2021 Maryland Tipped Minimum Wage
The 2021 Maryland Tipped Minimum Wage is $3.63.
Effective 2021-01-01Source: 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 2026-09-03
Compared with 2020
Every figure on this page is unchanged from 2020.
| Item | 2020 | 2021 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum cash wage | $3.63 | $3.63 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
Who it applies to
Employers of tipped employees in Maryland who pay a tip credit
What changed this year, and why
Maryland's minimum cash wage for tipped employees in 2021
Common questions
- What is the minimum cash wage for tipped employees in Maryland in 2021?
- Employers must pay tipped employees at least $3.63 per hour in cash wages. This amount plus tips must equal at least the full state minimum wage rate.
- Who counts as a tipped employee in Maryland?
- An employee who earns more than a threshold amount in monthly tips, as described in the Maryland Guide to Wage Payment and Employment Standards.
- What happens when a tipped employee performs non-tip work?
- The employer must pay at least the full minimum wage rate for any time spent on non-tip related tasks.
When the tips do not get you to the minimum wage
The tip credit is a bet your Maryland employer makes about your tips, and when the bet loses the employer pays, not you. Take one workweek at a time. For the hours it claimed the credit, add the cash wage it paid you to the tips you actually received over those hours. If the two together come to less per hour than the full minimum wage that applies to you, the shortfall is a debt the employer settles out of its own funds. Nothing about this is discretionary and nothing depends on how the restaurant did. Two things are worth knowing in Maryland. The measuring stick is the workweek, so a dead Tuesday can be offset by a strong Friday in the same week but not by a good week that came later - each week stands on its own. And the guarantee is the full rate for the hours worked, which is why the $3.63 tipped cash wage is a starting point rather than what you are owed.
Under federal, state and local wage laws, if tipped employees do not make enough in hourly cash wages plus tips (for tip credit hours) to earn at least the full applicable minimum wage per hour for the workweek, the employer must make up the difference.
Tip Credit Wage Statement Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) (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