2021 Kentucky Tipped Minimum Wage
The 2021 Kentucky Tipped Minimum Wage is $2.13.
Effective 2021-01-01Source: Kentucky Wage and Hour Laws (Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet)Verified 2026-08-30
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
Kentucky employees in occupations where tips are customarily and regularly received above a threshold amount per month
What changed this year, and why
The minimum cash wage for tipped employees in Kentucky in 2021 is $2.13 per hour.
Common questions
- What is the minimum cash wage for tipped employees in Kentucky in 2021?
- The minimum cash wage is $2.13 per hour.
- Must a tipped employee actually receive at least the full minimum wage?
- Yes. The employer's records must establish that for each week where the tip credit is taken, tips plus the cash wage equal at least the full minimum wage.
Who counts as a tipped employee
Kentucky law defines a tipped employee as anyone engaged in an occupation where they customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips. If you meet that threshold in Kentucky, your employer is allowed to pay you a direct cash wage as low as $2.13 per hour, rather than the full state minimum wage, because the law assumes your tips will bring your total earnings up to at least the minimum. If your occupation does not produce tips at that level, or if you only occasionally receive them, you are not considered a tipped employee under this rule and you are owed the full minimum wage for every hour you work. The $30-a-month figure is the bright line: below it, the special tipped-employee treatment does not apply.
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 pay a tipped employee a direct cash wage of $2.13 per hour, which is lower than the full minimum wage, because the employee is expected to receive tips. The difference between the $2.13 cash wage and the full minimum wage is the tip credit. If in any workweek the employee's tips plus the $2.13 per hour do not add up to at least the full minimum wage, the employer must pay the shortfall. The employer's records must show week by week that the combined total reaches the minimum wage before the tip credit can be taken. This means the tipped minimum wage is a floor, not a guarantee that your total pay will be low; if tips are slow, the employer still owes you enough to reach the standard minimum wage for every hour worked.
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)
When the tips do not get you to the minimum wage
In Kentucky, if you are a tipped employee earning $2.13 per hour in direct wages, your employer must track what you actually receive in tips each week. The rule requires that when your cash wage and your tips are added together, the total must reach at least the full minimum wage for every hour you worked that week. If your tips are low in a particular week and the combined total falls short of the minimum wage, the employer is responsible for covering that gap. The employer cannot average busy weeks against slow weeks or shift the risk to you. This means that even though the direct wage is much lower than the standard minimum, your total take-home pay per hour is guaranteed to reach the minimum wage floor once the employer makes up whatever your tips did not cover.
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)
The notice an employer owes you before it takes the credit
Before an employer in Kentucky can pay a tipped employee the lower cash wage of $2.13 per hour, the employer must be able to show through its records that, for each workweek where the tip credit is taken, the employee's tips plus that cash wage add up to at least the full minimum wage. The tip credit itself is the difference between the $2.13 direct wage and the full minimum wage. If in any week the combined total falls below the minimum wage, the employer must make up the difference out of its own funds; the employee cannot be left short. This means that in Kentucky, the tip credit is conditional, not automatic: the employer bears the ongoing obligation to verify week by week that the employee is actually receiving the minimum wage once tips are counted, and to close any gap immediately when tips are not enough.
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
Kentucky prohibits employers from using any portion of a tipped employee's tips toward the payment of the minimum wage, and it also prohibits requiring an employee to turn over any gratuity to the employer, except for withholding required by federal or state law such as taxes. This means your tips belong to you. Your employer, your manager, and your supervisors may not keep any part of what customers leave for you, whether as a direct deduction from your pay or as a demand that you hand over cash tips. The rule applies regardless of whether the tips come in cash or on a credit card. Employers may only take from your tips what the law specifically requires them to withhold, such as income tax or Social Security contributions, and even then only to the extent the law mandates.
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, tipped employees may agree among themselves to divide the tips they receive. When they do, the amounts each person retains from that shared pool are treated as that individual's own tips for purposes of the tipped-employee wage rules. If an employer requires the use of a tip pool, Kentucky law adds two conditions: the account holding the pooled tips must be kept separate from the employer's other business records, and the employer must make that account open to inspection by the pool's participants. These protections ensure that employees can see what has gone into the pool and what has been paid out, rather than having the tip money disappear into the employer's general accounts. The rule does not tell you how the pool must be divided, only that the money must be segregated and transparent when the employer mandates pooling.
Employees may enter into an agreement to divide tips among themselves. If employees enter into this type of agreement, the amounts retained by the employees shall be considered tips of the individuals who retain them. 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's tipped-employee rule applies to anyone engaged in an occupation in which they customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips. That definition is tied to the occupation itself. If you do two different jobs for the same employer and only one of those jobs is an occupation where you customarily and regularly receive tips above that threshold, you are a tipped employee only for the time you spend in the tipping occupation. For the hours you spend in the non-tipping job, the employer must pay you the full minimum wage and cannot apply the $2.13 cash wage or take a tip credit. This means that in Kentucky, employers who assign you mixed duties must track which hours fall in the tipping occupation and which do not, and cannot simply label you a tipped employee for the entire workday just because some of your work involves tips.
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)
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