2022 Kentucky Tipped Minimum Wage
The 2022 Kentucky Tipped Minimum Wage is $2.13.
Effective 2022-01-01Source: Kentucky Wage and Hour Laws (Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet)Verified 2026-08-30
Compared with 2021
Every figure on this page is unchanged from 2021.
| Item | 2021 | 2022 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum cash wage | $2.13 | $2.13 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
Who it applies to
Employers in Kentucky who pay tipped employees
What changed this year, and why
The minimum cash wage for tipped employees in Kentucky remains $2.13 per hour for 2022.
Common questions
- What is the minimum cash wage for tipped employees in Kentucky in 2022?
- The minimum cash wage is $2.13 per hour. Employers may pay this reduced rate only if the employee customarily and regularly receives tips exceeding a monthly threshold, and only if adding those tips to the cash wage results in the employee receiving at least the full minimum wage each week.
- Can an employer use an employee's tips to satisfy the minimum wage obligation?
- No. An employer may not use all or part of any tips received by employees toward the payment of the minimum wage.
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. That $30 threshold is the line the law draws: if your tips typically stay below it, your employer must pay you the full minimum wage with no tip credit. If your tips regularly exceed it, your employer may pay you the lower tipped cash wage and count your tips toward the minimum wage, subject to the other protections on this page. The definition looks at what is customary and regular in your occupation, not whether you happened to clear $30 in one particular month. For Kentucky workers, this means that servers, bartenders, bellhops and similar roles usually qualify, while office workers who only occasionally get a tip do not.
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)
What a tip credit is, and the cash wage underneath it
Kentucky allows an employer to take a tip credit equal to the difference between the direct wage paid and the full minimum wage, so long as the employee actually receives at least the minimum wage once tips are added in. The cash wage the employer must hand you is $2.13 per hour. The tip credit is not a separate check to you — it is the gap the employer is allowed to fill with your tips instead of cash. If your tips in a workweek are large enough, your total pay meets or exceeds the minimum wage and the credit works as intended. The employer must be able to show through its records, for each week the credit is taken, that your tips plus the $2.13 cash wage added up to at least the 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 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 your tips in a given week are not enough to bring your total pay up to the minimum wage when added to the $2.13 cash wage, the employer must make up the difference. The tip credit is conditional: it only works to the extent your tips actually cover the gap. In a slow week, a slower tourist season, or any other time your tips fall short, your employer cannot simply pay you the low cash wage and leave you below minimum wage — it must add cash until you reach the minimum wage floor for that week. This protection runs week by week, so each workweek is measured on its own. Kentucky workers should keep their own records of tips received, because the employer bears the burden of showing each week's totals meet the minimum wage when the credit is taken.
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)
The notice an employer owes you before it takes the credit
Kentucky employers must provide the following information to tipped employees before taking a tip credit: the amount of the cash wage being paid; the additional amount claimed as a tip credit; a notice that the tip credit cannot exceed the tips actually received; that all tips are retained by the employee except for a valid tip pool; and that the tip credit will not apply unless the employee has been informed of these provisions. In other words, before an employer in Kentucky can pay you the lower $2.13 cash wage and count your tips toward the minimum wage, it must first spell out these points to you. If the notice is not given, the employer loses the right to take the credit and must pay the full minimum wage in cash. The notice is a one-time prerequisite, but it must happen before the credit is applied — not after the fact.
No employer shall: • Use all or part of any tips or gratuities received by employees toward the payment of the minimum wage.
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 keeping any portion of employees' tips, no matter how the tip credit rules work. The state law makes clear that an employer cannot use your tips toward the payment of the minimum wage, and cannot require you to hand over any gratuity, except when withholding is required by federal or state law (such as tax withholding). This means your tips belong to you, not to the business, and your employer cannot skim a percentage for itself. Even when the employer is allowed to take a tip credit and pay you the lower cash wage of $2.13 per hour, it still cannot take any of your tips for its own use. This protection runs alongside the tip-pooling rules, which allow employees to share tips among themselves but keep the employer out of the pool entirely.
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
Kentucky allows tipped employees to enter into an agreement to divide tips among themselves, but it also allows an employer to require the use of a tip pool. When an employer requires a tip pool in Kentucky, the account used to hold the tip pool must be segregated from the employer's other business records, and the employer must make the account open to the pool's participants. This means you have a right to see how the pool is being run and how the money flows. The purpose of the segregation rule is to prevent the employer from mixing tip-pool funds with its own operating cash, which could make it harder to track what is owed to you. However, Kentucky law does not spell out detailed limits on which co-workers can be included in the pool beyond the general principle that tips must be shared among employees. If you work in Kentucky and your employer requires a tip pool, ask to see the segregated account and confirm that your share is being calculated fairly.
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
In Kentucky, an employee is a tipped employee only with respect to their employment as a server when they spend part of their shift doing non-tipped work for the same employer. This means that if you work as a server for some hours and as a cook or cleaner for other hours at the same restaurant, your employer can only apply the tipped-employee cash wage of $2.13 per hour to the time you actually spent serving. For the non-tipped hours, the employer must pay you the full minimum wage. Kentucky's rule prevents employers from averaging your tips across an entire shift that includes both tipped and non-tipped duties and using the lower cash wage for all of it. The dual-jobs principle ensures that the tip credit is tied to the specific occupation in which you customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips, not to your employment relationship with the employer as a whole.
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
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.
Other years
Every Kentucky Tipped Minimum Wage year · Tipped Minimum Wage in every state