2026 Arizona Tipped Minimum Wage
The 2026 Arizona Tipped Minimum Wage is $12.15.
Effective 2026-01-01Source: Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees (DOL)Verified 2026-08-30
Who it applies to
Employers of tipped employees in Arizona. 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 $12.15 per hour as the minimum cash wage an employer may pay a tipped employee in Arizona. 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 Arizona in 2026?
- $12.15 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 Arizona. 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 Arizona, you count as a tipped employee under federal law if the job you hold is one where you customarily and regularly pull in more than $30 a month in tips. That threshold is the gate: if you clear it, your employer is allowed to treat you as tipped for purposes of the tip credit and tip-pooling rules that follow. If your tips fall below that amount in a typical month, or your occupation is not one where tips are customary and regular, you are not a tipped employee and your employer must pay you the full minimum wage without relying on any tip credit. The rule looks at the occupation, not at any single slow week, so an occasional big tip does not by itself make you tipped, and a steady stream of small tips can still qualify you if it crosses the line.
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
Arizona employers who use the federal tip credit must pay you at least $12.15 per hour in cash, which is the state's required minimum cash wage for 2026. The tip credit itself is the gap between that cash wage and the full minimum wage your employer owes you: it is equal to the difference between the direct wage the employer pays you in cash and the minimum wage that applies. If your cash wage plus your tips do not add up to at least the full minimum wage in any workweek, your employer has to make up the shortfall. Only tips you actually receive count toward this calculation, so the credit cannot be based on tips you never saw. The rule is meant to ensure that the tip credit reduces what your employer pays, but never reduces what you take home below the minimum wage floor.
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 Arizona, if your cash wage plus your tips do not reach the full minimum wage in any workweek, the employer must make up the difference. This is a week-by-week guarantee: your employer cannot average a slow week against a busy one, and cannot wait until the end of the month to balance things out. The rule exists to close the gap that the tip credit creates, because the tip credit lets your employer count your tips toward its minimum wage obligation only on the assumption that you will actually receive them. When that assumption fails in a particular week, the employer's obligation shifts back to paying you the full minimum wage out of its own pocket, no matter how small your tips were that week.
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
Before an Arizona employer can take a tip credit against your wages, it must first give you notice of specific information, including the cash wage it is paying you, the amount it is claiming as a tip credit, and the fact that the credit cannot exceed the tips you actually receive. Employers must provide the following information to tipped employees before taking a tip credit under the FLSA, and the notice can be oral or written, but it has to come before the credit is applied. If the employer skips this step, it loses the right to take the tip credit at all for that period, which means it owes you the full minimum wage in cash regardless of how much you received in tips. The rule is designed to make sure you know, in advance, exactly how your pay is being calculated.
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
When Arizona law and federal law both apply and they disagree, an employer must comply with the standard most protective to employees. That means you get the better of the two rules, not the worse. For tipped workers in Arizona, this matters because the state sets a higher minimum cash wage than the federal floor, and the state's minimum wage itself is higher than the federal minimum wage. Your employer cannot point to the lower federal numbers to justify paying you less than Arizona requires; it has to follow whichever rule puts more money in your pocket on each payday. The principle applies across the board, not just to wages, so if one law gives you stronger notice protections or tighter tip-pooling rules, that is the one your employer must follow.
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 Arizona, regardless of whether your 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. Your tips belong to you, not to the restaurant, the hotel, or the business that pays you. This rule extends beyond the owner: your manager and your supervisor are also barred from taking any share of your tips, even if the employer pays you the full minimum wage in cash and does not use a tip credit at all. An employer cannot require you to hand over your tips, and it cannot use a tip pool as a back door to funnel money to management. The prohibition is absolute, and it covers any arrangement, direct or indirect, that would let the employer or its supervisors benefit from the tips you receive from customers.
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 Arizona, when your employer takes a tip credit, any mandatory tip pool it requires you to join is limited to employees in occupations in which they customarily and regularly receive tips. That means your tips can only be shared with other front-of-house workers like servers, bussers, bartenders, and bellhops, not with cooks, dishwashers, or back-of-house staff who do not traditionally receive tips from customers. The employer must also notify you of the required contribution amount, and it can only take a tip credit for the tips you actually keep after the pool is distributed, not for tips that go to other people. If the pool includes anyone who does not customarily and regularly receive tips, the arrangement violates the rule and the employer may lose the right to take the tip credit altogether.
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 Arizona, when you work two separate jobs for the same employer, you are a tipped employee only with respect to the job where you customarily and regularly receive tips. For example, if you work as a maintenance worker at a hotel and also serve as a server, and you receive at least the required monthly amount in tips from your server work, the employer can take a tip credit only for the hours you spend serving, not for the hours you spend doing maintenance. For your non-tipped job, the employer must pay you the full minimum wage without relying on any tip credit. The rule prevents employers from blending two distinct occupations and using your tips from one to reduce your pay in the other. It applies only when the jobs are genuinely separate; it does not apply to related duties like a server who also cleans tables or makes coffee as part of the same serving occupation.
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
Arizona $15.15 $3.00 $12.15 Not specified
Other years
- 2026
Every Arizona Tipped Minimum Wage year · Tipped Minimum Wage in every state