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South Dakota was one of 25 states that saw increases in their hourly minimum wage for 2024. The $11.20 an hour is up from $10.80 an hour in 2023.

The state has seen yearly increases in the lowest amount hourly earners can be paid since 2015, following voter approval of Initiated Measure 18, which increased the minimum wage for non-tipped employees from $7.25 an hour – the federal minimum wage – to $8.50. The same measure increased the hourly pay of tipped employees from $2.13 to $4.25. In 2024 the minimum for tipped employees is $5.60.

Initiated Measure 18, approved by 55 percent of voters, set the minimums on auto pilot: They increase each year at the rate of the cost of living measured by the Consumer Price Index. Because of high inflation rates the last couple of years, wages have increased more quickly. In 2020, the minimum wage was just $9.30 an hour.

Among South Dakota’s neighbors, only Nebraska has a higher minimum wage, according to Ballotpedia, which tracks voter initiatives. Nebraska’s minimum wage will be $12 this year after voters there passed a measure in 2022 that hikes the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026.

Wyoming, Montana and Iowa continue to set their minimums at the federal rate of $7.25.

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