2026 Alabama Tipped Minimum Wage
The 2026 Alabama Tipped Minimum Wage is $2.13.
Effective 2026-01-01Source: Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees (DOL)Verified 2026-08-30
Who it applies to
Employers of tipped employees in Alabama. The cash wage is the part of the minimum wage the employer pays directly. The rest may be met by the employee's tips, up to the maximum tip credit the same row of the table states, and the table sets out separately how much an employee must receive in tips to count as a tipped employee at all.
What changed this year, and why
The Wage and Hour Division's table of minimum wages for tipped employees, in the version last revised July 1, 2026, gives $2.13 per hour as the minimum cash wage an employer may pay a tipped employee in Alabama. The table carries only its own revision date and never dates the rate, so this page reports the figure as in force as of that revision rather than claiming an effective date no document states.
Common questions
- What is the tipped minimum wage in Alabama in 2026?
- $2.13 per hour in cash wages. That is what the Department of Labor's table of minimum wages for tipped employees, last revised July 1, 2026, gives as the minimum cash wage for a tipped employee in Alabama. Tips make up the remainder of the applicable minimum wage, up to the maximum tip credit stated in the same row.
- What if tips do not bring the employee up to the full minimum wage?
- The employer pays the difference. A tip credit is a credit against the minimum wage the employer already owes, not a lower wage in its own right, so an employee whose cash wage and tips together fall short of the applicable minimum wage is owed the shortfall in wages.
- Where does the figure on this page come from?
- From Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees, the table the Wage and Hour Division publishes by state, in the version last revised July 1, 2026. The row it was read from is quoted on this page, and the snapshot it was verified against is the one captured for this record.
Every amount on this page is a published figure rather than yours. The Tips needed per hour takes the number you enter and works it out against them, showing which published figure it used.
Who counts as a tipped employee
In Alabama, you count as a tipped employee under federal law if you work in an occupation where you customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips. It does not matter whether your employer pays you the full minimum wage or takes a tip credit; the definition is the same. Only tips you actually receive from customers count toward this threshold. If your tips in some months fall below $30, you are not a tipped employee for those weeks, and your employer cannot use the tip credit rules for you during that time. Once you meet the $30-a-month standard, your employer may apply the special tipped-employee wage rules described elsewhere on this page, including the lower cash wage and the tip credit.
Under the FLSA, a tipped employee is an employee engaged in an occupation in which they customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips.
Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (DOL)
What a tip credit is, and the cash wage underneath it
In Alabama, the federal tip credit lets an employer pay you a cash wage of $2.13 per hour and count a portion of your tips toward its minimum wage obligation. The credit equals the gap between that cash wage and the full minimum wage. Your employer must be able to show, each workweek, that your cash wages plus your tips together reach at least the full minimum wage. Only tips you actually receive count; projected or shared tips do not. If your cash wages and your tips fall short of the full minimum wage in any workweek, your employer must pay the shortfall out of its own funds. The tip credit cannot be larger than the tips you actually took in during that period.
An employer can take an FLSA tip credit equal to the difference between the direct wage, or the cash wage it pays directly to the tipped employee, and the federal minimum wage, which is currently $7.25 per hour.
Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (DOL)
When the tips do not get you to the minimum wage
In Alabama, if your tips combined with your employer's cash wages don't reach the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour in any workweek, your employer must make up the difference. This is a weekly calculation, not an average over time. Your employer cannot rely on busy weeks to cover slow weeks where your tips fell short. The employer must ensure you receive at least the minimum wage every single workweek. This protection applies whether your employer takes a tip credit or pays you the full minimum wage directly. If your employer fails to make up the shortfall, they've violated federal wage law.
If an employee’s tips combined with the employer’s direct (or cash) wages do not equal the minimum hourly wage of $7.25 per hour in each workweek, the employer must make up the difference.
Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (DOL)
The notice an employer owes you before it takes the credit
In Alabama, before your employer can take a tip credit, they must give you specific information about your wages. The notice must include the cash wage they're paying you, the tip credit amount they're claiming, a statement that the credit cannot exceed your actual tips, confirmation that you keep all your tips except for valid tip pooling, and notice that the credit won't apply unless you've been properly informed. Your employer can give this notice orally or in writing. If they fail to provide all this information before taking the tip credit, they lose the right to claim it entirely and must pay you the full minimum wage.
Employers must provide the following information to tipped employees before taking a tip credit under the FLSA:
Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (DOL)
When state law gives more than the federal rule
In Alabama, when state law and federal law differ, your employer must follow whichever rule gives you greater protection. For example, if Alabama law requires a higher cash wage than the federal minimum of $2.13 per hour, or if it prohibits tip credits altogether, your employer must comply with the Alabama standard. This means you're entitled to the better benefit, whether it comes from state or federal law. The federal rules set minimum standards, but states can provide stronger protections. Your employer cannot pick and choose between state and federal rules to minimize your wages.
When state law differs from the federal FLSA, an employer must comply with the standard most protective to employees.
Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (DOL)
Your employer, your manager and your supervisor may not keep your tips
In Alabama, your employer, your manager, and your supervisor cannot keep any of your tips, regardless of whether they take a tip credit. This prohibition applies whether the tips come directly to you or flow through a tip pool. Your employer cannot require you to hand over your tips to them, to a supervisor, or to a manager. This rule applies even if your employer pays you the full minimum wage directly and does not claim a tip credit at all. Your tips belong to you, and the law strictly prevents employers and supervisors from taking any portion of them for any purpose.
Regardless of whether an employer takes a tip credit, the FLSA prohibits employers from keeping any portion of employees’ tips for any purpose, whether directly or through a tip pool.
Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (DOL)
Which tip pools you can be made to join
In Alabama, if your employer takes a tip credit and requires you to participate in a tip pool, that pool can only include employees who work in occupations where they customarily and regularly receive tips. This means servers, bussers, bartenders, and bellhops can share tips with each other, but non-tipped workers like cooks and dishwashers cannot participate in the pool. The federal law does not limit how much each person must contribute to the pool, but it restricts who can receive from it when a tip credit is taken. Your employer and managers also cannot take any portion of the pooled tips.
Traditional Tip Pooling: An employer that takes a tip credit can require tipped employees to contribute tips only to a tip pool which is limited to employees in occupations in which they customarily and regularly receive tips, such as waiters, bellhops, counter personnel (who serve customers), bussers, and service bartenders.
Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (DOL)
Doing two jobs for one employer
In Alabama, if you work two different jobs for the same employer, you're only considered a tipped employee for the job where you customarily and regularly receive tips. For example, if you work as both a maintenance worker and a server, you're a tipped employee only for your server hours, not your maintenance hours. Your employer cannot take a tip credit for the hours you spend doing non-tipped work. They must pay you the full minimum wage for those non-tipped hours, even if you earned enough tips during your server hours to cover it. Each occupation is evaluated separately for tip credit purposes.
In such a situation the employee, if they customarily and regularly receive at least $30 a month in tips for their work as a server, is a tipped employee only with respect to their employment as a server.
Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (DOL)
How each figure was verified
Each number below was read from a stored copy of the document named beside it, and checked to occur word for word in the quoted sentence. The digest is of that stored text.
Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees (DOL)
- Minimum cash wage
Alabama 11 $7.25 $5.12 $2.13 More than $30
Other years
- 2026
Every Alabama Tipped Minimum Wage year · Tipped Minimum Wage in every state