2018 Maryland Tipped Minimum Wage
The 2018 Maryland Tipped Minimum Wage is $3.63.
Effective 2018-01-01Source: Tipped Employees: Payment of Less than Minimum Wage - The Maryland Guide to Wage Payment and Employment Standards (Maryland Department of Labor, Division of Labor and Industry)Verified 2026-09-01
Compared with 2017
Every figure on this page is unchanged from 2017.
| Item | 2017 | 2018 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum cash wage | $3.63 | $3.63 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
Who it applies to
Tipped employees in Maryland and their employers
What changed this year, and why
The minimum cash wage that Maryland employers must pay tipped employees was set at $3.63 per hour in 2018.
Common questions
- What is the minimum cash wage for tipped employees in Maryland in 2018?
- Employers must pay tipped employees at least $3.63 per hour in cash wages. This amount plus tips received must equal at least the full state minimum wage rate.
Who counts as a tipped employee
In Maryland, you count as a tipped employee when you customarily bring in more than $30 a month in tips. That $30 threshold is the only gate: once you cross it, your employer is allowed to count a portion of your tips toward its minimum-wage obligation. If you earn less than $30 in tips in a given month, you are not a tipped employee for that period and your employer must pay you the full Maryland minimum wage with no tip credit. The definition is applied month by month, so a server who has a slow month and falls below the $30 mark temporarily loses tipped-employee status until tips climb above the line again.
Tipped Employees (earning more than $30 per month in tips) must earn the State Minimum Wage Rate per hour.
Tipped Employees: Payment of Less than Minimum Wage - The Maryland Guide to Wage Payment and Employment Standards (Maryland Department of Labor, Division of Labor and Industry)
What a tip credit is, and the cash wage underneath it
Maryland lets an employer take a tip credit, meaning it can pay you a lower direct cash wage and count your tips toward the State Minimum Wage Rate. However, the employer must still pay you at least $3.63 per hour in cash before any tips are counted. That $3.63 is the floor. On top of that floor, your tips must bring your total hourly earnings up to at least the State Minimum Wage Rate. The tip credit is simply the gap between the $3.63 cash wage and the full minimum wage: the employer is permitted to pay that gap out of your tips rather than out of its own pocket, so long as the tips actually cover it.
Employers must pay at least $3.63 per hour. This amount plus tips must equal at least the State Minimum Wage Rate.
Tipped Employees: Payment of Less than Minimum Wage - The Maryland Guide to Wage Payment and Employment Standards (Maryland Department of Labor, Division of Labor and Industry)
When the tips do not get you to the minimum wage
Maryland's tip credit comes with a guarantee: the $3.63 cash wage plus your tips must equal at least the State Minimum Wage Rate for every hour you work. If in a particular workweek your tips are light and the two amounts together still fall short of the State Minimum Wage Rate, the employer cannot simply pay you the short amount. The obligation to reach the State Minimum Wage Rate stays with the employer, so it must cover whatever your tips did not reach. In practice this means your paycheck for that period has to be adjusted upward so that your effective hourly rate meets the minimum, regardless of how slow business was.
This amount plus tips must equal at least the State Minimum Wage Rate.
Tipped Employees: Payment of Less than Minimum Wage - The Maryland Guide to Wage Payment and Employment Standards (Maryland Department of Labor, Division of Labor and Industry)
Doing two jobs for one employer
When a tipped employee in Maryland is periodically pulled off tip-earning work and assigned duties that do not generate tips, the employer cannot apply the tip credit to those hours. Instead, the employee must be paid at least the full State Minimum Wage Rate for that non-tipped time. The rule recognizes that a tip credit is only justified by actual tips: if the work you are doing is not the kind that produces them, you are effectively working a non-tipped job for that stretch and must be paid the full minimum wage for it, with no shortcut through the credit.
Tipped employees who are from time to time assigned to perform non-tip related tasks must be paid by their employer at least the full minimum wage rate for that non-tipped time.
Tipped Employees: Payment of Less than Minimum Wage - The Maryland Guide to Wage Payment and Employment Standards (Maryland Department of Labor, Division of Labor and Industry)
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.
Tipped Employees: Payment of Less than Minimum Wage - The Maryland Guide to Wage Payment and Employment Standards (Maryland Department of Labor, Division of Labor and Industry)
- Minimum cash wage
Employers must pay at least $3.63 per hour.
Other years
Every Maryland Tipped Minimum Wage year · Tipped Minimum Wage in every state