American Samoa Minimum Wage: Rates, Overtime, and Next Increase

The minimum wage in American Samoa ranges from $5.78 to $7.19 per hour, and which rate applies depends entirely on the employer’s industry. The territory does not have a single wage floor. Instead, federal law sets 18 separate rates, and each one rises by $0.40 every three years until it reaches the mainland federal minimum of $7.25.¹

Current Rates by Industry

The most recent increase took effect on September 30, 2024. These are the rates in force now:¹

Garment Manufacturing: $5.78
Miscellaneous Activities (including domestic work): $5.80
Government Employees: $6.01
Hotel: $6.10
Retailing, Wholesaling, and Warehousing: $6.20
Bottling, Brewing, and Dairy Products: $6.29
Fish Canning, Processing, and Can Manufacturing: $6.36
Private Hospitals and Educational Institutions: $6.43
Tour and Travel: $6.58
Printing: $6.60
Ship Maintenance: $6.61
Construction: $6.70
Publishing: $6.73
Petroleum Marketing: $6.95
Shipping and Transportation, All Other Activities: $6.98
Shipping and Transportation, Unloading of Fish: $7.02
Finance and Insurance: $7.09
Shipping and Transportation, Stevedoring, Lighterage, and Maritime Activities: $7.19

Your rate is tied to your employer’s industry, not your job title. A receptionist working for a construction company earns at least $6.70, not a lower office-worker rate. One local exception runs the other direction: although the federally set rate for Government Employees is $6.01, the American Samoa Government has chosen to pay its own workers at least $7.25.¹

When the Next Raise Takes Effect

The schedule comes from Public Law 114-61. Every industry rate goes up by $0.40 per hour on September 30 of every third year, and increases keep coming until each rate hits $7.25.² Because 2024 was the most recent step, the next scheduled increase is September 30, 2027.³

These rates sit in federal law, so the American Samoa legislature cannot lower them or push back the increases. It can, however, pay above them, which is what the territorial government did for its own employees.

Overtime

Federal overtime rules apply in American Samoa. If you are covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act and work more than 40 hours in a workweek, you must be paid at least one and a half times your regular rate for every hour past 40.⁴

Executive, administrative, and professional employees can be exempt from overtime, but only if they meet both a duties test and a salary test. In American Samoa the salary threshold is lower than on the mainland: $380 per week, or $19,760 per year, compared with $684 per week on the mainland. A job title alone never determines exempt status; actual duties and pay both have to qualify.⁴

Tipped Workers

An employer can pay a direct cash wage as low as $2.13 per hour to a tipped employee, provided the worker customarily receives more than $30 a month in tips and the tips plus cash wage together reach the applicable industry minimum.⁵ Before taking the tip credit, the employer must tell the worker the cash wage amount, the tip credit amount, and that the employee has the right to keep all tips.⁶

Subminimum Certificates

The U.S. Department of Labor can authorize below-minimum pay in narrow situations through special certificates. Those cover full-time students in retail, service, agriculture, or higher-education jobs; student learners in vocational programs; and workers whose productive capacity is limited by a physical or mental disability.⁷

If You’re Being Underpaid

An employer who pays below the required industry rate owes the unpaid wages plus liquidated damages in the same amount, which effectively doubles the recovery. Employees who sue on their own can also recover attorney’s fees and court costs.⁸ Firing or otherwise punishing a worker for filing a complaint or taking part in an investigation is separately illegal, and the remedies can include reinstatement, lost wages, and additional damages.⁹

Do not sit on the claim. You generally have two years to file for unpaid wages, or three years if the violation was willful. Missing that window forfeits the money.¹⁰

Complaints go to the Wage and Hour Division online or by phone at 1-866-487-9243. Have your employer’s name and address, a description of your work, your pay rate, and your pay frequency ready. The nearest field office usually contacts complainants within two business days.¹¹ These investigations do recover real money. In 2019, the division found overtime violations at the American Samoa Power Authority and recovered $110,865 in back pay for 180 employees.¹²

1
U.S. Department of Labor. Minimum Wages in American Samoa Increase by 40 Cents Per Hour
2
govinfo. Public Law 114-61
3
U.S. Department of Labor. Wage Rates in American Samoa
4
U.S. Department of Labor. Special Salary Levels for the U.S. Territories
5
U.S. Department of Labor. Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees
6
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 15 – Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
7
U.S. Department of Labor. Subminimum Wage
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 216 – Penalties
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 215 – Prohibited Acts
10
U.S. Department of Labor. Back Pay
11
Worker.gov. Filing a Complaint With the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division
12
U.S. Department of Labor. American Samoa Power Authority to Pay Employees $110,865 After U.S. Department of Labor Finds Overtime Violations