Nebraska minimum wage 2027: $15.26 an hour from January 1 under the new 1.75% rule

Nebraska's minimum wage goes from $15.00 to $15.26 an hour on January 1, 2027. State law gave the Nebraska Department of Labor until October 15 to publish the figure, and the department's official minimum wage poster, updated July 31, 2026, already lists it along with the rates through 2030. The rate applies to employers with four or more employees. Tipped workers keep a $2.13 cash wage, and the employer has to make up any gap to $15.26.

At 26 cents, this is the smallest of the minimum wage increases states have confirmed for January 2027, and that's by design. Every other state with a confirmed raise on that date gets at least 35 cents.

Why it's 1.75% and not inflation

Nebraska voters approved a $15 minimum wage in 2022 through Initiative 433, with yearly cost-of-living raises to start in 2027. The Legislature changed that before the first one arrived. LB 258, passed 33-16 on February 5, 2026 and signed on February 9, rewrote Neb. Rev. Stat. 48-1203 so the $15.00 rate grows by one and three-quarters percent every January 1. The new law took effect July 18, 2026.

The math is short: $15.00 × 1.0175 = $15.2625, which the department published as $15.26. Because the percentage is fixed, the whole schedule is already known: $15.53 in 2028, $15.80 in 2029 and $16.08 in 2030, whatever prices do.

The repealed wording tied the raise to the Consumer Price Index for the Midwest (CPI-U), August over August, rounded up to the next nickel. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that index rising 3.62%, from 300.753 in August 2025 to 311.627 in August 2026. By our math, the old formula would have produced $15.55 for 2027: 29 cents more than the new rate, or $603.20 a year at full time. That's our calculation, not an official figure; no agency publishes a rate under a formula that's no longer law.

What $15.26 an hour pays in a year

At 40 hours a week, $15.26 is $610.40 before taxes, or $31,740.80 over the standard 2,080-hour year. Nebraska taxes wages with its own standard deduction and brackets, so a state line comes out of every check too. For a single filer with no other income, using 2026 rules:

The raise is $540.80 a year before tax, $20.80 on each biweekly check. You keep $415.55 of it, about 77 cents of each new dollar, which comes to $15.98 more per check: 12% goes to federal income tax, 7.65% to Social Security and Medicare and 3.51% to Nebraska. The 2027 tax tables aren't out yet, so these figures use 2026 rules. To change the hours, filing status or a 401(k) contribution, use the take-home pay calculator.

Overtime moves with the base rate. Covered hourly workers get time and a half for hours over 40 in a workweek, so the lowest overtime rate in the state becomes $22.89 an hour.

Tipped workers, teens and the training wage

The tipped cash wage doesn't change. Nebraska lets employers pay tipped employees $2.13 an hour as long as wages plus tips reach the full minimum, and the employer covers any shortfall. For a 40-hour week in 2027, that's $85.20 in cash wages and at least $525.20 in tips to reach $610.40. If it comes to a dispute, the law puts the burden of proving the tips on the employer.

LB 258 also created two lower rates for young workers. Employers can pay 14- and 15-year-olds a youth minimum wage of $13.50, unless the worker is an emancipated minor; that rate stays frozen until January 1, 2030, when it rises to $13.70. New hires aged 16 to 19 who aren't seasonal or migrant workers or emancipated minors can be paid a training wage for their first 90 days (another 90 if the Commissioner of Labor approves the training): $13.50 now and $13.70 from January 1, 2027, since that rate rises 1.5% a year. Under Neb. Rev. Stat. 48-1203.01, training-wage hours can't be more than a quarter of all the hours an employer pays, and a business can't cut or lay off other workers to make room for trainees.

Lincoln and Omaha: still in court

Nebraska's two largest cities passed ordinances to keep parts of the 2022 rules, and Attorney General Mike Hilgers sued both. A judge in Lancaster County blocked Lincoln's ordinance with a temporary injunction in July. Omaha's ordinance would require $15 for 14- and 15-year-olds and set a different growth rate from the state's 1.75%; the Attorney General sued over it on August 18. On September 28 a Douglas County judge blocked its youth wage provision but let the rest take effect on October 1, according to WOWT. Neither case has a final ruling, and the Attorney General has said he expects further filings over the growth rate.

For your paycheck, that means no city rate for 2027 is settled. We found no official 2027 figure from the City of Omaha, and none for Lincoln, where the ordinance is on hold. Plan around the state's $15.26, and if you work in Omaha, watch for a city notice before January.

Who isn't covered

The state minimum applies to employers with four or more employees at any one time, except for seasonal work of 20 weeks or less a year (Neb. Rev. Stat. 48-1202). Farmworkers, babysitters in private homes, executive, administrative and professional staff, supervisors, and federal, state and local government employees are outside it. Student learners in a bona fide vocational program can be paid 75% of the minimum, about $11.45 in 2027.

January 1, 2027 is a Friday. Hours worked through December 31 are owed at $15.00 and hours from January 1 on at $15.26, so a pay period that crosses New Year's can show both rates. If a check covering only January hours still shows $15.00, ask payroll before it repeats. The Department of Labor's labor standards office takes wage questions at 402-471-2239.

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