Arkansas Tipped Minimum Wage 2026
Current year
The 2026 Arkansas Tipped Minimum Wage is $2.63.
Effective 2026-01-01Source: Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees (DOL)Verified 2026-08-30
Compared with 2025
Every figure on this page is unchanged from 2025.
| Item | 2025 | 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum cash wage | $2.63 | $2.63 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
Who it applies to
Employers of tipped employees in Arkansas. 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 $2.63 per hour as the minimum cash wage an employer may pay a tipped employee in Arkansas. 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 Arkansas in 2026?
- $2.63 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 Arkansas. 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 Arkansas, you are 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. This definition applies to workers such as servers, bartenders, bellhops, and bussers whose job duties regularly generate customer gratuities. Only the tips you actually receive count toward this threshold. If your tips fall below this amount, or if your occupation is not one where tips are customarily received, your employer must pay you the full minimum wage and cannot use the tip credit rules described below. Meeting this definition is the gateway to the tipped-employee wage structure, where your employer may pay a lower direct cash wage and count a portion of your tips toward its minimum-wage obligation.
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 Arkansas, the tip credit is the amount your employer counts from your tips toward its minimum wage obligation. Under the FLSA, an employer can take a tip credit equal to the difference between the direct wage—or cash wage—it pays you directly and the federal minimum wage. Arkansas employers must pay you at least the minimum cash wage of $2.63 per hour in cash. The tip credit fills the gap between that cash wage and the federal minimum wage, but the employer cannot claim a credit larger than the tips you actually bring in. Every workweek, your employer must be able to show that your cash wage plus the tips you kept add up to at least the full minimum wage. If the combination falls short in any workweek, the employer must top off your pay.
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 Arkansas, if your tips combined with the cash wage your employer pays you do not add up to the full minimum wage in any workweek, the employer must make up the difference out of its own pocket. This rule applies every single workweek; an employer cannot average your earnings across weeks or months. The employer cannot shift this shortfall to you. At your regular payday for the period in which the workweek ends, the employer must pay enough to bring your total hourly earnings up to the minimum wage. This protection ensures that no matter how slow business is or how few tips you receive in a given week, you will never take home less than the minimum wage for the hours you worked.
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 Arkansas, before an employer can take a tip credit against your wages, it must first give you specific written or oral notice of the provisions that apply to you. The notice must include the amount of the direct cash wage the employer is paying you, the additional amount the employer is claiming as a tip credit, and the fact that the credit cannot exceed the tips you actually received. It must also tell you that all your tips belong to you except for any valid tip pool, and that the tip credit will not apply unless you have been informed of all these provisions. If the employer fails to give you this notice before processing your pay, it cannot use the tip credit at all and must pay you the full minimum wage directly.
Employers must provide the following information to tipped employees before taking a tip credit under the FLSA: the amount of the direct (or cash) wage the employer is paying a tipped employee, which must be at least $2.13 per hour; the additional amount claimed by the employer as a tip credit, which cannot exceed $5.12 (the difference between the minimum required direct (or cash) wage of $2.13 and the current minimum wage of $7.25); that the tip credit claimed by the employer cannot exceed the amount of tips actually received by the tipped employee; that all tips received by the tipped employee are to be retained by the employee except for a valid tip pooling arrangement limited to employees who customarily and regularly receive tips; and that the tip credit will not apply to any tipped employee unless the employee has been informed of these tip credit provisions.
Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (DOL)
When state law gives more than the federal rule
In Arkansas, when state law and the federal FLSA set different rules for tipped employees, the employer must follow whichever standard gives you more protection. For example, if Arkansas requires a higher cash wage than the federal floor or limits the tip credit more strictly, the employer must comply with Arkansas's rule. This principle means that the $2.63 minimum cash wage in Arkansas applies instead of any lower federal cash wage if the Arkansas amount is higher. Similarly, if Arkansas outright prohibits the tip credit in certain situations, the employer cannot use the federal provision to pay you less. Workers in Arkansas should always look to whichever rule, state or federal, puts more money in their pocket, because that is the one the employer is legally required to 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 Arkansas, the FLSA prohibits employers from keeping any portion of your tips for any purpose, whether directly or through a tip pool. This rule applies regardless of whether the employer takes a tip credit. Your employer, your manager, and your supervisor may not require you to hand over your tips to them, even if the employer pays you the full minimum wage directly and takes no tip credit at all. A manager or supervisor is defined as someone whose primary duty is managing the enterprise or a department, who regularly directs the work of at least two full-time employees, and who has authority over hiring and firing. A manager may keep only those tips a customer gives directly for service the manager personally and solely provided. Any other taking of your tips is a violation of federal law.
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 Arkansas, if your employer takes a tip credit and requires you to participate in a tip pool, that pool is limited to employees in occupations in which they customarily and regularly receive tips. Examples of eligible occupations include waiters, bellhops, counter personnel who serve customers, bussers, and service bartenders. The employer may not put your contributed tips into a pool that includes back-of-house workers such as cooks or dishwashers when it is using the tip credit. The employer must also notify you of the required contribution amount and may only take a tip credit for the tips you ultimately receive after the pool is distributed. Managers and supervisors are never allowed to receive any share from such a pool, and the employer itself may not retain any of the tips for any other purpose.
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 Arkansas, if you hold two distinct jobs with the same employer, you are a tipped employee only with respect to the job in which you customarily and regularly receive tips. For example, if you work as a hotel maintenance person and also work as a server, and you receive at least $30 a month in tips from your server work, the employer may take the tip credit for your hours as a server. However, no tip credit may be taken for the hours you spend working as a maintenance person; for those hours, the employer must pay you the full minimum wage directly. This is different from a server who occasionally does related duties like cleaning tables or making coffee; those incidental tasks remain part of the tipped occupation. The key question is whether you are truly employed in two separate occupations or simply performing duties that are related to your one tipped job.
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
Arkansas $11.00 $8.37 $2.63 Not specified
By year
Every published year
12 years on record, 2026 back to 2015. Each year links to its own page, its own document and its own verification date.