Kentucky Tipped Minimum Wage 2026
Current year
The 2026 Kentucky 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 Kentucky. 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 Kentucky. 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 Kentucky 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 Kentucky. 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 Kentucky, you are considered 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 applies to workers like servers, bartenders, bellhops, and other roles where tips are a regular part of compensation. If you meet this threshold, your employer may pay you a lower direct cash wage and claim a tip credit toward its minimum wage obligations. Only tips that you actually receive count toward determining whether you qualify as a tipped employee and toward applying the tip credit. This means that tips your employer keeps or redistributes to others cannot be counted in this calculation.
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 Kentucky, the tip credit is the amount your employer counts from your tips toward its obligation to pay you the minimum wage. Your employer must pay you a direct cash wage of at least $2.13 per hour. It can then claim a tip credit equal to the difference between that cash wage and the full minimum wage. In practice, this means the employer uses your tips to cover the gap between what it pays you directly and the full minimum wage it owes. The tip credit cannot be larger than the tips you actually bring in. If the credit would exceed your real tips, the employer must limit the credit to what you actually earned and pay you more out of pocket. Only tips you actually receive count toward this calculation; tips held or redistributed by the employer cannot be used to justify the credit.
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 Kentucky, if your cash wage plus your tips fall below the full minimum wage in any workweek, your employer must make up the difference. Your employer cannot simply pay you the minimum cash wage and hope your tips bring you up to the minimum wage; it has a legal obligation to verify each workweek that your total compensation reaches at least the full minimum hourly wage. If it does not, the employer owes you the shortfall and must pay it to you at the regular payday for that workweek. This protection applies regardless of whether your tips were low because business was slow or for any other reason. The rule makes clear that the risk of slow tip earnings falls on the employer, not on you.
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 Kentucky, before your employer can pay you the lower tipped cash wage and claim a tip credit, it must give you specific written or oral notice describing the arrangement. The notice must tell you the exact cash wage the employer is paying you, the amount it is claiming as a tip credit, the fact that the credit cannot exceed the tips you actually receive, your right to keep all your tips except through a valid tip pool, and the fact that the credit will not apply unless you have been informed of all these provisions. If the employer fails to give you this information before processing your pay, it loses the right to take the tip credit at all for that period and must pay you the full minimum wage. This notice requirement ensures you know in advance how your wages are being calculated and what rights you retain.
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
In Kentucky, when state law and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act set different rules for tipped employees, your employer must follow whichever standard is more protective to you as a worker. For example, if Kentucky were to require a higher cash wage than the federal floor, or to limit or prohibit the tip credit entirely, the employer would have to comply with the Kentucky rule instead of the more lenient federal one. This principle ensures that you always receive the benefit of the law that gives you the higher wage or the stronger protections, regardless of which level of government set it. You cannot be forced to accept a less favorable arrangement simply because the federal rule would permit it. In practice, this means checking both the federal and Kentucky rules and applying the one that results in the greater pay or the tighter restrictions on your employer.
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 Kentucky, regardless of whether your employer takes a tip credit or pays you the full minimum wage directly, the law prohibits employers from keeping any portion of your tips for any purpose, whether directly or through a tip pool. Your employer may not require you to hand over your tips to the business, to a supervisor, or to a manager. This rule applies even in situations where your employer pays you at least the full minimum wage out of its own pocket and takes no tip credit at all. The protections extend to managers and supervisors, who are defined as employees whose primary duty is managing the enterprise or a recognized department, who regularly direct at least two other employees, and who have hiring or firing authority. A manager or supervisor may keep only tips they receive directly from customers for service they personally and solely provided, and may not participate in a tip pool to collect other employees' tips.
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 Kentucky, when your employer takes a tip credit and pays you the lower cash wage, any mandatory tip pool it requires you to join must be limited to employees in occupations in which they customarily and regularly receive tips. This is sometimes called a traditional tip pool. Eligible participants include workers such as waiters, bellhops, counter personnel who serve customers, bussers, and service bartenders. The pool may not include employees who do not customarily receive tips, such as back-of-house workers who are not in a tipped occupation. The employer must notify you of the required contribution amount, may only claim a tip credit for the tips you ultimately retain after the pool is distributed, and may not keep any of the pooled tips for itself or allow managers and supervisors to participate. If the employer pays you the full minimum wage in cash wages instead of taking a tip credit, different rules apply and the pool may include non-tipped employees.
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 Kentucky, if you work two distinct jobs for the same employer, you are considered a tipped employee only with respect to the job in which you customarily and regularly receive tips. For example, if you work as a hotel maintenance person and also as a server, and you receive at least the required monthly tip threshold for your server work, your employer may pay you the lower tipped cash wage only for the hours you spend working as a server. For the hours you spend working as a maintenance person, the employer must pay you the full minimum wage and may not take any tip credit. The two occupations must be genuinely separate; the rule does not apply when you are simply performing related duties that are part of your tipped occupation, such as a server who spends time cleaning tables, toasting bread, or making coffee as part of their normal serving role. In that case, all the time counts as tipped employment.
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
Kentucky $7.25 $5.12 $2.13 More than $30
By year
Every published year
12 years on record, 2026 back to 2015. Each year links to its own page, its own document and its own verification date.