2022 Nebraska Tipped Minimum Wage
The 2022 Nebraska Tipped Minimum Wage is $2.13.
Effective 2022-01-01Source: Wages (Nebraska Department of Labor)Verified 2026-09-01
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
Tipped employees of Nebraska employers, and the employers who claim a tip credit against their wages.
What changed this year, and why
The minimum cash wage for tipped employees in Nebraska was $2.13 per hour in 2022, unchanged from 2021.
Common questions
- What was the tipped minimum cash wage in Nebraska in 2022?
- $2.13 per hour in 2022. That is the amount an employer had to pay in wages; tips were expected to bring the total up to the full minimum wage.
- What happens if the tips do not reach the minimum wage?
- The employer owes the difference. The $2.13 cash wage is a floor on what the employer pays, not a cap on what the worker is owed.
Who counts as a tipped employee
The $2.13 cash wage on this page is only available for a worker who actually counts as tipped, and the federal test is the one Nebraska employers are measured against alongside state law: under the FLSA, a tipped employee is an employee engaged in an occupation in which they customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips. The test looks at the occupation and at how regularly tips come in, not at a job title and not at whether one particular week was busy. A Nebraska cook or dishwasher who is handed a tip now and then is not a tipped employee; a server who routinely takes more than $30 a month in tips is. Where a Nebraska worker does not meet that test, the $2.13 cash wage does not apply to them at all, and the full minimum wage is owed to them in wages rather than in tips.
Under the FLSA, a tipped employee is an employee engaged in an occupation in which they customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips.
Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (DOL)
What a tip credit is, and the cash wage underneath it
A tip credit is the part of the minimum wage an employer is allowed to satisfy with the customer's money instead of its own. The Department of Labor states the mechanism this way: an employer can take an FLSA tip credit equal to the difference between the direct wage, or the cash wage it pays directly to the tipped employee, and the federal minimum wage, which is currently $7.25 per hour. In Nebraska the cash wage underneath that credit is $2.13 per hour, and the credit is whatever is still needed to reach the applicable minimum wage. The cash wage is not a target and it is not optional: it is the amount a Nebraska employer has to pay in its own money before a single tip is counted. A Nebraska employer paying less than $2.13 per hour in wages has not paid the cash wage and cannot claim the credit at all.
An employer can take an FLSA tip credit equal to the difference between the direct wage, or the cash wage it pays directly to the tipped employee, and the federal minimum wage, which is currently $7.25 per hour.
Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (DOL)
When the tips do not get you to the minimum wage
The tip credit is a permission to count tips, not a permission to pay less when the tips do not arrive. The federal rule is unconditional: if an employee's tips combined with the employer's direct (or cash) wages do not equal the minimum hourly wage of $7.25 per hour in each workweek, the employer must make up the difference. That test is applied workweek by workweek, so a Nebraska worker who has one good week and one thin one cannot have the two averaged against each other. A Nebraska employer that pays the $2.13 cash wage is therefore carrying a running obligation: if the tips fall short in any workweek, it owes the shortfall in wages for that week. A Nebraska worker whose weekly pay stub shows only the cash wage, in a week when tips were poor, has been underpaid.
If an employee’s tips combined with the employer’s direct (or cash) wages do not equal the minimum hourly wage of $7.25 per hour in each workweek, the employer must make up the difference.
Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (DOL)
The notice an employer owes you before it takes the credit
Before a Nebraska employer may pay the $2.13 tipped cash wage rather than the full minimum wage, it owes the worker a notice, and the notice is a condition of the credit rather than a courtesy. The federal rule states it as a precondition: employers must provide the following information to tipped employees before taking a tip credit under the FLSA. What has to be told is the cash wage the employer will pay, the extra amount it intends to claim as a tip credit, that the claimed credit can never exceed the tips the worker actually receives, that all tips belong to the worker except for a valid tip pool, and that the credit does not apply at all unless the worker has been told these things. A Nebraska employer that never gave the notice has not met the condition and owes the full minimum wage in wages, not $2.13.
Employers must provide the following information to tipped employees before taking a tip credit under the FLSA:
Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (DOL)
When state law gives more than the federal rule
A tipped worker in Nebraska is covered by two sets of rules at once, because Nebraska sets a cash wage of $2.13 per hour and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act sets its own tipped wage rules. The Department of Labor resolves the overlap in one sentence: when state law differs from the federal FLSA, an employer must comply with the standard most protective to employees. That is a point-by-point comparison rather than a choice of which law to follow, so a Nebraska employer applies the state rule where the state rule gives the worker more and the federal rule where the federal rule does. It also means the federal requirements that Nebraska law does not duplicate, such as the notice before the credit and the limits on tip pooling, still bind Nebraska employers covered by the FLSA.
When state law differs from the federal FLSA, an employer must comply with the standard most protective to employees.
Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (DOL)
Your employer, your manager and your supervisor may not keep your tips
Tips belong to the worker who earned them, and that is true in Nebraska whether or not the employer is paying the $2.13 tipped cash wage. The federal rule is written to leave no gap: regardless of whether an employer takes a tip credit, the FLSA prohibits employers from keeping any portion of employees' tips for any purpose, whether directly or through a tip pool. The prohibition reaches the owner, the manager and the supervisor alike, so a Nebraska restaurant cannot route a share of the tips to the person running the shift. It also reaches indirect routes: an employer cannot take a cut to cover credit card processing beyond the cost of the transaction, or use a tip pool as a way of moving money to people who are not tipped employees. A Nebraska worker whose tips have been kept is owed them back.
Regardless of whether an employer takes a tip credit, the FLSA prohibits employers from keeping any portion of employees’ tips for any purpose, whether directly or through a tip pool.
Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (DOL)
Which tip pools you can be made to join
A Nebraska employer paying the $2.13 tipped cash wage may require its tipped workers to share tips, but only within limits the federal rule draws. Traditional tip pooling is described this way: an employer that takes a tip credit can require tipped employees to contribute tips only to a tip pool which is limited to employees in occupations in which they customarily and regularly receive tips, such as waiters, bellhops, counter personnel (who serve customers), bussers, and service bartenders. The line is drawn by occupation, so a Nebraska pool of servers and bussers is allowed while one that sweeps in the kitchen or the office is not, for as long as the employer is claiming the credit. Managers, supervisors and the employer itself are outside any pool. A Nebraska worker made to pay into a pool that includes non-tipped staff is being asked for something the rule does not permit.
Traditional Tip Pooling: An employer that takes a tip credit can require tipped employees to contribute tips only to a tip pool which is limited to employees in occupations in which they customarily and regularly receive tips, such as waiters, bellhops, counter personnel (who serve customers), bussers, and service bartenders.
Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (DOL)
Doing two jobs for one employer
Many Nebraska workers do two things for one employer, and the $2.13 tipped cash wage does not follow them from one job to the other. The federal rule works through the example of someone who serves customers and also does maintenance work: in such a situation the employee, if they customarily and regularly receive at least $30 a month in tips for their work as a server, is a tipped employee only with respect to their employment as a server. The consequence for a Nebraska worker is that the hours spent in the non-tipped job are ordinary hours at the full minimum wage, paid in wages, with no tip credit taken against them. An employer in Nebraska therefore has to keep the two occupations apart in its records rather than paying $2.13 for the whole shift.
In such a situation the employee, if they customarily and regularly receive at least $30 a month in tips for their work as a server, is a tipped employee only with respect to their employment as a server.
Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (DOL)
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.
Wages (Nebraska Department of Labor)
- Minimum cash wage
For those paid by way of tips or gratuities, the minimum wage is $2.13 per hour.
Other years
Every Nebraska Tipped Minimum Wage year · Tipped Minimum Wage in every state