2025 Maryland Tipped Minimum Wage
The 2025 Maryland Tipped Minimum Wage is $3.63.
Effective 2025-01-01Source: 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 2024
Every figure on this page is unchanged from 2024.
| Item | 2024 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum cash wage | $3.63 | $3.63 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
Who it applies to
Employers of tipped employees in Maryland who take a tip credit
What changed this year, and why
Maryland's minimum cash wage for tipped employees for 2025
Common questions
- What is the minimum cash wage for tipped employees in Maryland in 2025?
- Employers must pay tipped employees at least $3.63 per hour in cash wages. This amount plus the employee's tips must equal at least the full state minimum wage rate.
- Who counts as a tipped employee under Maryland law?
- Under Maryland law, a tipped employee is one who customarily and regularly receives more than a threshold amount of tips per month, as defined in the source document.
- What if a tipped employee is assigned non-tip duties?
- The employer must pay the employee at least the full minimum wage for any time spent on non-tip related tasks.
Every amount on this page is a published figure rather than yours. The Tips needed per hour takes the number you enter and works it out against them, showing which published figure it used.
What a tip credit is, and the cash wage underneath it
In Maryland, when an employer uses a tip credit, they pay tipped employees a lower direct cash wage—in this case $3.63 per hour—and count a portion of the employee's reported tips toward meeting the minimum wage obligation. The employer pays an hourly cash wage that is less than the full minimum wage, with the reported tips making up the difference. For a tipped employee in Maryland, the minimum cash wage is $3.63 per hour, and the remaining amount needed to reach the full state minimum wage is covered by the tip credit. This system only applies to restaurant employers in Maryland, as defined by state regulations. The tip credit wage statement that Maryland requires shows the effective hourly rate combining both the cash wages and tips, so employees can see whether they are reaching at least the full minimum wage.
For restaurants that utilize a tip credit (employer pays the employee an hourly cash wage of less than the applicable minimum wage with reported tips making up the difference), the purpose of the tip credit wage statement is to provide an additional notification of a tip credit employee’s effective hourly rate of pay with tips included as it relates to the applicable minimum wage.
Tip Credit Wage Statement Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) (Maryland Department of Labor, Division of Labor and Industry)
When the tips do not get you to the minimum wage
Maryland law requires that if tipped employees do not earn enough from their hourly cash wages plus tips to reach at least the full applicable minimum wage per hour for the workweek, the employer must make up the difference. This means that even though your employer can pay you the lower cash wage of $3.63 per hour and count your tips toward the minimum wage, you are still guaranteed to earn at least the full Maryland minimum wage for every hour you work. If your tips in a given workweek are lower than expected and your combined cash wages and tips fall short of the minimum wage, your employer is legally required to add makeup pay to bring you up to the required level. This protection applies workweek by workweek, so employers cannot average out good and bad weeks—they must ensure you reach minimum wage each individual workweek.
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