Oregon minimum wage in 2026 (and 2027)

Which of the three Oregon rates you owe

The rate depends on where each employee does the work, not on where your company is based:

• Portland metro, $16.80: work inside the Metro urban growth boundary, which takes in Portland and nearby cities.
• Standard, $15.55: most of the rest of the state, including Salem, Eugene and Bend.
• Nonurban, $14.55: the rural counties named in ORS 653.025. BOLI's schedule page does not list them, so confirm a county with BOLI before you pay the lower rate.

For an employee who splits time between zones, track hours by location; paying the higher rate for all hours avoids underpaying if you cannot. The regional table below comes from BOLI.

City and county minimum wages in Oregon

Tips, overtime and long shifts

Oregon is one of the states that bans the tip credit. A server in Portland gets at least $16.80 an hour in cash wages, and tips sit on top of that. Next door in Idaho the tipped cash wage is $3.35, so a restaurant group with sites in both states runs very different labor costs; see Idaho's minimum wage for the comparison.

Overtime is owed at 1.5 times the regular rate after 40 hours a week. Oregon also requires overtime after 10 hours in a day in nonfarm canneries, driers and packing plants, and in mills, factories and manufacturing plants (sawmills, planing mills, shingle mills and logging camps are excluded), the DOL state summary says.

Annual pay in each zone

At 2,080 hours a year (40 x 52), divided by 12 for the month:

• Standard: $15.55 x 2,080 = $32,344.00 a year, $2,695.33 a month, $622.00 a week
• Portland metro: $16.80 x 2,080 = $34,944.00 a year, $2,912.00 a month, $672.00 a week
• Nonurban: $14.55 x 2,080 = $30,264.00 a year, $2,522.00 a month, $582.00 a week

Because the rates change on July 1, not January 1, a calendar year of Oregon payroll always mixes two rates. Plan the July raise into your second-half budget. Across the Columbia River, Washington's minimum wage is $17.13 for 2026, higher than even the Portland figure, and the state-by-state minimum wage table shows where Oregon sits nationally.

Payroll taxes on an Oregon minimum wage worker

Take a full-time Portland employee earning $34,944.00, employed by a new business with 25 or more workers:

• FICA, employer 7.65%: $2,673.22
• FUTA, 0.6% on $7,000: $42.00
• Oregon unemployment, new employer 2.4% (the whole wage, since the base is $56,700): $838.66
• Paid Leave Oregon, employer 40% of the 1% contribution (0.4%): $139.78
• TriMet transit payroll tax, 0.8237% on wages for work inside the district: $287.83

That is $3,981.49 on top of wages, $38,925.49 all in. Outside the TriMet area, a Eugene worker at the standard rate triggers the 0.80% Lane Transit tax instead ($258.75 on $32,344.00). Employers under 25 workers skip the employer Paid Leave share but still withhold the employee 0.6%. The Workers' Benefit Fund assessment also applies; we did not confirm the 2026 amount. Details are on Oregon local payroll taxes and Oregon payroll taxes.

Keeping up with July changes

The most common Oregon mistake is leaving a worker on last year's rate after July 1, or paying the standard rate to someone who works inside the Portland boundary. Payroll software with work-location tracking handles both. Gusto's Simple plan is $49 a month plus $6 per person (checked October 16, 2026) and Gusto's payroll terms say it reimburses penalties if it fails to remit taxes on time, as long as you funded payroll and sent it agency notices at least 30 days before any response date. See how it ranks in our payroll software comparison, or estimate your own cost with the employee cost calculator.