2022 Delaware Tipped Minimum Wage
The 2022 Delaware Tipped Minimum Wage is $2.23.
Effective 2022-01-01Source: Delaware Department of Labor Labor Law Poster (Delaware Department of Labor, Division of Industrial Affairs)Verified 2026-09-01
Compared with 2021
Every figure on this page is unchanged from 2021.
| Item | 2021 | 2022 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum cash wage | $2.23 | $2.23 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
Who it applies to
Employers in Delaware who have employees that receive tips, such as those in the restaurant and hospitality industries
What changed this year, and why
Delaware's minimum cash wage for tipped employees is $2.23 per hour in 2022. This rate was set by the Delaware Department of Labor and has remained unchanged for many years. Employers must pay at least this cash wage to tipped employees and must be able to prove that the employee received enough tips to reach the full minimum wage rate. Delaware's tipped cash wage is higher than the federal requirement, and employers must pay the state rate.
Common questions
- What is the minimum cash wage for tipped employees in Delaware in 2022?
- The minimum cash wage for tipped employees in Delaware in 2022 is $2.23 per hour.
- Must a tipped employee in Delaware always earn at least the full minimum wage?
- Yes. The employer must be able to prove that the employee received enough tips to bring total compensation up to the full minimum wage rate. If tips are insufficient, the employer must make up the difference.
Who counts as a tipped employee
In Delaware, 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. That $30 threshold is the only gate: if your tips in a typical month stay at or below that amount, your employer cannot treat you as tipped and cannot use the tip credit rules described below. If you clear it, your employer may pay you the Delaware tipped cash wage of $2.23 per hour and count your tips toward the minimum wage, subject to the other protections on this page. The definition is about your occupation, not about whether tips arrive every single shift - what matters is that tips are a regular, customary part of the job you do.
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
A tip credit is the amount an employer counts from your tips toward its obligation to pay you the minimum wage. In Delaware, your employer pays you the cash wage of $2.23 per hour directly, and then treats your tips as filling the gap between that cash wage and the full minimum wage. The tip credit is the difference between the direct wage the employer pays you and the minimum wage it owes you. The employer still has to make sure that your cash wage plus your tips together reach at least the full minimum wage for every hour you work in every workweek - if they do not, the employer owes you the shortfall. Only tips you actually receive count toward this calculation; tips the employer keeps or that go to ineligible staff cannot be counted against what the employer owes you.
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 Delaware, if your tips plus your employer's cash wage do not add up to at least the full minimum wage for a workweek, your employer must pay you the shortfall. This is a per-workweek guarantee: slow nights, unpopular sections, and bad shifts do not shift the risk onto you. The employer cannot average a good week against a bad one. Before payroll closes, the employer has to confirm that your cash wage at $2.23 per hour plus the tips you actually kept covered the minimum wage for every hour you worked that week, and if the total came up short, the employer writes you a check for the difference so that your effective hourly rate for that week meets the minimum wage.
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 employer in Delaware can pay you the lower tipped cash wage of $2.23 and count your tips toward the minimum wage, it must tell you, in advance, specific facts about how the tip credit works. The notice must cover the cash wage the employer is paying you, the size of the tip credit it is claiming, the rule that the credit cannot exceed the tips you actually receive, the rule that you keep all your tips except for contributions to a valid tip pool, and the rule that the credit will not apply unless you have been given this information and have been allowed to keep all your tips. The notice can be oral or written, but if the employer does not give it before payroll runs, it loses the right to take any tip credit at all for that period and owes you the full minimum wage in cash.
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 Delaware, when state law and federal law differ, your employer must follow whichever rule gives you more protection. For tipped workers, this can matter in several ways. Delaware may require a higher cash wage than the federal floor, or it may limit how much of a tip credit an employer can take, or it may place tighter rules on tip pooling. Where Delaware law sets a higher cash wage than $2.23, your employer must pay that higher amount. Where Delaware law restricts tip pools or bans the tip credit altogether, those restrictions apply instead of the more permissive federal rule. You should look to Delaware's own labor department guidance to confirm which standard controls your situation.
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 Delaware, regardless of whether your employer takes a tip credit, it is prohibited from keeping any portion of your tips for any purpose, whether directly or through a tip pool. Your employer, your manager, and your supervisor may not require you to hand over your tips to them, even if they are paying you the full minimum wage and taking no tip credit at all. This rule applies to tips you receive from customers in cash, on a credit card, or through any other method. Managers and supervisors are identified by their duties, not just their job titles, so the prohibition extends to anyone exercising managerial authority over you. If your employer or a supervisor takes a share of your tips, that is a violation of federal law even where the tip itself was handed directly to you.
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 Delaware, when your employer takes a tip credit, any mandatory tip pool it requires you to join must be limited to employees in occupations where they customarily and regularly receive tips. This means the pool can include servers, bussers, bartenders, and similar roles, but cannot include back-of-house staff who do not customarily receive tips, such as cooks or dishwashers. Your employer must also notify you of the required contribution amount and may only claim a tip credit on the tips you actually keep after the pool is distributed. If the pool includes anyone who does not customarily and regularly receive tips, the arrangement is not valid and the employer loses the right to take the tip credit at all.
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 Delaware, if you work two distinct jobs for the same employer and only one of them is a tipped occupation, you are a tipped employee only with respect to that tipped job. For example, a hotel employee who works part of the week as a maintenance worker and part as a server is a tipped employee only for the server hours, provided they customarily and regularly receive at least $30 a month in tips as a server. For the maintenance hours, the employer must pay the full minimum wage in cash and cannot take a tip credit. This prevents employers from using a lower cash wage for work that is not customarily tipped, even if the same person also does tipped work at other times. Each job is evaluated separately based on whether tips are customarily and regularly received in that 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. The worker is employed in two occupations, and no tip credit can be taken for their hours of employment in their occupation as a maintenance person.
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.
Delaware Department of Labor Labor Law Poster (Delaware Department of Labor, Division of Industrial Affairs)
- Minimum cash wage
The minimum cash wage payable to employees who receive tips is $ 2.23 per hour, effective 10/1/96.
Other years
Every Delaware Tipped Minimum Wage year · Tipped Minimum Wage in every state