2017 Georgia Tipped Minimum Wage
The 2017 Georgia Tipped Minimum Wage is $2.13.
Effective 2017-01-01Source: Individuals FAQs - Fair Labor Standards Act (Georgia Department of Labor)Verified 2026-09-01
Compared with 2016
Every figure on this page is unchanged from 2016.
| Item | 2016 | 2017 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum cash wage | $2.13 | $2.13 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
Who it applies to
Tipped employees covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act in Georgia
What changed this year, and why
The federal minimum cash wage for tipped employees remained $2.13 per hour in 2017.
Common questions
- What is the minimum cash wage for tipped employees in Georgia in 2017?
- Employers of tipped employees are required to pay a minimum cash wage of $2.13 per hour, provided that amount plus tips received equals at least the federal minimum wage for each hour worked. If it does not, the employer must make up the difference.
Who counts as a tipped employee
In Georgia, a tipped employee is someone who works in an occupation where they customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips. This threshold is what determines whether the federal Fair Labor Standards Act rules for tipped workers apply to you. If you do not meet that monthly tip amount, your employer cannot use the tipped-employee provisions and must pay you at least the regular minimum wage in direct wages, without counting any tips toward that 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 Georgia, the tip credit is the amount an employer can subtract from the minimum wage it owes you, counting the tips you receive from customers. The employer must still pay you a direct cash wage of at least $2.13 per hour. The tip credit is the gap between that cash wage and the full minimum wage, so the employer pays you $2.13 directly and treats the remaining portion of the minimum wage as covered by your tips. The employer is responsible for making sure your cash wage plus your tips together reach at least the full minimum wage in every workweek.
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 Georgia, if your tips combined with the direct cash wage your employer pays you do not add up to at least the full minimum wage in any workweek, your employer must make up the difference. This obligation runs every single workweek, not just over a pay period or an average of slower and busier weeks. It means the employer cannot count on a busy Saturday to cover a slow Tuesday; in each workweek, the cash wage plus the tips you actually received must reach the minimum wage, and if they fall short, the employer owes you the shortfall out of its own funds.
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 Georgia, before your employer can take a tip credit against your wages, it must first give you notice containing specific information. That notice must tell you the amount of the direct cash wage your employer is paying you (at least $2.13 per hour), the additional amount the employer is claiming as a tip credit, that the tip credit cannot exceed the tips you actually receive, that you keep all your tips except through a valid tip pool limited to customarily tipped employees, and that the tip credit does not apply unless you have been informed of all of these provisions. The notice can be given orally or in writing. However, if the employer fails to provide this information to you, it cannot take the tip credit at all — meaning it owes you the full minimum wage without counting any of your tips.
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 Georgia, when state law differs from the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, an employer must follow whichever rule is more favorable to the employee. For the tipped minimum wage, this means Georgia employers must pay the higher cash wage if state law sets one, and they cannot take a tip credit if state law prohibits it. As a practical matter, if Georgia's own rules ever require a cash wage higher than $2.13 or bar the tip credit altogether, your Georgia employer must obey that stricter rule, not the more permissive federal one.
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)
Which tip pools you can be made to join
Under federal law, which sets the tipped minimum wage in Georgia at $2.13 per hour, an employer that takes a tip credit may require tipped workers to contribute to a mandatory tip pool, but only if every person who receives money from that pool works in an occupation where tips are customary. That means the pool can include only waiters, bellhops, counter personnel who serve customers, bussers, and service bartenders — people who customarily and regularly receive tips. Managers, supervisors, and the employer itself are barred from taking any share. The employer must also tell tipped employees how much they are required to contribute and may count only the tips each worker actually keeps after the pool is distributed when it calculates its tip credit. Any arrangement that pulls in non-tipped staff, or that lets the business keep any of the pooled tips, violates the rule and can put the employer's right to claim the tip credit at risk.
Traditional Tip Pooling: 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
Georgia follows the federal dual-jobs rule for tipped workers earning the $2.13 cash wage. When one person holds two distinct jobs for the same employer — for example, a hotel maintenance worker who also works shifts as a server — the employer may take a tip credit only for the hours spent in the tipped occupation. The worker counts as a tipped employee solely with respect to the server role, and only if they customarily and regularly receive at least $30 a month in tips from that work. For every hour spent on the non-tipped side of the job, the employer must pay the full minimum wage and cannot apply any tip credit, even if the worker earned generous tips during their server hours that same day. The rule does not apply to incidental duties within a tipped occupation: a server who cleans tables, toasts bread, or makes coffee between customers is still performing server work the whole time, and the tip credit continues to apply to those hours.
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.
Individuals FAQs - Fair Labor Standards Act (Georgia Department of Labor)
- Minimum cash wage
An employer of a tipped employee is only required to pay $2.13 an hour in direct wages
Other years
Every Georgia Tipped Minimum Wage year · Tipped Minimum Wage in every state