Introduction to Minimum Wage Finder

Symmetry Minimum Wage Finder (MWF) returns every minimum wage rate that applies at a work location, for a given effective date. Give it an address and it tells you which authorities set a rate, what those rates are, and which employees each one covers.

How a lookup works

To return the correct rates, Minimum Wage Finder does four things:

Validate the address

The work address is normalized and validated against official postal data.

Geocode to coordinates

The validated address is converted to an exact latitude and longitude, aiming for rooftop accuracy.

Match against boundaries

Those coordinates are applied to 35,000 geospatial boundary files to find every authority whose boundary contains the location.

Return applicable rates

Every rate in force at each of those authority levels on the effective date is returned, including industry and attribute variants.

Because determination starts from coordinates rather than a ZIP code, a location resolves to the authorities that actually contain it. That matters where city and county minimum wages differ, and where a county rate applies only to unincorporated areas. See Authority levels.

What you get back

A single work location usually returns several rates, not one.

Returned	Detail
Rates by authority level	Federal, state, county, city, city metro (Oregon Urban Growth Boundaries), and municipal (Pennsylvania).
Wage category	Regular, tipped, and exempt, as `majorType` values `REG`, `TIP`, and `EXM`. See Rate types.
Industry and attribute rates	Overrides that apply only to a given industry, or to employers or employees meeting an attribute such as company size or age.
Effective date	Every rate carries one, so you can ask what was or will be in force on a given day.
Inheritance	Where an authority sets no rate of its own, the rate above it applies. Results show which.
`mwUid`	A unique identifier encoding the authority and type behind each rate. See Minimum wage unique IDs.

Why several rates, not one

Minimum Wage Finder returns every rate that applies rather than picking a winner, because the rate an individual employee is owed depends on facts the product does not hold: their industry, their age, whether they receive tips, and how many people their employer has. Choosing between the returned rates is your application’s job. Rate types sets out the order to work through.

What Minimum Wage Finder is not

It reports the rates an authority has set. It does not decide what a given employee must be paid, and it does not calculate pay.

You need to	Reach for
Know which minimum wage rates apply at a work address	Minimum Wage Finder
Know which payroll taxes apply at an address	Symmetry Payroll Point
Calculate withholding for a pay run	Symmetry Tax Engine

Where to go next

Get started

What you need before your first lookup, then a quickstart for Portal or the API.

Rate inheritance

Why most locations return a rate their own city or county never set.

​How a lookup works

​What you get back

​Why several rates, not one

​What Minimum Wage Finder is not

​Where to go next