Indiana Tipped Minimum Wage 2026
Current year
The 2026 Indiana Tipped Minimum Wage is $2.13.
Effective 2026-01-01Source: Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees (DOL)Verified 2026-08-30
Compared with 2025
Every figure on this page is unchanged from 2025.
| Item | 2025 | 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum cash wage | $2.13 | $2.13 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
Who it applies to
Employers of tipped employees in Indiana. The cash wage is the part of the minimum wage the employer pays directly. The rest may be met by the employee's tips, up to the maximum tip credit the same row of the table states, and the table sets out separately how much an employee must receive in tips to count as a tipped employee at all.
What changed this year, and why
The Wage and Hour Division's table of minimum wages for tipped employees, in the version last revised July 1, 2026, gives $2.13 per hour as the minimum cash wage an employer may pay a tipped employee in Indiana. The table carries only its own revision date and never dates the rate, so this page reports the figure as in force as of that revision rather than claiming an effective date no document states.
Common questions
- What is the tipped minimum wage in Indiana in 2026?
- $2.13 per hour in cash wages. That is what the Department of Labor's table of minimum wages for tipped employees, last revised July 1, 2026, gives as the minimum cash wage for a tipped employee in Indiana. Tips make up the remainder of the applicable minimum wage, up to the maximum tip credit stated in the same row.
- What if tips do not bring the employee up to the full minimum wage?
- The employer pays the difference. A tip credit is a credit against the minimum wage the employer already owes, not a lower wage in its own right, so an employee whose cash wage and tips together fall short of the applicable minimum wage is owed the shortfall in wages.
- Where does the figure on this page come from?
- From Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees, the table the Wage and Hour Division publishes by state, in the version last revised July 1, 2026. The row it was read from is quoted on this page, and the snapshot it was verified against is the one captured for this record.
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
In Indiana, 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. This definition determines whether your employer is allowed to pay you the lower cash wage and claim a tip credit toward its minimum wage obligation. Only tips you actually receive are counted when deciding if you meet this threshold. If your tips regularly fall below $30 in a month, your employer must pay you the full minimum wage directly and cannot take advantage of the tip credit provisions that apply to tipped workers.
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 Indiana, your employer must pay you at least $2.13 per hour in cash wages and can take a tip credit for the difference between that amount and the federal minimum wage. This means the employer is using your tips to help cover what they owe you - they don't have to pay the full minimum wage directly if your tips make up the gap. The tip credit equals the difference between what the employer pays you directly and what the full minimum wage is. Your employer has to verify each workweek that your cash wages plus your tips together reach at least the minimum wage. If they don't, the employer must pay you the difference. Only tips you actually receive count toward this calculation - expected or anticipated tips don't matter.
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 Indiana, if your cash wages plus your tips don't add up to at least the federal minimum wage in any workweek, your employer has to pay you the shortfall. The employer must calculate this every single week - not monthly, not annually. So if you work a slow week where tips are low and your $2.13 per hour cash wage doesn't get you to the minimum wage, your employer must make up that gap before the next payday. This protects you from weeks when business is slow or customers are less generous. You're still guaranteed the full minimum wage for every hour you work, regardless of how much you actually earned in 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
In Indiana, before your employer can pay you less than the full minimum wage and claim a tip credit, they must give you notice of specific information. This includes telling you how much they're paying you in cash wages (at least $2.13 per hour), how much tip credit they're claiming, that the tip credit can't exceed what your tips actually cover, and that all tips you receive belong to you unless you're participating in a valid tip pool. The employer must give you this information before they start taking the tip credit - it can't come after the fact. If your employer fails to provide this notice, they lose the right to use the tip credit at all and must pay you the full minimum wage directly. This protects you from surprise wage reductions.
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
In Indiana, when state law and federal law both apply but give different protections, your employer must follow whichever rule gives you the better deal. This means if Indiana law requires a higher minimum cash wage than the federal $2.13, or if state law prohibits tip credits altogether, your employer must comply with the standard most protective to employees. You get the benefit of whichever rule pays you more or protects you better. For example, if federal law allows a certain practice but Indiana law bans it, your employer has to follow Indiana's stricter rule. This ensures you're not left worse off just because there are multiple laws that could apply to 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 Indiana, your employer, your manager, and your supervisor cannot keep any portion of your tips, no matter what. This rule applies whether or not the employer takes a tip credit. They can't require you to hand over your tips to them, even if they're paying you the full minimum wage and not using the tip credit at all. This means your tips belong to you - the people who work for tips get to keep what customers give them. The rule applies to managers and supervisors too, so your boss can't skim off the top or demand a cut of what you earn in tips. Your tips are your compensation for the service you provide to customers.
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 Indiana, if your employer takes a tip credit and pays you the lower cash wage, they can only require you to participate in a tip pool with other employees who also customarily and regularly receive tips. This means the pool is limited to employees in occupations in which they customarily and regularly receive tips - people like waiters, bussers, bartenders, and bellhops who regularly get tipped by customers. Your employer can't force you to share your tips with cooks, dishwashers, or other back-of-house staff who don't normally receive tips, unless they're paying everyone the full minimum wage. This protects tipped workers from having to subsidize employees who aren't in tip-receiving positions. If you're in a traditional tip pool, you're only sharing with others who do similar work.
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 Indiana, if you work two completely different jobs for the same employer - like being a maintenance worker and also working as a server - you're only considered a tipped employee for the job where you actually receive tips. The employer cannot take a tip credit for your hours working in the non-tipped position. Each job is treated separately for wage purposes. So if you spend some hours cleaning hotel rooms and other hours serving tables, your employer must pay you the full minimum wage for your maintenance hours, but can use the tip credit for your server hours. This prevents employers from using your tipped income to subsidize wages for work that doesn't involve receiving tips. The two jobs must be genuinely different occupations, not just different tasks within the same tipped job.
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.
Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees (DOL)
- Minimum cash wage
Indiana $7.25 $5.12 $2.13 More than $30
By year
Every published year
11 years on record, 2026 back to 2016. Each year links to its own page, its own document and its own verification date.