Part-time employees do sometimes get raises, but no federal law requires them. The Fair Labor Standards Act sets a wage floor and overtime rules; it says nothing about pay increases over time. The one legal exception is a minimum wage hike: when the federal or state minimum rises above your current rate, your employer must bump your pay to at least the new minimum. Everything else — merit increases, annual bumps, cost-of-living adjustments — comes from a contract, a union agreement, or your employer’s discretion.
What Federal Law Actually Requires
The FLSA establishes two things: a minimum hourly rate and overtime pay for hours beyond 40 in a workweek.1U.S. Department of Labor. Wages and the Fair Labor Standards Act There is no federal statute requiring annual raises, performance bonuses, or cost-of-living adjustments of any kind. An employer can legally keep you at the same hourly rate for years, provided that rate never falls below the applicable minimum wage.
Part-time status doesn’t change anything here. The FLSA doesn’t even define “part-time employment,” and the Department of Labor has stated that full-time or part-time classification doesn’t affect how the Act applies.2U.S. Department of Labor. Part-Time Employment Whether you work 12 hours a week or 35, the same protections and the same silences apply. You’re owed minimum wage and overtime after 40 hours, and nothing more in the way of scheduled increases.
That leaves raises as a private matter between you and your employer. Wage stagnation is perfectly legal as long as the floor is met.
The One Raise the Law Forces
The only legally mandated pay increase is the one triggered by a minimum wage hike. If a new federal or state minimum wage pushes the legal floor above what you’re currently earning, your employer must raise your pay to at least the new minimum. Failing to do so is a federal violation, not just a policy problem.
The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 per hour since July 24, 2009.3U.S. Department of Labor. History of Changes to the Minimum Wage Law It does not adjust for inflation automatically; Congress has to pass a bill for the federal rate to move. Many states set their own minimums well above $7.25, and roughly half of those states index the rate to inflation, which produces automatic annual increases. When both a federal and state minimum wage apply to you, you’re entitled to the higher one.4U.S. Department of Labor. Questions and Answers About the Minimum Wage
If your employer doesn’t pay you the new minimum, the FLSA lets you recover the unpaid wages plus an equal amount in liquidated damages, effectively doubling what you’re owed. Attorney’s fees and court costs can be added on top.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 216 – Penalties
Tipped Part-Time Workers
If you work for tips, the federal minimum cash wage your employer must pay is $2.13 per hour, with tips expected to bring your total to at least $7.25.6U.S. Department of Labor. Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees Many states require a higher cash wage than $2.13, so check your state’s rule. If your tips plus the cash wage don’t reach the full minimum in any workweek, your employer has to make up the shortfall. When a state raises its tipped minimum, that operates as a mandatory raise for every tipped worker earning at the old rate.
When an Employer Can’t Legally Skip Your Raise
Even though no law requires raises, federal law does restrict the reasons an employer can use to deny them. Raise decisions that look discretionary on paper can become legally actionable when they track a protected characteristic.
The Equal Pay Act prohibits paying workers of different sexes differently for substantially equal work performed under similar conditions in the same workplace. The jobs don’t have to be identical; they need comparable skill, effort, and responsibility. An employer can justify a difference based on seniority, a merit system, or production-based pay, but not on sex.7U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Equal Pay Act of 1963 And any fix has to go upward: an employer cannot cut anyone else’s pay to equalize.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act makes it illegal to discriminate in compensation based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, and it covers part-time employees.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 2000e-2 – Unlawful Employment Practices If an employer routinely grants raises to one group while denying them to another, and that pattern aligns with a protected characteristic, affected workers have grounds for a discrimination claim.
When Raises Are Contractually Guaranteed
The clearest path to a guaranteed raise is having it written into a binding agreement. Two types of documents regularly create enforceable raise obligations.
Individual Employment Contracts
A signed employment contract with a specific raise schedule is legally enforceable. If your contract promises a set percentage increase after six months of service, your employer can’t decide to skip it because the quarter went badly. That’s a breach of contract, and you can pursue the unpaid difference plus damages. Employment contracts are less common for part-time roles than for salaried positions, but they exist, especially in specialized or skilled part-time work.
Collective Bargaining Agreements
In unionized workplaces, wages are typically governed by a collective bargaining agreement between the employer and the union. These agreements often include step increases tied to seniority or hours worked, and they cover part-time bargaining unit members. Under federal labor law, an employer cannot unilaterally change the terms of an existing CBA; all terms remain in force until the contract expires or is properly renegotiated.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 158 – Unfair Labor Practices Skipping a scheduled raise under a CBA is a contract violation that goes to grievance arbitration.
How Most Part-Time Raises Actually Happen
Most part-time employees don’t have individual contracts or union representation. They work at will, under internal company policies that outline how raises can happen without requiring that they do. A policy that allows raises is fundamentally different from a contract that requires them.
Employee handbooks often describe a framework for merit-based raises tied to annual performance reviews, pay grades, or internal pay bands. Those structures tell managers how much a rate can increase and under what circumstances. The employer almost always keeps the right to freeze raises during downturns, restructure pay scales, or decide the budget doesn’t allow increases in a given year. None of that violates any law.
Employers still hand out raises regularly, because the alternative is losing workers to competitors. Part-time workers don’t always get identical increases to full-time staff, but competitive labor markets push employers to keep pay reasonably current. Common triggers include:
- Annual performance reviews, with raises tied to ratings from a formal evaluation cycle.
- Certification or skill milestones, where completing training or earning a credential bumps your rate, sometimes by a fixed amount like $0.50 or $1.00 per hour.
- Tenure benchmarks, where the pay scale includes step increases after specific periods of employment or cumulative hours worked.
- Market adjustments, where competitors raising their starting wages prompts your employer to move existing workers’ pay up to reduce turnover.
These increases are real, but they’re discretionary. If your employer eliminates raises for a year, your recourse is to find another job, not to file a legal claim.
How to Position Yourself for a Raise
Since the law won’t hand you a raise, your leverage comes from preparation and timing.
Know your market rate first. Look up what similar roles pay in your area before starting the conversation. If the going rate for your work is $2 above what you earn, your request is a correction, not a favor. About a third of states now require employers to disclose pay ranges for posted positions, which can give you a concrete number to point to.
Time the ask. The strongest moments are right after your annual review, right after you’ve completed a visible project, or when your employer is struggling to fill similar positions. A hiring crunch gives you leverage no amount of persuasion can produce during a slow period. The worst time is right after layoffs or budget cuts.
Document what you’ve done in specific terms. Vague claims about being a good worker don’t move anyone. “I’ve covered 14 extra shifts in the last three months” or “my section’s customer satisfaction scores are the highest in the store” gives your manager something concrete to carry up the chain. Managers who want to help you often need ammunition for their own bosses.
Don’t limit the conversation to hourly rate. If the budget for hourly increases is genuinely gone, additional paid hours, schedule flexibility, access to employer-sponsored training, or benefits eligibility can all be meaningful. An extra four hours a week at your current rate can be worth more than a $0.50 bump on fewer hours.