The open datasets, always current, as an API

Free CSVs remain free. All 27 datasets stay free to download from the open data pages under CC BY 4.0. The API is for businesses and app makers who want the same data kept current without downloading files again.

What it is

• A JSON API over the 27 state-by-state datasets behind our guides: employer rules, landlord and tenant rules, notary rules and small business filings for the 50 states and DC.
• Each record carries its source links, marked official or vetted secondary, the date its sources were checked, and a list of anything those sources did not confirm (those values are null, never guessed).
• Each dataset has a version. ETag and Last-Modified headers let you re-check for free in bandwidth: an unchanged dataset answers 304 Not Modified.
• When a dataset changes, you get one email per change, and Pro and Business can also get a signed webhook. A changes endpoint lists the same thing.
• A written commercial-use license (see below), on top of the CC BY 4.0 license the data already has.

Endpoints

Send your key on every request as Authorization: Bearer <your key>. Responses are JSON. Browsers on other sites cannot call the API directly (no CORS headers), so keep your key on your server.

Errors

Errors come back as {"error":{"code":"...","message":"..."}}: 401 missing or invalid key; 403 subscription not active, or a dataset outside your Starter picks; 429 over the per-minute limit (30, 60 or 120 a minute by plan; see Retry-After) or over the monthly quota; 400 a bad state or since. Headers X-Quota-Limit, X-Quota-Remaining and X-Quota-Reset show where you stand.

Sample response

A real response for GET /api/data/v1/datasets/min-wage?state=NJ, built from today's data file (the field list is shortened here).

{
  "dataset": "min-wage",
  "title": "State minimum wage rates, 2026 and 2027",
  "version": "6c665f9af2929b82",
  "checked": "2026-11",
  "record_count": 51,
  "returned": 1,
  "filters": {
    "state": [
      "NJ"
    ],
    "since": null
  },
  "license": {
    "name": "Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)",
    "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
    "attribution": "Credit \"MCC Solutions\" and link to the dataset's page (its url field)."
  },
  "fields": [
    "..."
  ],
  "records": [
    {
      "jurisdiction_code": "NJ",
      "jurisdiction": "New Jersey",
      "state_law": true,
      "rate_2026": 15.92,
      "rate_2027": 16.48,
      "effective_2027": "2027-01-01",
      "change_2027": "increase",
      "federal_fallback": false,
      "tipped.tip_credit": true,
      "tipped.cash_2026": 6.05,
      "tipped.credit_2026": 9.87,
      "tipped.cash_2027": 6.61,
      "tipped.credit_2027": 9.87,
      "local.has": null,
      "local.url": null,
      "unconfirmed": [
        "local"
      ],
      "source_urls": [
        "https://www.nj.gov/labor/lwdhome/press/2026/20260929_min_wage.shtml"
      ],
      "source_kinds": [
        "official"
      ],
      "checked": "2026-11",
      "page_url": "https://mcc-solutionsnj.com/bookkeeping/minimum-wage-by-state-2027"
    }
  ]
}

Webhooks (Pro and Business)

Each change is one POST with {"id":"chg_123","type":"dataset.changed","created":"...","data":{...}}, where data has the same fields as an item from the changes endpoint. The X-MCC-Signature header is t=<unix seconds>,v1=<hex>, where hex is the HMAC-SHA256 of t + "." + body with your signing secret. We make one attempt per change and show the result on your account page; the changes endpoint is the record to fall back on.

License summary

• The data is CC BY 4.0 on every plan, the same as the free files: you may copy, adapt and use it commercially if you credit "MCC Solutions" and link to the dataset page. The API terms never take away what CC BY 4.0 allows.
• Starter and Pro: the API may feed your own organization's websites, internal tools and reports. Your key is for your organization; do not share it or resell access to the API.
• Business: also covers commercial redistribution in apps: apps and products you sell or give to other people may show the API data or ship a synced copy of it, with a credit line (an about or credits screen is enough).
• This is a plain-English summary, not legal advice, and we are not lawyers. The terms have the full wording.

General information, not legal or tax advice. We are not lawyers, and MCC Solutions is not a law firm. MCC Solutions is a private company: the data is compiled from official government pages, but it is not official government data and no agency has reviewed or endorsed it. We aim to keep the API available around the clock, but there is no uptime guarantee or service level agreement.