2025 Delaware Tipped Minimum Wage
The 2025 Delaware Tipped Minimum Wage is $2.23.
Effective 2025-01-01Source: Delaware Department of Labor Labor Law Poster (Delaware Department of Labor, Division of Industrial Affairs)Verified 2026-09-01
Compared with 2024
Every figure on this page is unchanged from 2024.
| Item | 2024 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum cash wage | $2.23 | $2.23 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
Who it applies to
Delaware employers with employees who receive tips
What changed this year, and why
Delaware's minimum cash wage for tipped employees
Common questions
- How much must an employer pay a tipped employee?
- The minimum cash wage is $2.23 per hour. The employer must be able to prove that the employee received enough tips to reach the full minimum wage.
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
A tipped employee is any person working in a job where they are expected to and actually do collect tips on a routine basis. The federal rule uses a simple threshold: the worker must customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips from that occupation. If you work in a role where customers tip you as part of normal service—such as a waiter, bartender, bellhop, or similar position—and those tips add up to more than $30 each month, you are a tipped employee under the law in Delaware. Only the tips you actually take in count toward this test. Being classified as a tipped employee does not by itself reduce what you are owed; it simply opens the door for your employer to use the tip credit rules described in the sections below. If your occupation does not usually produce tips, or if you earn less than $30 a month from them, you are not a tipped employee and must be paid the full minimum wage without any 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
Delaware allows employers to count a portion of a tipped employee's tips toward the state minimum wage obligation, a mechanism called the tip credit. Under Delaware law for 2025, the minimum cash wage an employer must pay a tipped worker directly is $2.23 per hour. The employer may then claim a tip credit equal to the difference between that direct cash wage and the full state minimum wage, using the employee's actual tips to make up the remainder. This means the worker must receive at least $2.23 per hour in wages from the employer before tips are counted. If the employee's tips combined with the $2.23 cash wage do not reach the full minimum wage for the hours worked in a given workweek, the employer must increase the direct wage to cover the shortfall—the tip credit cannot be used to pay less than the minimum wage overall. Only tips actually received by the employee count toward the credit; the employer cannot claim tips that were never handed to the worker. The tip credit structure ensures tipped employees earn at least the full minimum wage when their cash wage and verified tips are added together.
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
Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (DOL)
When the tips do not get you to the minimum wage
The tip credit only works if your tips close the gap every single workweek. If an employee's tips combined with the employer's direct wages do not reach the minimum hourly wage in any workweek, the employer must make up the difference. In Delaware, where the cash wage is $2.23 per hour, this backstop matters because you depend on tips to fill most of the gap. The employer has to add up your cash wage and your tips for the week and write you a check for whatever is missing. A slow night or a bad shift does not excuse it; the employer bears the risk of low tips, not you. If it fails to do this, it owes you back wages for every hour the total came up short.
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 can count any of your tips toward the minimum wage, it must give you advance notice of the arrangement. Employers must provide the following information to tipped employees before taking a tip credit under the FLSA: the cash wage it is paying, the amount of tip credit it is claiming, that the credit cannot exceed the tips you actually receive, that you must be allowed to keep all your tips except for valid tip-pool contributions, and that the credit will not apply unless you have been told these things. In Delaware, where the minimum cash wage is $2.23, this notice is how you confirm the employer is paying at least that amount and is not claiming too large a credit. The employer may give the notice orally or in writing, but if it fails to provide it, it cannot take the tip credit at all and must pay the full minimum wage in cash.
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);
Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (DOL)
When state law gives more than the federal rule
The federal FLSA sets a floor for tipped employees, but many states give workers more than the federal rules require. When state law differs from the federal FLSA, an employer must comply with the standard most protective to employees. In Delaware, this principle means you get whichever rule pays you more or protects you better. Delaware requires a minimum cash wage of $2.23 per hour for tipped employees, which is higher than the federal cash wage, so employers in Delaware must pay you at least that amount even though the federal floor is lower. If Delaware ever required the full minimum wage without any tip credit, or imposed stricter rules on tip pooling or notice, those rules would control over the weaker federal ones. Your employer cannot point to the federal rule to justify paying you less than Delaware law demands.
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
Regardless of whether your employer takes a tip credit, it may not keep any portion of your tips for any purpose. The law prohibits employers from keeping any portion of employees' tips, whether directly or through a tip pool. In Delaware, this means your employer cannot require you to hand over your tips to the business, to a manager, or to a supervisor, even if the employer pays you the full minimum wage out of its own pocket and takes no tip credit at all. Tips belong to the employees who earned them from customers. A manager or supervisor who receives any share of your tips violates this rule, and the employer is responsible for the violation. This protection applies whether the tips were in cash, added to a credit card receipt, or collected through a mandatory tip pool that was later determined to be invalid.
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
When an employer takes a tip credit, it may require you to join a tip pool, but only a traditional one. A traditional tip pool 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. In Delaware, this means if you are a tipped worker paid the $2.23 minimum cash wage, your employer can only include you in a pool with other traditionally tipped staff. Cooks, dishwashers, janitors, managers, and supervisors cannot be in the same pool. The employer must also tell you the required contribution and may only take a tip credit on the tips you actually keep after the pool is distributed. If the employer pays you the full minimum wage without a tip credit, a broader group may be included, but managers and supervisors are still excluded from any share.
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
When you work two different jobs for the same employer, one that produces tips and one that does not, 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 $30 a month in tips from the server work, the employer may apply the tip credit only to the hours you spend serving. No tip credit may be taken for the hours you spend doing maintenance work; for those hours the employer must pay you at least the full minimum wage directly. In Delaware, where the minimum cash wage is $2.23, this rule prevents an employer from averaging your tips across a mixed-shift day and paying you a reduced wage for non-tipped duties. Your employer must clearly separate the two roles and track your hours in each, or it risks owing you back wages for any hour that was misclassified.
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.
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