Anyone can publish a table of wage rates. The part that matters is whether you can trace each number back to a source and see when it was last checked. Every value here can, and was.
I checked the base matrix dimension by dimension against independent authorities, rather than trusting any single vendor. Four primary dimensions across 52 jurisdictions came to 260 individual cell-checks.
| Dimension | Verdict | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum wage | Verified | All 52 base rates match the DOL Consolidated Minimum Wage Table (rev. 1/1/2026) and EPI. Three mid-year increases tracked: DC → $18.40 and Oregon → $15.55 (Jul 1), Florida → $15.00 (Sep 30). |
| Meal & rest breaks | Verified | Zero false positives against the DOL Wage & Hour Division state tables. Several meal mandates are conditional on 2–3+ employees on duty — surfaced in the per-state detail. |
| Fair workweek | 2 items | Checked against the Littler Fair Workweek tracker (Feb 2026), Greenberg Traurig, Jackson Lewis, and Ogletree. Evanston, IL added; San Jose reclassified as access-to-hours, not predictive scheduling. |
| Paid sick leave | Substantially OK | Checked against A Better Balance and NCSL. True paid-sick-time laws (18 states + DC) distinguished from any-reason paid-leave laws (IL, ME, NV). Missouri correctly excluded (repealed 8/28/2025). |
Values are traced to primary and leading-tracker sources, by dimension:
| Dimension | Source |
|---|---|
| Minimum & tipped wage | U.S. DOL Consolidated Minimum Wage Table; Economic Policy Institute Minimum Wage Tracker |
| Meal & rest breaks | DOL Wage & Hour Division state meal-period and rest-period tables |
| Overtime | DOL state pages and the FLSA |
| Fair workweek | Littler Fair Workweek tracker; Greenberg Traurig; Jackson Lewis; Ogletree |
| Paid sick leave | A Better Balance paid-sick-time database; NCSL |
| Child labor | DOL YouthRules and state DOL hour-limit rules |
Minimum wages reset every year, most of them on January 1 or July 1, and new ordinances pass all the time. A static reference is wrong within months. So an automated check runs on the 1st and 15th of each month, comparing the stored values against roughly 25 source pages and flagging changed rates, newly effective laws, repeals, and brand-new ordinances. Every flagged change is logged with its source URL and the date checked, and each run writes a dated change report. A quarterly human review backs up the automation.
| Jurisdiction | Item | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Evanston, IL | Added — genuine predictive-scheduling ordinance (effective Jan 1, 2024) previously omitted. | Fix |
| San Jose, CA | Reclassified — 'Opportunity to Work' is access-to-hours only, not predictive scheduling. | Nuance |
| Virginia | Narrow home-health paid-sick law now; broad statewide law effective 7/1/2027 (50+ emp) / 1/1/2029 (all). Flagged as scheduled. | Watch |
| Illinois / Maine / Nevada | Any-reason paid-leave laws footnoted as distinct from sick-specific statutes. | Nuance |
| Missouri | Voter-approved sick-leave law repealed effective 8/28/2025 — correctly excluded. | Confirmed |