2021 Georgia Tipped Minimum Wage
The 2021 Georgia Tipped Minimum Wage is $2.13.
Effective 2021-01-01Source: Individuals FAQs - Fair Labor Standards Act (Georgia Department of Labor)Verified 2026-09-01
Compared with 2020
Every figure on this page is unchanged from 2020.
| Item | 2020 | 2021 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum cash wage | $2.13 | $2.13 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
Who it applies to
Tipped employees in Georgia covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act
What changed this year, and why
The minimum cash wage for tipped employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act, as published by the Georgia Department of Labor, is $2.13 per hour for 2021.
Common questions
- What is the tipped minimum wage in Georgia for 2021?
- In 2021, the minimum cash wage that an employer must pay a tipped employee in Georgia is $2.13 per hour. This amount must be paid in direct wages by the employer. If the cash wage plus the tips received does not equal at least the federal minimum wage for every hour worked, the employer is required to make up the difference.
Who counts as a tipped employee
In Georgia, you count as a tipped employee under federal law when you work in an occupation where tips are part of the job and you bring in more than $30 a month in tips on a regular basis. The $30 line is a bright threshold: if your tips stay at or below that amount, your employer cannot use them to offset its wage obligation, even if some customers do leave small amounts. Only tips you actually keep in hand count toward this test and toward the tip credit; compulsory service charges that the business adds to a bill and later hands out do not count as tips for this purpose. If you meet the definition, your employer may pay you the federal minimum cash wage of $2.13 an hour and claim the rest of the minimum wage from your tips, but only after giving you the required notice. If you do not meet the definition, your employer must pay you the full minimum wage with no tip credit at all.
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
Georgia employers that take a tip credit must pay each tipped worker a direct cash wage of at least $2.13 an hour. The tip credit itself is the gap between that cash wage and the full federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. The employer may count the worker's tips toward that gap, but only tips the employee actually receives count. The credit can never be larger than the difference between the cash wage and $7.25. Each workweek the employer must be able to show that the worker's cash wage plus the tips received add up to at least the full minimum wage. If they fall short, the employer pays the shortfall out of its own funds. The cash wage of $2.13 is owed no matter how low the tips are in a given week.
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
Georgia employers that take a tip credit must make sure their tipped workers reach the full federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour in every workweek. If the cash wage the employer pays, plus the tips the employee actually receives during that workweek, fall short of $7.25 an hour, the employer must make up the difference from its own funds. The shortfall is not averaged across weeks or months and it is not absorbed by busier weeks: the test is applied workweek by workweek, and any gap must be closed by the regular payday for the period in which the workweek ends. The minimum cash wage of $2.13 an hour still has to be paid regardless of how small the tip total is. In slow weeks, the employer effectively bears the risk of low tips, not the worker, and it cannot shift that risk by reducing the cash wage below $2.13 or by keeping any portion of the tips.
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 a Georgia employer can count tips toward its minimum wage obligation, it must give each tipped worker a specific set of information. The employer must tell the worker the amount of the cash wage it is paying, which must be at least $2.13 per hour; the amount it claims as a tip credit; that the tip credit cannot exceed the tips the worker actually receives; that the worker keeps all tips except for a valid pool limited to employees who customarily receive tips; and that the tip credit will not apply unless the worker has been told all of this. The notice may be oral or written, but it must come before the employer starts taking the credit. If the employer fails to give it, it cannot take the tip credit at all and must pay the full minimum wage in cash. In Georgia, this means a tipped worker who never receives the required notice is entitled to the full minimum wage with no offset for tips.
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); that the tip credit claimed by the employer cannot exceed the amount of tips actually received by the tipped employee; that all tips received by the tipped employee are to be retained by the employee except for a valid tip pooling arrangement limited to employees who customarily and regularly receive tips; and that the tip credit will not apply to any tipped employee unless the employee has been informed of these tip credit provisions.
Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (DOL)
When state law gives more than the federal rule
When Georgia's own wage law sets a better standard for tipped workers than the federal FLSA rules, the more generous standard controls. An employer operating in the state must comply with whichever rule, federal or state, is most protective to employees. If Georgia law requires a higher cash wage than the federal $2.13 an hour, or caps the tip credit at a smaller amount, or in some cases prohibits taking a tip credit at all, the employer must follow that state rule. The federal rules act as a floor, not a ceiling. In practice, a Georgia employer must know both the federal and state numbers and pay whichever combination leaves the worker better off. An employer that follows only the federal rule when the state rule is stronger is violating the law, even if the federal numbers are technically satisfied.
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 a Georgia 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. An employer may not require a worker to hand over their tips to the business, to a supervisor, or to a manager. This rule applies even when the employer pays the full minimum wage in cash and takes no tip credit at all. Tips belong to the worker who received them. A manager or supervisor who takes a share, or an employer that diverts tips into house revenue, violates the law and may be required to return the tips and to pay the full minimum wage for the affected period. The prohibition is broad: it covers any arrangement, however labeled, that moves tips from the worker's pocket to anyone above them in the chain of command.
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
Georgia employers that take a tip credit may require tipped workers to join a tip pool, but the pool is limited to employees in occupations in which they customarily and regularly receive tips. That means servers, bartenders, bussers, and similar front-of-house roles can share a pool, but back-of-house staff such as cooks and dishwashers who do not customarily receive tips cannot be included. If an employer puts non-tip-earning workers into the pool while also taking a tip credit, it loses the credit and must pay the full minimum wage for the affected period. An employer that does not take a tip credit has more flexibility and may include non-tipped workers in the pool, but the pool still cannot be used to benefit supervisors or managers. Employees in a valid pool receive only their share of the distributed tips, and the employer must fully distribute collected tips by the regular payday for the workweek.
When the employer takes a tip credit, the employer can require the employee to share tips only with those employees who customarily and regularly receive tips, such as a server or bartender.
Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (DOL)
Doing two jobs for one employer
A Georgia worker who holds two genuinely different jobs for the same employer is treated as a tipped employee only with respect to their employment as a server, or whatever other tipped occupation they perform. If a hotel maintenance worker also serves food and regularly receives more than $30 a month in tips for the serving work, the employer may take a tip credit for the hours spent serving, but it cannot take a tip credit for the hours spent doing maintenance. For the non-tipped occupation, the worker must be paid at least the full minimum wage in cash, with no offset for tips. The rule draws a line between genuinely separate occupations and related duties that are part of the same tipped occupation. A server who also cleans tables, toasts bread, or makes coffee is still doing server work, and the tip credit still applies to those hours. The dual-job rule only applies when the worker is truly switching between two distinct occupations.
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