2020 Kentucky Tipped Minimum Wage
The 2020 Kentucky Tipped Minimum Wage is $2.13.
Effective 2020-01-01Source: Kentucky Wage and Hour Laws (Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet)Verified 2026-08-30
Compared with 2019
Every figure on this page is unchanged from 2019.
| Item | 2019 | 2020 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum cash wage | $2.13 | $2.13 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
Who it applies to
Kentucky employers who pay tipped employees a cash wage below the full minimum wage
What changed this year, and why
Kentucky's minimum cash wage for tipped employees in 2020 remains $2.13 per hour, the same as the prior year.
Common questions
- What is the minimum cash wage for tipped employees in Kentucky in 2020?
- The minimum cash wage is $2.13 per hour. This rate applies to employees in occupations where tips are customarily and regularly received.
- Must the employee actually receive the full minimum wage?
- Yes. The employer must ensure that the cash wage plus tips received equal at least the full minimum wage for each week in which a tip credit is taken.
Who counts as a tipped employee
In Kentucky, you count as a tipped employee if you work in an occupation where you customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips. This threshold matters because it determines whether your employer is allowed to pay you the lower tipped minimum cash wage of $2.13 per hour instead of the full state minimum wage. If your job involves receiving tips but you do not regularly clear more than $30 in tips each month, your employer must pay you at least the regular minimum wage. Once you meet the definition, the employer may apply the tip credit described elsewhere on this page, but only if the other conditions are also met.
Any employee engaged in an occupation in which more than $30 dollars per month is customarily and regularly received in tips, the employer may pay a minimum of $2.13 per hour
Kentucky Wage and Hour Laws (Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet)
What a tip credit is, and the cash wage underneath it
Kentucky allows an employer to take a tip credit, which is the difference between the direct cash wage the employer pays you ($2.13 per hour) and the full minimum wage. In practical terms, the employer is allowed to count a portion of the tips you receive toward meeting its minimum-wage obligation, so long as the cash wage it actually hands you is at least $2.13 an hour. The tip credit is not unlimited: the employer's records must be able to show, for each week the credit is applied, that when your tips are added to the wages paid, you received at least the full minimum wage. If that condition is not met, the employer has taken too large a credit and owes you the shortfall. This means that while your hourly cash pay can be as low as $2.13, your total earnings from wages plus tips must reach at least the full minimum wage for every week you work.
if the employer' records can establish for each week where credit is taken, when adding the tips received to wages paid, not less than the minimum wage is received by the employee.
Kentucky Wage and Hour Laws (Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet)
When the tips do not get you to the minimum wage
Kentucky law requires that your employer keep track of what you actually earn in tips each week. If, in any given week, your $2.13-per-hour cash wage plus the tips you received do not add up to at least the full minimum wage for the hours you worked, the employer must make up the difference. This protection is what makes the tip credit lawful in the first place: the employer is only allowed to count tips toward the minimum wage to the extent that you actually received them. In a slow week, the risk of low tips falls on the employer, not on you. The employer cannot point to a busier week to cancel out the shortfall from a slower one; the test is applied week by week. So even though the cash wage you receive from your employer can be as low as $2.13 per hour, your total compensation for each week must reach the full minimum wage level.
Any employee engaged in an occupation in which more than $30 dollars per month is customarily and regularly received in tips, the employer may pay a minimum of $2.13 per hour if the employer' records can establish for each week where credit is taken, when adding the tips received to wages paid, not less than the minimum wage is received by the employee.
Kentucky Wage and Hour Laws (Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet)
Your employer, your manager and your supervisor may not keep your tips
In Kentucky, your tips belong to you. The state's wage law prohibits employers from keeping any portion of employees' tips, and it also bars employers from using your tips as a credit toward the minimum wage they owe you. Your manager and your supervisor are treated the same way: none of them may take a share of the tips you earn, whether directly or indirectly. The only exception is when tips are being withheld for a purpose required by federal or state law, such as tax withholding. If your employer requires a tip pool, the pool's account must be kept separate from the employer's other business records and must be open for the pool's participants to see. Any arrangement that lets the business or its managers retain any part of what customers handed to you as a gratuity violates this rule.
No employer shall: • Use all or part of any tips or gratuities received by employees toward the payment of the minimum wage. • Require an employee to remit to the employer any gratuity, or any portion thereof, except for the purpose of withholding amoun ts required by federal or state law.
Kentucky Wage and Hour Laws (Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet)
Which tip pools you can be made to join
In Kentucky, employees may agree among themselves to divide their tips, and an employer may require participation in such a tip pool. However, the pool is limited to employees in occupations in which they customarily and regularly receive tips - so the employer cannot force servers, bartenders, and other traditionally tipped staff to share their tips with back-of-house workers who do not ordinarily receive them from customers. When the employer requires a tip pool, the account holding the pooled tips must be kept separate from the employer's other business records, and the account must be open for the pool's participants to inspect. Any tip pool that includes people who do not customarily receive tips, or that lets the employer or its managers take a cut, is not permitted under Kentucky law.
If an employer requires the use of a tip pool, then the account used to hold the tip pool shall be segregated from the employer’s other business records and the employer shall make the account open to the pool’s participants.
Kentucky Wage and Hour Laws (Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet)
Doing two jobs for one employer
Kentucky recognizes that some workers split their time between tipped and non-tipped work for the same employer. For example, an employee who works as a server in a restaurant but also spends part of the week doing non-tipped tasks - such as maintenance or clerical work - is a tipped employee only with respect to their employment as a server. The employer may apply the $2.13-per-hour cash wage and take the tip credit only for the hours the worker spends in the tipped occupation. For the hours spent doing non-tipped work, the employer must pay the full minimum wage and may not count tips toward that obligation. Workers in Kentucky who have dual jobs with the same employer should check their pay stubs to make sure the lower tipped rate is being applied only to the hours when they were actually performing tipped work, and that all other hours are paid at the full minimum wage.
Any employee engaged in an occupation in which more than $30 dollars per month is customarily and regularly received in tips, the employer may pay a minimum of $2.13 per hour
Kentucky Wage and Hour Laws (Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet)
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.
Kentucky Wage and Hour Laws (Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet)
- Minimum cash wage
the employer may pay a minimum of $2.13 per hour
Other years
Every Kentucky Tipped Minimum Wage year · Tipped Minimum Wage in every state