, or biweekly and semi-monthly after written notice

What Vermont law requires

A wage statement with each payment, four items at minimum
The Department of Labor states the rule directly in its wage and hour publication: employers must provide a wage statement to employees with each payment of wages, and that statement must set forth, at a minimum, the total hours worked, the hourly rate, gross pay and each deduction fully itemized. Allowable and prohibited deductions themselves come from the Minimum Wage Rules rather than from the statute.
Source
Weekly by default, six days of lag
Any employer doing business within the state shall pay each week the wages earned by each employee to a day not more than six days prior to the date of payment. After giving notice to each employee an employer may pay biweekly or semi-monthly instead, and a collective bargaining agreement may stretch the lag to thirteen days for the employees it covers.
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Seventy-two hours after a discharge
An employee who voluntarily leaves employment is paid on the last regular pay day, or on the following Friday if there is no regular pay day. An employee who is discharged shall be paid within 72 hours of discharge. An employee absent from the regular place of employment on the scheduled payment date is entitled to payment upon demand.
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A payroll card carries a dozen conditions
Paying to a payroll card takes voluntary written consent after a plain language disclosure in at least ten point type of all wage payment options and every known fee. The account must give three free withdrawals each pay period, one of them for the full balance; it may not be linked to credit or to a loan against future pay; no participation fee may be charged; changes need twenty-one days written notice; and an unbranded card is valid for no more than sixty days.
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Fourteen forty two, with a tipped basic wage of half
The state minimum wage poster gives $14.42 per hour effective 1 January 2026, up from $14.01 in 2025, with a basic wage rate for service and tipped employees of $7.21 and a maximum tip credit of the same amount. A service or tipped employee means someone at a hotel, motel, tourist place or restaurant who customarily receives more than $120.00 a month in tips.
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The index is capped at five percent
From 2022 the minimum wage rises each 1 January by five percent or by the twelve month increase in the CPI-U for the United States city average to the previous September, whichever is smaller, rounded to the nearest cent, and it may never fall. If the federal minimum wage exceeds the state figure for a year, the federal rate applies instead.
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Records kept true and accurate, and open to the Commissioner
Every employer shall keep a true and accurate record of the hours worked by each employee and of the wages paid, and shall furnish the Commissioner on demand a sworn statement of the same. Those records are open to inspection by the Commissioner or an authorized agent at any reasonable time, and the rules must be posted conspicuously where the employees work.
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What this generator calculates for Vermont

State withholding for Vermont is calculated from the 2026 figures the state publishes, and our test suite holds those figures against the state's own published calculation rather than against arithmetic of ours.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

Wage and hour law changes. Check the linked source before relying on any figure here, and treat this page as a starting point rather than legal advice.

Pay stub requirements in Vermont

What Vermont law requires

A wage statement with each payment, four items at minimum

Weekly by default, six days of lag

Seventy-two hours after a discharge

A payroll card carries a dozen conditions

Fourteen forty two, with a tipped basic wage of half

The index is capped at five percent

Records kept true and accurate, and open to the Commissioner