Georgia CommonsHB 343: Georgia Living Wage Act; enact
Last action February 12, 2025 · House Second Readers
House Bill 343 would raise Georgia's minimum wage to $20.00 per hour, tie future increases to inflation, remove most current exemptions, and require inmates working outside prison to be paid market wages.
The summaries below were written by an AI model (claude-sonnet-5) from the text of the bill and are not part of it. Quote the text, not the summary. The stored text is the Introduced version, the latest LegiScan holds.
In plain language
Georgia's minimum wage law currently sets a base rate far below $20 an hour and exempts many small employers, farm workers, tipped workers, students, and others. House Bill 343, called the Georgia Living Wage Act, rewrites that law. It raises the state minimum wage to $20.00 per hour, removes tips and gratuities from counting toward that wage, and starting in 2027 requires the Georgia Department of Labor to adjust the wage each year based on the federal Consumer Price Index. It repeals nearly all current exemptions (small businesses, farms, domestic workers, students, tipped workers, newspaper carriers, and certain nonprofit care facility workers), keeping only an exemption for a business whose sole employee is its own owner. The bill also lets employees sue for unpaid wages and adds new protections and penalties against employer retaliation, including a misdemeanor charge and civil remedies. It bars employers from using a federal disability certificate to pay disabled workers less than minimum wage, and requires inmates working in the community or in prison industries to be paid market wages no lower than the state minimum wage. The law would take effect January 1, 2026.
What the bill does
- Raises Georgia's minimum wage from its current statutory rate to $20.00 per hour for all covered employees.
- Requires annual cost-of-living adjustments to the minimum wage starting in 2027, based on a federal consumer price index calculated by the Georgia Department of Labor.
- Repeals most existing minimum wage exemptions, including those for small businesses, farm employers, domestic workers, tipped employees, students, and newspaper carriers.
- Creates a new legal right for employees to sue employers for retaliation related to wage claims, including reinstatement, back pay, and punitive damages, and makes retaliation a misdemeanor crime.
- Bars employers from using a federal disability certificate to pay disabled workers less than the federal minimum wage.
- Requires inmates working in the community or in prison industries to be paid market-comparable wages no less than the new state minimum wage, and limits deductions from those wages.
Who it affects
Georgia workers earning minimum wage, employers currently exempt under existing law (small businesses, farms, domestic employers, nonprofit care facilities), tipped employees, workers with disabilities employed under federal subminimum wage certificates, and incarcerated individuals working in community jobs or prison industries.
Why it matters
Minimum-wage workers in Georgia would see a large pay increase to $20 an hour with automatic future raises tied to inflation, while many employers who currently pay less under exemptions would face new wage obligations. Incarcerated workers would also receive market-rate pay instead of minimal compensation for labor.
Key provisions
- Section 2 adds legislative findings declaring a living wage to be state policy and directs the law be construed broadly in favor of higher minimum wage protections.
- Section 3 sets the minimum wage at $20.00 per hour, excludes tips from counting toward that wage, and creates annual cost-of-living adjustments starting January 1, 2027 based on Consumer Price Index data measured each September 30.
- Section 3 also repeals exemptions for small employers, farm owners, domestic employees, tipped workers, students, newspaper carriers, and certain nonprofit care facility workers, leaving only a narrow exemption for sole owner-employee businesses.
- Section 4 repeals the state law that preempted local governments from mandating employment benefits beyond state minimum wage requirements.
- Section 6 creates a private right to sue for unpaid wages within three years, adds anti-retaliation protections with civil remedies, and makes employer retaliation a misdemeanor.
- Section 7 prohibits employers from using federal disability wage certificates to pay disabled workers less than the federal minimum wage.
- Sections 8 through 10 require inmates in community work programs and prison industries to be paid market-comparable wages no less than the new state minimum wage and restrict wage deductions.
- Section 11 sets the effective date as January 1, 2026.
From the bill
“For purposes of determining whether an employer has paid an employee the minimum wage, no gratuities, tips, or other forms of voluntary payments paid to such employee by third parties shall count or otherwise be credited toward the wages paid to such employee by such employer.”
“No employer shall utilize a certificate issued by the United States Department of Labor pursuant to 29 U.S.C. Section 214(c) to pay individuals with disabilities who are employed by such employer less than the minimum wage required to be paid by employers to employees under federal law.”
“Any employer who retaliates against an employee in violation of this paragraph shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.”
Status timeline
- House Second Readers (House)
- House First Readers (House)
- House Hopper (House)
Sponsors
- Gabriel Sanchez (D, HD-042)
- Dewey McClain (D, HD-109)
- Derrick Jackson (D, HD-068)
- Bryce Berry (D, HD-056)
- Sheila Jones (D, HD-060)
- Kimberly Alexander (D, HD-066)
Topics
- minimum wage
- worker protections
- inmate labor
- disability employment rights
- wage retaliation lawsuits