Arizona Wage Payment Laws: Paydays, Deductions, and Claims

Arizona wage payment laws set a state minimum wage, require at least two paydays a month, limit what an employer can deduct, and impose firm deadlines for the last paycheck after a job ends. Where federal law also applies, whichever standard pays the worker more controls. And the consequences for an employer who ignores these rules are real: an employee can sue and recover three times the unpaid amount.¹

The Minimum Wage in Arizona

Arizona’s statewide minimum wage is $15.15 per hour as of January 1, 2026.² The rate adjusts every January 1 for cost-of-living changes under the Fair Wages and Healthy Families Act, the 2016 ballot measure that created the current framework. The federal $7.25 rate does not enter into it: employers must pay whichever floor is higher, and Arizona’s has been higher for years.

Tipped employees have a separate cash wage of $12.15 per hour, which reflects a $3.00 tip credit.² The credit only works if tips actually bring the worker to $15.15 an hour. If they don’t in a given pay period, the employer has to make up the shortfall.

Overtime

Arizona has no state overtime law. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act fills the gap: non-exempt employees earn 1.5 times their regular rate for every hour past 40 in a workweek.³ The multiplier runs on your actual regular rate, not the minimum wage. Someone paid $20 an hour earns $30 for each overtime hour.

Salary alone doesn’t cancel overtime. The FLSA exempts executive, administrative, and professional employees only when they meet both a duties test and a weekly salary threshold. After a 2024 federal court decision struck down a scheduled increase, the enforced threshold is $684 per week, or $35,568 annually.⁴ Arizona hasn’t set a higher floor, so the federal number governs. A salary below $684 a week almost always means the worker is entitled to overtime, whatever the job title says.

Paydays and How You Get Paid

Every Arizona employer has to designate at least two fixed paydays each month, no more than 16 days apart. On each payday, all wages earned up to that point come due. Most private employers must deliver or mail wages within five business days after the pay period closes. Overtime and other exception pay gets a longer window of 16 days after the pay period ends.⁵

Employers with out-of-state payroll operations can drop to one payday a month, but only for exempt and supervisory employees. Hourly workers still get paid at least twice a month regardless of where the company is headquartered.

Wages can be paid in cash, by check or money order, or by direct deposit into a financial institution the employee picks. Direct deposit requires the employee’s written consent. Every pay period the employer must also give the employee an earnings statement showing wages earned and each withholding.

What Can Be Deducted From Your Paycheck

Arizona law narrows deductions to three categories:⁶

Deductions required by law, including income tax, Social Security, Medicare, and court-ordered garnishments.
Voluntary deductions the employee has authorized in writing, such as health insurance, retirement contributions, or union dues. You can revoke that authorization in writing at any time, and the employer must stop by the date you set, unless the deduction is repaying a debt you owe the employer.
Amounts subject to a good-faith dispute over what’s actually owed, including a counterclaim or set-off.

Anything outside those three is off-limits. Employers sometimes try to charge workers for register shortages, broken equipment, or uniforms. Those deductions need written authorization, and under federal law they cannot drop your effective hourly rate below the minimum wage for the hours worked.

Earned Paid Sick Time

The same 2016 measure that raised the minimum wage also created earned paid sick time. Every Arizona employee accrues one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked, starting on day one.⁷ The yearly cap depends on the size of the employer:

Employers with 15 or more employees: up to 40 hours per year.
Employers with fewer than 15 employees: up to 24 hours per year.

New hires can start using accrued time after 90 calendar days. Unused hours carry over, subject to the annual usage cap, or the employer can pay out the balance at year-end and front-load a fresh allotment in January.⁷

Sick time isn’t limited to your own illness. It also covers a family member’s medical needs, absences related to domestic violence or stalking, and public health closures.

Your Final Paycheck

The deadline for a final paycheck turns on how the job ended.⁸

Fired or laid off: all wages owed within seven working days or by the end of the next regular pay period, whichever is sooner.
Quit voluntarily: no later than the regular payday for the pay period during which you quit. You can ask that the check be mailed.

Final wages cover everything earned through the last day worked: regular pay, commissions, and any other compensation already earned. Unused vacation is different. Arizona doesn’t require payout by statute, but if company policy or a written agreement promises payment for accrued vacation, that promise becomes part of the wages due. Missing the final-wage deadline is a petty offense under Arizona law, and it also opens the employer to the treble-damages remedy described next.

Penalties When an Employer Breaks the Rules

The centerpiece of Arizona’s enforcement scheme is the treble-damages statute. An employer that fails to pay wages owed under state wage law can be sued for three times the unpaid amount.¹ That multiplier applies whether the employer shorted a regular paycheck, missed the final-wage deadline, or made an unauthorized deduction. If you’re owed $2,000, the court can award $6,000.

Minimum wage and paid sick time violations sit under a separate enforcement statute. An underpayment must be repaid with interest, plus a penalty equal to twice the amount underpaid. Retaliation against an employee who asserts these rights adds a daily penalty of at least $150 for each day the violation continues. A prevailing employee also recovers reasonable attorney fees and court costs.⁹

Because overtime runs on federal law, federal remedies apply when it goes unpaid. An employee can recover the unpaid overtime plus an equal amount in liquidated damages, roughly doubling the check, along with attorney fees and costs.¹⁰

How to File a Wage Claim

An Arizona worker owed wages has two paths: an administrative claim with the state, or a lawsuit.

Industrial Commission Claim

The Industrial Commission of Arizona takes unpaid wage claims through its Labor Department. The claim has to be filed within one year of the date the wages were owed.¹¹ The employer has 14 days to respond. If the employer disputes the claim, you’ll get a copy and 14 days to reply with evidence. Mediation may be offered. The Department then issues a determination, and if the employer still won’t pay, you can take that determination to Superior Court and get a judgment for treble damages.

Civil Lawsuit

For minimum wage and paid sick time claims, the deadline to sue is two years from the last violation, or three years for a willful violation.⁹ A continuing pattern of underpayment can be treated as one course of conduct, so earlier violations may be swept in even if they’d otherwise fall outside the window on their own. No contract or verbal agreement can waive these claims.

For unpaid overtime under the FLSA, the deadline is two years from the date the wages came due, and three years if the violation was willful. Many wage-and-hour attorneys take these cases on contingency, collecting only if the worker wins.

1
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 23-355 – Action by Employee to Recover Wages; Amount of Recovery
2
U.S. Department of Labor. Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees
3
U.S. Department of Labor. Wages and the Fair Labor Standards Act
4
U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemptions
5
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 23-351 – Designation of Paydays for Employees; Payment; Exceptions; Violation; Classification; Applicability; Definition
6
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 23-352 – Withholding of Wages
7
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 23-372 – Accrual of Earned Paid Sick Time
8
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 23-353 – Payment of Wages of Discharged Employee; Violation; Classification
9
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 23-364 – Enforcement
10
U.S. Department of Labor. Back Pay
11
Industrial Commission of Arizona. Labor – Wage Claims – Frequently Asked Questions