Nevada Labor Laws

In the US, the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) are vital federal laws that govern time management and worker compensation, ensuring fair labor practices across various sectors, including non-profit, public, and private organizations.

Time management laws in Nevada govern minimum wage, overtime, and break policies in the state. These laws also govern leave benefits as well as public holidays provided to employees. 

Employees who believe that their employer has violated Nevada time management laws can file a complaint with the State of Nevada Department of Business and Industry Office of Labor for investigation and legal action. 

Employers in Nevada are prohibited from discriminating against job applicants  during the hiring process or retaliating against employees at the workplace based on their:

Employers are also not allowed to retaliate or discriminate against employees who need to keep their service animal with them at all times in the workplace, except if that service animal is a miniature horse. 

Nevada has an “employment-at-will” policy. This means that employers can terminate their employees’ contracts at any time, without any explanation, and likewise, employees are free to leave their jobs for any or no reason without facing legal consequences. 

However, employers cannot terminate an employee if such a termination violates public policy. For example, employees in Nevada cannot be terminated for filing a workers’ compensation claim.

Nevada is also a right-to-work state, which means that employees cannot be forced to join or leave a labor union or pay union dues as a condition of employment.

After termination of employment, an employee must be immediately paid all wages owed. However, if an employee resigns or quits employment, all wages due must be paid within seven days from resignation/quitting or by their next regular payday — whichever comes first. 

Some key labor laws in Nevada also include the following: 

• Workplace Safety Laws: Employers in Nevada are mandated by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) to maintain optimal working conditions and continually inspect the workplace for any hazards. This includes providing proper training and education to employees to reduce the risk of injuries, illnesses, and fatalities. In Nevada, the Nevada State Plan provides additional workplace safety guidelines for local and state government employers as well as most private employers. The department offers training programs that aim to reduce injuries, illnesses, and fatalities in the workplace with on-site consultations. 
• Whistleblower Protection Laws: Local and state government employees in Nevada are protected by law if they disclose improper governmental action to relevant authorities of the State. If an employee faces retaliation for blowing the whistle within two years of disclosing the information, they may file a written appeal with the Nevada Human Resources Commission within 60 days of the incident of retaliation.
• Health Insurance Continuation Laws: As per the federal Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA), employees and their dependents can continue receiving health insurance benefits even after employment has ended in Nevada due to qualifying reasons, including job termination, reduction of work hours, divorce or death. COBRA applies to employers with 20 or more employees. Nevada also has a mini-COBRA law that applies to employers with 19 or fewer employees and offers eligible employees with health insurance coverage for between 18 to 36 months.
• Uniform Laws: Under Nevada labor law, employers are responsible for providing uniforms or other distinctive accessories that are required for the job to employees who require them. Additionally, they must cover the cost of cleaning these items if they cannot be easily laundered and require a special cleaning process.
• Recordkeeping Laws: Employers in Nevada are required to keep an accurate record of an employee’s gross wages, deductions, net cash wages, total work hours with daily work hours specified, and the date of wage payment. These records must be maintained for at least two years and must be provided to an employee within ten days, if requested.

Employees in Nevada are entitled to earn at least $12.00 per hour, as of July 1, 2024. 

Employees cannot waive their right to the state minimum wage in mutual agreement with their employer. The right to minimum wage can only be waived by a collective bargaining agreement, which clearly states the waiver of minimum wage rights in explicit terms.

However, employers can require tipped workers to pool their tips, which then must be redistributed equally among all tipped employees. Employers are not allowed to take any tips for themselves. 

Some employees in Nevada are not entitled to receive minimum wage as per state law. This includes employees under the age of 18 who are employed in non-profit organizations for summer or after-school activities for less than 90 days. 

Furthermore, federal law (if applicable) exempts the following employees from receiving minimum wage: 

• Executive, administrative, and professional employees earning at least $684 weekly
• Casual babysitters
• Workers employed in seasonal and recreational establishments
• Farmworkers
• Caretakers for elderly people
• Federal criminal investigators
• Fishermen
• Newspaper deliverypersons
• Workers employed in newspaper agencies that have limited circulation
• Seamen employed on non-American vessels
• Switchboard operators
• Homeworkers producing wreaths

In Nevada, employers are obligated by law to pay their employees on a semi-monthly basis. 

Wages earned up to the first of a month must be paid before 8 a.m. on the 15th of the following month, whereas wages earned up to the 16th of a month are due before 8 a.m. on the last day of the month.

However, employees can be paid more frequently than on a semi-monthly basis. 

Additionally, employers who primarily operate their business and payroll outside the state of Nevada can establish one or more fixed paydays for executives, administrators, professional employees, outside salespersons, and supervisors — as defined by state law. 

In Nevada, non-exempt employees are entitled to additional pay if they work past a certain work hour limit on a daily or weekly basis. 

Employees earning less than 1.5 times the state minimum wage (i.e., less than $18.00) per hour are entitled to overtime wages if they work more than eight hours daily or over 40 hours in a week.

However, employees do not earn overtime for working more than eight hours in a day if they have agreed to work ten hours daily for four days in a work week.

In contrast, employees who earn more than 1.5 times the state minimum wage (i.e. more than $18.00) per hour are only entitled to overtime pay if they work over 40 hours in a week. 

All overtime wages are calculated at 1.5 times the employee’s regular hourly wage for each hour worked overtime. 

White-collar employees in Nevada do not receive extra pay for working overtime, as long as they earn a minimum of $684 per week as per the FLSA. This includes employees working in outside sales. administrative, executive, and professional occupations.

Besides these occupations, certain employees are exempt from receiving overtime as per Nevada overtime laws:

• Employees exempt from receiving the state minimum wage
• Outside buyers
• Independent contractors
• Employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement with different overtime pay requirements
• Employees in retail or service industries, provided they earn at least 1.5 times the standard minimum wage and that more than half of their compensation comes from commissions
• Drivers, driver’s helpers, loaders, and mechanics working for motor companies who are subject to the federal Motor Carrier Act of 1935
• Railroad employees
• Air carriers’ employees
• Drivers and drivers’ helpers making local deliveries — provided they are paid on a trip basis (or other regulated delivery plan)
• Taxicab and limousine drivers
• Agricultural employees
• Mechanics and salespeople primarily engaged in selling or servicing automobiles, trucks, and farm equipment
• Employees working for businesses whose annual sales are less than $250,000 per year
• Domestic workers and service employees residing in their location of employment, provided both parties agree in writing that the employee is exempt from overtime pay

Employers are required to provide employees a 30-minute unpaid meal break for eight consecutive hours of work, as per Nevada labor laws.

Employers with 50 or more employees in Nevada are mandated by state law to provide nursing employees with a child under one year of age with reasonably timed breastfeeding breaks to express milk at the workplace. 

The break may be paid or unpaid; however, employers must arrange a clean and private space for an employee to express milk comfortably. 

Employers with fewer than 50 employees are exempt from providing breastfeeding breaks if doing so would pose an undue hardship on business resources or operations. 

Likewise, any employer in Nevada who can establish that providing such breaks can pose an undue hardship on their business in any way may agree to an alternative arrangement in mutual agreement with their employee.

Nevada provides two types of leaves – required and non-required leaves.

The following are the required leave types that Nevada employers must provide to their employees:

• Sick Leave: Nevada law requires all private employers with 50 or more employees to offer paid sick leave. Employees are entitled to 0.01923 hours of paid leave for each hour of work. Employees can not accrue more than 40 hours of sick leave in a year, however, they can carry over up to 40 hours of sick leave to the next year.
• Family and Medical Leave: According to federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Nevada employers are required to grant employees 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for qualifying medical and family reasons. These include taking care of oneself or a family member with a serious health condition, a newborn child, or an adopted/fostered child or to deal with an urgent situation that rises due to a family servicemember on active duty. To be eligible for leave under the FMLA, an employee must have worked for their employer for at least a year with 1,250 work hours. Employees can also take 26 weeks of unpaid leave to take care of a family member who is part of the Armed Forces with a serious health condition, or injury, or undergoing medical treatment or therapy.
• Jury Duty Leave: In Nevada if an employee is called for jury duty, their employer is required to let them take time off work. They are not allowed to force the employee to use their sick or vacation time, or any other type of leave. Employers cannot punish or reprimand the employee for accepting the jury duty request. Also, if an employee spends at least 4 hours serving on the jury, they cannot be scheduled to work a shift between 5 p.m. and 3 a.m. the following day.
• Voting Time Leave: In Nevada, employers have to provide paid voting time off to their employees if they can’t vote before or after their shift. Employees who take this leave can’t be punished when they return to work. The length of the leave depends on the distance between the workplace and the voting location: 1 hour for up to 2 miles, 2 hours for 2-10 miles, and 3 hours for over 10 miles.
• Parental Leave: In Nevada, employers with over 50 employees are obliged to provide a special kind of leave for working parents or guardians. This leave allows them to attend any school-related activities of their children for up to 4 hours. The employer has the flexibility to decide whether the time off will be paid or unpaid.

The following is a brief overview of public holidays observed in Nevada in 2025. 

As per Nevada labor law, if New Year’s Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, and Christmas fall on a Sunday, the Monday after is observed as a holiday. If these holidays fall on a Saturday, the Friday before is observed as a public holiday. 

Learn more with our U.S. public holiday poster.

Minors are young people aged under 18.

All minors, regardless of age, are prohibited from working in hazardous positions according to federal law. In Nevada, there are additional regulations limiting the types of work minors can do and the hours they can work.

Nevada has specific child labor laws that vary depending on age. Children who are under 14 years old must have written permission from a district court judge in order to be employed.

For minors under 16, the maximum hours of work per day are 8, and the maximum per week is 48, except when school is in session, in which case the limit is 3 hours per school day.

There are no restrictions on the maximum number of work hours for minors aged 16 and 17. Minors under 16 years old are prohibited from working between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m., while there are no nightwork restrictions for those aged 16 and 17.

As per Nevada labor laws, minors under the age of 16 cannot be allowed to work in the following occupations: