New Mexico pairs a state minimum wage well above the federal floor with one of the broadest paid sick leave laws in the region: the Healthy Workplaces Act covers every private employer with even one employee. Local living wage ordinances in Santa Fe add another layer. The Labor Relations Division of the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions (DWS) enforces the state rules. Here is a quick summary for 2026.
EZTime labor rule alerts flag overtime and missed rest periods before payroll.
| Topic | Rule |
|---|---|
| Minimum wage | $12.00/hour statewide; DOL state table |
| Tipped employees | $3.00/hour cash wage if tips exceed $30/month; DOL tipped table |
| Secondary school students | At least $8.50/hour under the Minimum Wage Act |
| Local minimums | City and County of Santa Fe: $15.40/hour (from March 1, 2026) |
| Overtime | 1.5x after 40 hours in a 7-day week; no daily overtime |
| Meal and rest breaks | No general state requirement for adults |
| Paid sick leave | 1 hour per 30 worked; use may be capped at 64 hours/12 months; Healthy Workplaces Act |
| Paydays | Semimonthly for most employees; monthly allowed for exempt staff; DOL table |
| Final pay | Discharged: within 5 days (10 for task, piece or commission pay); quit: next payday |
The statewide minimum wage is $12.00 per hour. That rate was set by the 2019 amendments to the Minimum Wage Act (Senate Bill 437, signed as Chapter 114), which raised the wage in steps to $12.00 on January 1, 2023, and it is the rate the U.S. Department of Labor state table lists for New Mexico as of July 2026. No state increase for January 1, 2027 had been published on the official sources we reviewed.
For employees who customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips, the employer must pay a cash wage of at least $3.00 per hour. The DOL tipped wage table shows a maximum tip credit of $9.00. If tips plus the cash wage fall short of $12.00 for the hours worked, the employer pays the difference.
The Minimum Wage Act lets employers pay secondary school students a minimum of $8.50 per hour, and requires the employer to follow the Child Labor Act when doing so.
Several New Mexico localities set their own rates. Pay the higher local rate when the work is covered by a local ordinance:
Other cities and counties can adopt ordinances too, so check with the local government where your employees work.
The Minimum Wage Act provides that an employee may not be required to work more than 40 hours in any week of seven days unless paid one and one-half times the employee's regular hourly rate for the extra hours. New Mexico has no daily overtime rule. The state rule mirrors the federal 40-hour standard, but the state and federal exemption lists are not identical, so review each salaried role against both before treating it as exempt. Our FLSA overtime guide explains regular-rate calculations, and the overtime calculator can check a week's totals.
New Mexico does not have a general meal or rest break requirement for adult employees. The DOL meal-period table notes only an older provision stating that when a meal period is granted in industrial, mercantile and certain service industries, it must be at least half an hour and not counted as time worked, and it does not require a meal period. The DOL rest-period table does not list New Mexico, which means the state does not require paid rest periods. If you choose to provide breaks, apply your policy consistently and record them accurately.
The Healthy Workplaces Act (House Bill 20, Chapter 131 of 2021) took effect on July 1, 2022 and applies to any private employer with one or more employees, including part-time, seasonal and temporary workers. Government employers are excluded. The main rules:
The PTO accrual calculator can help you model a one-hour-per-30 accrual against your schedules.
The DOL state payday table lists New Mexico as a semimonthly payday state, with monthly paydays allowed for executive, administrative and professional personnel.
The state's wage payment law (NMSA 50-4-4 and 50-4-5, as quoted in Senate Bill 109 of 2017) sets these deadlines:
Build your offboarding checklist around these dates so the final check is cut on time.
For workers under 16, the DOL state child labor table lists New Mexico's limits as 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week on non-school days and weeks, and 3 hours a day and 18 hours a week when school is in session. Federal rules on hours of the day and prohibited occupations also apply to covered employers. New Mexico's Child Labor Act has its own paperwork rules, so check with DWS about any work permit or certificate requirement before scheduling a minor.
Keep records of hours worked, pay rates and sick leave accrual and use; the Healthy Workplaces Act alone requires 48 months of records. The Healthy Workplaces Act requires a paid sick leave notice in each workplace. For the full list of state posters, check the DWS State and Federal Posters page, and if you have staff in Santa Fe, review the city or county living wage ordinance for its own notice rules.
New Mexico's sick leave law applies to businesses of every size, so accurate hours drive accruals as much as payroll. EZTime captures time from a GPS mobile time clock with geofencing, NFC tags, a tablet kiosk or biometric clocks, accrues sick leave and PTO balances from actual hours worked and sends overtime and break alerts before a week passes 40 hours. Scheduling with shift templates and swaps makes coverage simple, and payroll-ready Excel and PDF exports work with any payroll software. See the attendance clock and pricing: plans start at $2 per employee per month with a 14-day trial.
This guide is general information, not legal advice. Laws change; check the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions or an employment attorney. Last reviewed November 2026.
The statewide minimum wage is $12.00 per hour. Tipped employees may be paid a $3.00 cash wage if tips bring them up to $12.00, and the City and County of Santa Fe require $15.40.
No. New Mexico requires time and a half only for hours over 40 in a seven-day week.
No. New Mexico has no general meal or rest break requirement for adult employees, although employers may choose to offer breaks.
Under the Healthy Workplaces Act, employees earn at least one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. Employers may limit use to 64 hours in a 12-month period, and unused leave carries over.
A discharged employee must be paid within five days when the amount is fixed, or ten days for task, piece or commission pay. An employee who quits is paid on the next regular payday.