2018 Georgia Tipped Minimum Wage
The 2018 Georgia Tipped Minimum Wage is $2.13.
Effective 2018-01-01Source: Individuals FAQs - Fair Labor Standards Act (Georgia Department of Labor)Verified 2026-09-01
Compared with 2017
Every figure on this page is unchanged from 2017.
| Item | 2017 | 2018 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum cash wage | $2.13 | $2.13 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
Who it applies to
Employers of tipped employees in Georgia subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act
What changed this year, and why
The 2018 minimum cash wage for tipped employees in Georgia, as published by the Georgia Department of Labor under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Common questions
- What is the minimum cash wage an employer must pay a tipped employee?
- An employer must pay at least $2.13 per hour in direct wages. If that amount plus the tips received does not equal at least the federal minimum wage for each hour worked, the employer must make up the difference.
- What happens if a tipped employee's tips plus the cash wage do not reach the federal minimum wage?
- If the tips received in any hour, combined with the $2.13 cash wage, fall short of the federal minimum wage, the employer must pay the difference for that hour.
Who counts as a tipped employee
In Georgia, federal law under the Fair Labor Standards Act sets the definition of who counts as a tipped employee. 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. This $30 monthly threshold is the bright line: if a Georgia worker in a serving, bartending, or similar role typically earns more than $30 per month in tips from customers, their employer may treat them as a tipped employee for wage purposes and, if it chooses, apply a tip credit against its minimum wage obligation. Workers who receive tips only occasionally or whose monthly tips fall below $30 are not classified as tipped employees under this rule, and the special tipped-employee provisions—including the lower cash wage—do not apply to them.
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 Fair Labor Standards Act allows an employer to count a portion of a tipped employee's tips toward its minimum wage obligation, known as the tip credit. The employer must still pay the worker a direct cash wage of at least $2.13 per hour, and the tip credit makes up the rest of the minimum wage. 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. This means the employer's maximum tip credit is the gap between the $2.13 cash wage and the full minimum wage. However, the employer can only claim the credit if the employee's actual tips plus the cash wage reach at least the minimum wage in every workweek. Only tips the employee actually receives count toward this calculation.
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 your employer's cash wage do not add up to the full federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour in a given workweek, the employer must make up the difference out of its own pocket. This is a workweek-by-workweek guarantee: the employer cannot average a slow week against a busy week, and it cannot shift the shortfall onto you. The rule exists precisely because the tipped cash wage of $2.13 per hour is below the regular minimum wage, so the employer is betting that your tips will close the gap. When they do not, the employer bears the loss, not the employee. You are still owed the full minimum wage for every hour you worked that week regardless of how much business was slow.
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 an employer can take a tip credit against your wages, it must give you notice — either oral or written — covering five specific points: the exact cash wage it is paying you (which must be at least $2.13 per hour); the amount of the tip credit it is claiming; the fact that the credit cannot be larger than the tips you actually receive; that you keep all of your tips except for a valid tip pool among customarily tipped employees; and that the credit does not apply unless you have been told all of this. If the employer fails to give you this information before taking the credit, it loses the right to claim the tip credit at all and must pay you the full minimum wage in cash for every hour you worked, regardless of how much you earned in 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 and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act set different rules for tipped employees, the employer must follow whichever standard is more protective of the worker. For example, if Georgia law were to require a cash wage higher than the federal floor of $2.13 per hour, or to forbid the tip credit altogether, the employer would have to follow that state rule instead of the more lenient federal one. In practice, Georgia does not have its own separate tipped-minimum-wage statute that exceeds the federal floor, so Georgia tipped employees are covered by the federal FLSA rules described on this page — including the $2.13 minimum cash wage and the employer's obligation to make up any shortfall. But the principle remains: if Georgia ever adopts a rule that pays tipped workers more, the more generous rule controls.
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 Georgia, the Fair Labor Standards Act makes clear that your employer, your manager, and your supervisor may not keep any part of the tips you earn. This rule applies no matter whether your employer takes a tip credit against the minimum wage or pays you the full minimum wage in cash. You cannot be forced to hand your tips over to the business, to a supervisor, or to a manager. The prohibition covers tips taken directly and tips taken indirectly through a tip pool arrangement. Even though Georgia employers may pay tipped workers the federal cash wage of $2.13 per hour and rely on tips to cover the rest of the minimum wage, that does not give the employer any right to share in the tips employees receive.
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
When an employer in Georgia takes a tip credit and pays the tipped cash wage of $2.13, it may require workers to pool their tips, but only with other employees who customarily and regularly receive tips themselves. Acceptable participants in such a "traditional" tip pool include occupations such as waiters, bellhops, counter personnel who serve customers, bussers, and service bartenders. Managers, supervisors, and employees in back-of-house roles that do not typically receive tips from customers may not be included. The employer must tell tipped workers how much they are required to contribute and may only claim the tip credit based on what each tipped employee actually ends up with after the pool is divided.
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 Georgia, an employee who works in two different roles for the same employer is treated as a tipped employee only for the role in which they customarily and regularly receive at least $30 a month in tips. For example, if a hotel maintenance worker also works as a server and earns the required tip threshold in the server role, the employer may take a tip credit — and pay the cash wage of $2.13 — only for the hours spent working as a server. For every hour spent performing maintenance duties, no tip credit is allowed and the employer must pay the full minimum wage. The two jobs must be genuinely distinct; merely performing duties closely related to the tipped occupation does not create a separate dual-job situation.
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