SDCL 60-11-3.2 requires the Department of Labor and Regulation to post the minimum wage for the coming calendar year to its website by October 15. DLR didn’t announce the 2026 minimum wage until this week… but heads need not roll. The delay was caused by the government shutdown, as the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics had to call employees back from furlough to crunch the inflation numbers one more time to make sure Social Security could calculate its 2026 increase in benefits.
The result: the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, the trigger for the annual minimum-wage increase sponsored by South Dakota Democrats and wisely enacted by voters in 2014, showed a 3.0% increase in prices over the last 12 months. South Dakota’s minimum wage will thus increase January 1 from $11.50 an hour to $11.85 an hour.
A South Dakotan working full-time every week at minimum wage in 2026 will thus earn $24,648 over the year. If the boss allows overtime, that worker could put in an extra ten hours a week and make nearly $34K for the year.
MIT calculates that a full-time worker in Sioux Falls needs to make $19.90 an hour to support herself and $38.60 an hour to support a two-parent+two-child household. In Oglala Lakota County, the living wage is $19.19 an hour solo and $38.38 an hour for the Jetsons. It thus would take about 130 hours of work per week at minimum wage to support a small family in South Dakota. If two parents can each get minimum wage jobs offering unlimited overtime paying time and a half, those two parents would have to put in a total of 33 hours of overtime on top of their 80 hours of regular shift to earn a living wage.
Companies don’t follow minimum wage. If their caught they have to pay back wages.
Wow. Enforcement is everything.
You can always make managers of everyone too. A set amount but not a set amount of time.