Effective July 1, California will raise its minimum hourly wage from $8.00 to $9.00. The increase will also affect the minimum salary requirement for several categories of employees that are exempt from minimum wage and overtime requirements. The minimum salary of exempt executive, administrative and professional employees will increase to $3120.00 per month (twice the state minimum wage). Commissioned, inside sales employees’ minimum hourly rate will increase to $13.50 per hour (in order to maintain the one-and-a-half times minimum wage requirem ent for their exempt status).We recommend that employers review the pay rates of both their non-exempt and exempt California employees to ensure that they are in compliance with the new minimum rates by July 1, 2014.The Massachusetts legislature has approved a bill that would increase the Massachusetts minimum wage incrementally over the next three years to one of the highest in the country. The current $8.00 per hour rate would initially increase to $9.00 on January 1, 2015. It would then rise to $10.00 per hour on January 1, 2016 before finally reaching $11.00 per hour on January 1, 2017. The legislation would also gradually increase the minimum wage for tipped employees from $2.63 per hour to $3.75 per hour over the next three years.The bill has been sent to Governor Deval Patrick and he is expected to sign it in the near future.