2024 Iowa Tipped Minimum Wage
The 2024 Iowa Tipped Minimum Wage is $4.35.
Effective 2024-01-01Source: Wage Claims FAQ (Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing)Verified 2026-09-01
Compared with 2023
Every figure on this page is unchanged from 2023.
| Item | 2023 | 2024 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum cash wage | $4.35 | $4.35 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
Who it applies to
Iowa employees who receive tips and their employers
What changed this year, and why
The minimum cash wage for tipped employees in Iowa is $4.35 per hour for 2024.
Common questions
- What is the tipped minimum wage in Iowa for 2024?
- Employers may pay a minimum cash wage of $4.35 per hour to employees who receive at least a set amount per month in tips.
- What happens if my tips are not enough to bring my total pay up to minimum wage?
- If the cash wage plus tips do not average at least the full minimum wage in a work week, the employer must pay the difference.
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 Iowa, a worker counts as a tipped employee if they customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips. That threshold is what separates tipped workers — such as servers, bartenders, and baggage handlers — from employees who must receive the full minimum wage in cash from their employer. Once an Iowa worker meets the $30-a-month tip test, the employer is allowed to pay them the lower tipped cash wage instead of the full minimum wage, and to count a portion of the employee's tips toward meeting the minimum-wage obligation. Workers who receive fewer than $30 in tips in a typical month do not qualify for the tipped-employee classification and must be paid at least the regular minimum wage in direct wages, regardless of whether any tips happen to come in. The $30 figure is measured monthly, so an employee whose tips fluctuate but average above that level still meets the test.
If you make $30 per month or more in tips, the employer may pay as little as $4.35 per hour.
Wage Claims FAQ (Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing)
What a tip credit is, and the cash wage underneath it
Under Iowa law, an employer of a tipped employee may satisfy part of the minimum-wage obligation with the worker's tips rather than paying it all in cash. The lowest direct cash wage the employer can pay is $4.35 per hour — the rest of the minimum-wage obligation is covered by the tip credit, which is the gap between that $4.35 cash wage and the full minimum wage. In other words, the employer contributes $4.35 per hour in its own funds, and the employee's tips fill the remaining amount needed to reach the regular minimum wage. Iowa's minimum cash wage of $4.35 applies to every hour a tipped employee works; the employer cannot reduce the cash wage below that floor even when tips are plentiful. For a tipped worker in Iowa, this means the paycheck from the employer alone will show at least $4.35 per hour, with the expectation that tips bring the total up to at least the full minimum wage for each work week.
If you make $30 per month or more in tips, the employer may pay as little as $4.35 per hour. If in any work week the wage the employer pays you and the tips you receive do not average at least $7.25 per hour, the employer is required to pay the difference.
Wage Claims FAQ (Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing)
When the tips do not get you to the minimum wage
Even when an Iowa employer pays the allowed tipped cash wage of $4.35 per hour, the employee's total earnings for each work week — the direct wage plus the tips actually received that week — must average at least the full minimum wage. If the tips in a particular week are slow and, combined with the $4.35 cash wage, do not bring the employee up to the full minimum wage on an hourly basis, the employer must make up the difference out of its own funds. The shortfall test is applied each work week, not monthly or annually, so a bad week must be corrected on that week's paycheck regardless of how well the employee did in surrounding weeks. This guarantee means the tip credit never shifts the risk of a slow week onto the worker: the employer remains responsible for delivering at least the full minimum wage for every hour worked in Iowa.
If in any work week the wage the employer pays you and the tips you receive do not average at least $7.25 per hour, the employer is required to pay the difference.
Wage Claims FAQ (Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing)
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.
Wage Claims FAQ (Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing)
- Minimum cash wage
If you make $30 per month or more in tips, the employer may pay as little as $4.35 per hour.
Other years
Every Iowa Tipped Minimum Wage year · Tipped Minimum Wage in every state