2016 Arkansas Tipped Minimum Wage
The 2016 Arkansas Tipped Minimum Wage is $2.63.
Effective 2016-01-01Source: Minimum Wage and Overtime (Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing)Verified 2026-08-31
Compared with 2015
Every figure on this page is unchanged from 2015.
| Item | 2015 | 2016 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum cash wage | $2.63 | $2.63 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
Who it applies to
Tipped employees covered by the Arkansas Minimum Wage Act
What changed this year, and why
In 2016, Arkansas set its minimum cash wage for tipped employees at $2.63 per hour. This amount remained unchanged from 2015, when the minimum cash wage was also $2.63 per hour.
Common questions
- What was the tipped minimum cash wage in Arkansas in 2016?
- In 2016, the tipped minimum wage in Arkansas was $2.63 per hour in cash wages. An employer must ensure that the employee's tips bring total earnings up to at least the full applicable minimum wage. If tips fall short, the employer must make up the difference.
What a tip credit is, and the cash wage underneath it
In Arkansas, an employer may claim a tip credit against its minimum wage obligation, paying a tipped employee a direct cash wage as low as $2.63 per hour. The tip credit equals the difference between that direct wage and the full minimum wage. The employer is allowed to count a portion of the tips you receive toward satisfying its minimum-wage duty, but only up to that difference. If your tips are large enough, your total earnings (the $2.63 cash wage plus tips) reach or exceed the applicable minimum wage, and the employer owes nothing extra. If your tips are not large enough to bridge that gap, the employer must add enough to your pay to bring you up to the minimum wage. Arkansas employers must follow whichever rule — federal or state — gives the worker the greater protection. This means the tip credit cannot reduce your total compensation below the minimum wage for the hours you actually worked. The employer keeps accurate records of the tips you report and the credit it claims.
Tipped employees must be paid at least $2.63 per hour. The tips they earn must be enough to bring them up to the applicable minimum wage per hour. If the tips do not bring them up to minimum wage, the employer must add enough to their pay to do so. It is the employer’s responsibility to keep accurate tip records.
Minimum Wage and Overtime (Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing)
When the tips do not get you to the minimum wage
In Arkansas, if your tips do not bring your total earnings up to the applicable minimum wage, your employer must make up the difference. The employer can pay you as little as $2.63 per hour in direct cash wages, but only if your tips fill the gap to the full minimum wage. When they do not — for example, during slow shifts, off-peak seasons, or in establishments with low customer traffic — the employer is required to add enough to your pay to reach the minimum wage for every hour you worked. This guarantee applies to each workweek and every hour within it. Arkansas employers must follow whichever standard — federal or state — is most protective of workers. You do not absorb the shortfall; the employer does. The employer must keep accurate tip records to track what you earned and where any top-up was needed. This rule ensures that the tip credit never results in sub-minimum-wage compensation for Arkansas workers, no matter how variable their tip income may be.
If the tips do not bring them up to minimum wage, the employer must add enough to their pay to do so.
Minimum Wage and Overtime (Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing)
The notice an employer owes you before it takes the credit
In Arkansas, before an employer can pay you the reduced tipped wage of $2.63 per hour, it must inform you about the tip arrangement. The employer must tell you the cash wage it will pay, the amount it counts as a tip credit, that the credit cannot exceed your actual tips, that you keep all your tips except for valid tip-pool contributions, and that you have the right to enforce these protections. This notice must come before the employer starts taking the credit. If the employer fails to provide this information, it cannot claim the tip credit and must pay you the full minimum wage. It is the employer's responsibility to keep accurate tip records, and part of that responsibility is ensuring you understand how your pay is calculated. Arkansas employers must follow whichever standard — federal or state — gives workers the greatest protection. This notice requirement ensures transparency so that Arkansas tipped workers know exactly what portion of their compensation comes from the employer versus tips.
It is the employer’s responsibility to keep accurate tip records.
Minimum Wage and Overtime (Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing)
Which tip pools you can be made to join
In Arkansas, tip pools are limited to employees in occupations in which they customarily and regularly receive tips. This means you can only be required to contribute your tips to a pool that includes other tipped employees — such as servers, bartenders, bussers, and food runners — who also regularly receive gratuities. You cannot be forced to share tips with cooks, dishwashers, janitors, or other non-tipped workers. The tip pool must be structured so that only those who customarily receive tips participate, and the pool cannot include managers, supervisors, or the employer. Tipped employees must be paid at least $2.63 per hour, but this lower wage is only valid if the tip arrangement meets legal requirements. Arkansas employers must follow whichever standard — federal or state — gives the worker the greatest protection. If your employer requires you to participate in an invalid tip pool — one that includes non-tipped employees or managers — it may lose the right to take a tip credit and could owe you the full minimum wage.
Tipped employees must be paid at least $2.63 per hour.
Minimum Wage and Overtime (Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing)
Doing two jobs for one employer
In Arkansas, if you work in multiple roles for the same employer — for example, as both a server and a host — you are a tipped employee only with respect to your employment as a server. This means your employer can pay you the lower tipped cash wage of $2.63 per hour only for the hours you spend in the tipped occupation. For the hours you spend in the non-tipped role, your employer must pay you at least the full minimum wage. The dual-jobs rule prevents employers from blurring the lines between tipped and non-tipped work to avoid paying the full wage. If the tips do not bring you up to minimum wage for your tipped hours, the employer must add enough to your pay to do so. Arkansas employers must follow whichever standard — federal or state — gives the worker the greatest protection. You should track your hours in each role and ensure you are paid correctly for both. If your employer requires you to perform substantial non-tipped work but pays you only the tipped wage for all hours, it may be violating the law.
If the tips do not bring them up to minimum wage, the employer must add enough to their pay to do so.
Minimum Wage and Overtime (Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing)
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 Wage and Overtime (Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing)
- Minimum cash wage
Tipped employees must be paid at least $2.63 per hour.
Other years
Every Arkansas Tipped Minimum Wage year · Tipped Minimum Wage in every state