New Jersey Tipped Minimum Wage 2026
Current year
The 2026 New Jersey Tipped Minimum Wage is $6.05.
Effective 2026-01-01Source: Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees (DOL)Verified 2026-08-30
Compared with 2025
| Item | 2025 | 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum cash wage | $5.62 | $6.05 | +$0.43 (+7.7%) |
Who it applies to
Employers of tipped employees in New Jersey. The cash wage is the part of the minimum wage the employer pays directly. The rest may be met by the employee's tips, up to the maximum tip credit the same row of the table states, and the table sets out separately how much an employee must receive in tips to count as a tipped employee at all.
What changed this year, and why
The Wage and Hour Division's table of minimum wages for tipped employees, in the version last revised July 1, 2026, gives $6.05 per hour as the minimum cash wage an employer may pay a tipped employee in New Jersey. The table carries only its own revision date and never dates the rate, so this page reports the figure as in force as of that revision rather than claiming an effective date no document states.
Common questions
- What is the tipped minimum wage in New Jersey in 2026?
- $6.05 per hour in cash wages. That is what the Department of Labor's table of minimum wages for tipped employees, last revised July 1, 2026, gives as the minimum cash wage for a tipped employee in New Jersey. Tips make up the remainder of the applicable minimum wage, up to the maximum tip credit stated in the same row.
- What if tips do not bring the employee up to the full minimum wage?
- The employer pays the difference. A tip credit is a credit against the minimum wage the employer already owes, not a lower wage in its own right, so an employee whose cash wage and tips together fall short of the applicable minimum wage is owed the shortfall in wages.
- Where does the figure on this page come from?
- From Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees, the table the Wage and Hour Division publishes by state, in the version last revised July 1, 2026. The row it was read from is quoted on this page, and the snapshot it was verified against is the one captured for this record.
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.
Who counts as a tipped employee
Under federal law, a tipped employee in New Jersey is anyone engaged in an occupation where they customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips. This threshold determines whether your employer can use the tip credit rules at all. If you earn tips but they average $30 or less per month, you are not classified as a tipped employee for that job, and the full minimum wage rules apply to you instead. Only tips you actually receive count toward this determination — tips kept by the employer, manager, or supervisor do not count.
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
In New Jersey, the federal tip credit is the gap between the cash wage your employer pays you directly and the full minimum wage you are owed. Your employer pays you $6.05 per hour in cash, and then counts some of your tips as making up the rest. The tip credit cannot exceed what you actually earned in tips during the workweek — if your tips fall short, the credit shrinks accordingly. This means the tip credit is not a fixed amount that comes off the top; it is limited by what you actually brought in. Employers must be able to show, each workweek, that your cash wage plus the tip credit together equal at least the minimum wage. Only tips you actually received count toward the credit.
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
In New Jersey, if your cash wage plus your tips fall short of the full minimum wage in any workweek, your employer must pay the difference. This guarantee applies every week, not just on average across a pay period. For example, if your employer pays you the minimum cash wage of $6.05 per hour and your tips in a particular week are unusually low, your total earnings for that week might not reach the required minimum hourly rate. When that happens, the employer cannot simply wait for a busier week to make up for it—the shortfall must be covered in the same workweek it occurred. This rule ensures that tipped employees in New Jersey never receive less than the full minimum wage for any week of work, regardless of how generous or sparse customer tips happen to be.
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
In New Jersey, before your employer can take a tip credit against the wages it owes you, it must give you specific written or oral notice covering five items: the cash wage the employer is paying you, the amount it claims as a tip credit, the fact that the tip credit cannot exceed the tips you actually receive, your right to keep all your tips except for valid tip pooling contributions, and the fact that the credit will not apply unless you have been informed of all these provisions. This notice must come before the employer begins using the tip credit—not after the fact and not buried in an employee handbook you never see. If the employer fails to give you this notice, it loses the right to take the tip credit at all and must pay you the full minimum wage in cash without counting any of your tips toward that obligation.
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
In New Jersey, when the state's own tipped-employee rules are more favorable to workers than the federal FLSA rules, employers must follow whichever standard gives you greater protection. For example, New Jersey requires a minimum cash wage of $6.05 per hour for tipped employees, which is significantly higher than the federal cash wage floor. If a federal provision would let an employer pay you less in cash, but New Jersey law requires a higher cash wage, the employer must comply with the New Jersey rule. The same principle applies if state law prohibits the tip credit entirely or sets stricter conditions on tip pooling. In practice, New Jersey tipped workers are entitled to whichever combination of rules—state or federal—results in higher pay and stronger protections.
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
In New Jersey, your employer, your manager, and your supervisor may never take any portion of your tips, no matter what. This rule applies regardless of whether the employer uses a tip credit or pays you the full minimum wage in cash. Employers cannot require you to hand over tips to them, to a supervisor, or to a manager. They also cannot use a tip pool as a way to funnel your tips to management. This protection is absolute: even if your employer pays you well above the minimum wage and never takes a tip credit, your tips still belong to you. If a manager or supervisor receives money from your tips—whether directly or through a shared pool—the employer has violated the law and owes you the full amount that was improperly kept.
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
In New Jersey, if your employer takes a tip credit, it can require you to participate in a tip pool, but only a traditional one. A traditional tip pool is limited to employees in occupations where they customarily and regularly receive tips—such as waiters, bellhops, counter staff, bussers, and service bartenders. Your employer cannot force you to share tips with employees who do not work in tipped occupations, like dishwashers or cooks, if the employer is using the tip credit. If the employer wants to create a nontraditional pool that includes back-of-house workers who are not customarily tipped, it must pay all employees in the pool the full minimum wage in cash without taking any tip credit. In either type of pool, managers and supervisors are never allowed to receive any share of the pooled tips.
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
Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (DOL)
Doing two jobs for one employer
In New Jersey, if you work two completely separate jobs for the same employer—like a hotel maintenance worker who also serves as a server during other shifts—you are a tipped employee only with respect to the job where you customarily and regularly receive tips. Your employer can apply the tip credit only to the hours you spend in the tipped occupation, not to the hours you spend doing non-tipped work. For example, no tip credit can be taken for your hours spent on maintenance duties, even if you are also a tipped server during other shifts. This is different from performing related duties within a single tipped occupation, such as a server who also cleans tables or makes coffee—those tasks are part of the tipped job and the tip credit can still apply to them.
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.
Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees (DOL)
- Minimum cash wage
New Jersey 6 $15.92 $9.87 $6.05 More than $30
By year
Every published year
7 years on record, 2026 back to 2019. Each year links to its own page, its own document and its own verification date.