> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.symmetry.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Introduction to Minimum Wage Finder

> What Symmetry Minimum Wage Finder does, how it resolves a work address to applicable minimum wage rates, what a lookup returns, and what falls outside its scope.

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:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Validate the address">
    The work address is normalized and validated against official postal data.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Geocode to coordinates">
    The validated address is converted to an exact latitude and longitude, aiming for rooftop accuracy.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Match against boundaries">
    Those coordinates are applied to 35,000 geospatial boundary files to find every authority whose boundary contains the location.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Return applicable rates">
    Every rate in force at each of those authority levels on the effective date is returned, including industry and attribute variants.
  </Step>
</Steps>

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](/mwf/core-concepts/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](/mwf/core-concepts/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](/mwf/core-concepts/mwuid-elements). |

## 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](/mwf/core-concepts/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](/prp/overview/introduction) |
| Calculate withholding for a pay run                   | [Symmetry Tax Engine](/ste/overview/what-is-the-ste) |

## Where to go next

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Get started" icon="flag-checkered" href="/mwf/getting-started/prerequisites">
    What you need before your first lookup, then a quickstart for Portal or the API.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Rate inheritance" icon="sitemap" href="/mwf/core-concepts/rate-inheritance">
    Why most locations return a rate their own city or county never set.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>