2024 North Carolina Tipped Minimum Wage
The 2024 North Carolina Tipped Minimum Wage is $2.13.
Effective 2024-01-01Source: Minimum Wage in N.C. (North Carolina Department of Labor)Verified 2026-08-30
Compared with 2023
Every figure on this page is unchanged from 2023.
| Item | 2023 | 2024 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum cash wage | $2.13 | $2.13 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
Who it applies to
North Carolina employers with tipped employees
What changed this year, and why
The minimum cash wage for tipped employees in North Carolina for 2024.
Common questions
- What is the minimum cash wage for tipped employees in North Carolina in 2024?
- Employers must pay tipped employees at least $2.13 per hour in cash wages.
- What if a tipped employee's tips do not bring their total pay to the minimum wage?
- The employer must pay the difference so that the employee receives at least the full minimum wage when cash wages and tips are combined.
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 North Carolina, an employer is required to pay tipped employees at least $2.13 an hour in direct cash wages, but only if the employee's tips are enough to bring total hourly earnings up to at least $7.25, the full state minimum wage. The tip credit is the difference between that $2.13 direct wage and the $7.25 minimum wage. In practical terms, your employer pays you $2.13 per hour in cash and counts your tips toward the rest of the minimum wage obligation. If your tips in a given pay period do not make up that gap, your employer must increase your cash pay so that you still receive at least $7.25 per hour in combined wages and tips. This structure applies to workers in North Carolina who customarily and regularly receive tips as part of their job, such as servers, bartenders, and hotel staff. The employer is responsible for tracking your tips and ensuring the minimum wage floor is met every pay period, not just on average over time.
In North Carolina, an employer MUST pay at least $2.13 an hour to tipped employees as long as each employee receives enough in tips to make up the difference between the wages paid and the minimum wage ($7.25).
Minimum Wage in N.C. (North Carolina Department of Labor)
When the tips do not get you to the minimum wage
In North Carolina, if your tips in a given pay period are not enough to bring your total hourly earnings up to the state minimum wage, your employer must increase your direct cash wages to cover the shortfall. The cash wage floor is $2.13 an hour, but the employer's obligation does not stop there. It is the employer's responsibility to make sure that every tipped employee in North Carolina earns at least the full minimum wage in combined cash wages and tips each pay period. This means the employer has to monitor your actual tip income, not just assume you will earn enough. If a slow shift or a low-tipping period leaves you below the minimum wage, the employer must pay the difference out of its own funds rather than shifting the loss to you. This protection applies to all tipped workers in the state, and the rule is enforced by the North Carolina Department of Labor, which handles wage complaints for workers who believe their employer is not meeting this obligation.
Employers MUST pay more than the $2.13 hourly cash wage if the tipped employee earns less than the credit in tips per hour, as it is the employer’s responsibility to make sure that all tipped employees earn at least the minimum wage in cash wages and tips.
Minimum Wage in N.C. (North Carolina Department of Labor)
The notice an employer owes you before it takes the credit
North Carolina law allows employers to count a portion of tips toward the minimum wage obligation, but only if workers are told about this arrangement ahead of time. Before your employer can pay you the lower cash wage of $2.13 an hour instead of the full minimum wage, they must inform you that they are taking a tip credit, explain how much your cash wage will be, and confirm that you get to keep all your tips. This notice must happen before the tip credit is applied, not after. In North Carolina, this protects workers from surprise paycuts and ensures you understand your wage structure from the start. If your employer never gave you this information, they may owe you the full minimum wage for all hours worked.
However, for an employer to be able to count tips as wages and take a tip credit towards the minimum wage, the law requires that tipped employees be notified in advance and be permitted to retain all tips, and requires that the employer maintains accurate and complete records of tips received by each employee and such tips must be certified by tipped employees monthly or for each pay period.
Minimum Wage in N.C. (North Carolina Department of Labor)
When state law gives more than the federal rule
In North Carolina, when both state and federal law cover the same workplace, the employer must follow whichever standard is most protective of the employee. For tipped workers, this means comparing the North Carolina minimum wage of $7.25 an hour and the $2.13 cash wage floor with whatever the federal Fair Labor Standards Act requires, and applying the rule that results in higher pay or stronger protections. If federal law ever sets a higher cash wage or a more generous minimum, the employer in North Carolina must follow that higher standard. Conversely, if North Carolina law provides a better result for the worker than federal rules, the employer must follow the state rule instead. The bottom line for employees in North Carolina is that you are always entitled to the more favorable of the two sets of rules. Employers cannot pick and choose between state and federal law to pay less; they must comply with whichever framework puts more money in the worker's pocket or offers stronger safeguards for tip income.
Employers doing business in North Carolina are required to pay at least $7.25 per hour to all employees (agricultural and domestic employees are subject to the federal minimum wage).
Minimum Wage in N.C. (North Carolina Department of Labor)
Your employer, your manager and your supervisor may not keep your tips
In North Carolina, the law is clear that tipped employees must be permitted to retain all of their tips. An employer, manager, or supervisor may not keep any portion of the tips earned by a worker, whether directly or through a service charge, house fee, or any other arrangement that diverts tip income away from the employee. Tips belong to the worker who received them from the customer. The only exception is a valid tip-pooling arrangement among employees who customarily receive tips, which must follow strict rules about who participates and how the pool is divided. In North Carolina, the Department of Labor requires employers to maintain accurate and complete records of all tips received by each tipped employee, and those tips must be certified by the employee monthly or each pay period. This recordkeeping requirement helps ensure that no employer, manager, or supervisor is improperly taking a share of a worker's tips. If you believe your employer or a supervisor has kept any of your tip income, you can file a complaint with the North Carolina Department of Labor.
In businesses that are covered by NCDOL for minimum wage (generally businesses that make less than $500,000 in gross sales), tip pooling is permitted as long as the tipped employees retain at least 85 percent of the tips they receive, which means the employer must maintain accurate and complete records of the tips received and the amount of tips earned under the tip pooling arrangement.
Minimum Wage in N.C. (North Carolina Department of Labor)
Which tip pools you can be made to join
In North Carolina, tip pooling is permitted but only under specific conditions. In businesses covered by the state Department of Labor for minimum wage purposes, generally those with less than $500,000 in gross sales, a tip pool is allowed as long as the tipped employees retain at least 85 percent of the tips they receive. This means the employer cannot take more than a small share for administrative costs or other purposes. The employer must also keep accurate and complete records of all tips received and the amounts distributed under the tip-pooling arrangement. For tipped workers in North Carolina, this rule protects the bulk of your tip income while still allowing the workplace to share tips among the staff who directly serve customers. It also means your employer has a recordkeeping duty: it must track what goes into the pool and what each employee gets out. If the pool fails to leave at least 85 percent of tips with the tipped employees, or if the employer does not maintain proper records, the arrangement may violate state wage rules and can be reported to the North Carolina Department of Labor.
In businesses that are covered by NCDOL for minimum wage (generally businesses that make less than $500,000 in gross sales), tip pooling is permitted as long as the tipped employees retain at least 85 percent of the tips they receive, which means the employer must maintain accurate and complete records of the tips received and the amount of tips earned under the tip pooling arrangement.
Minimum Wage in N.C. (North Carolina Department of Labor)
Doing two jobs for one employer
In North Carolina, a worker who performs both tipped and non-tipped duties for the same employer is only considered a tipped employee with respect to the time spent in the tipped occupation, such as serving customers. This means the employer may only take a tip credit and pay the $2.13 cash wage for hours actually spent in the tipped role. For all other hours, such as time spent on non-tipped tasks like cleaning, prep work, or administrative duties, the employer must pay the full state minimum wage of $7.25 an hour in direct cash wages. North Carolina follows this rule to prevent employers from blurring the lines between tipped and non-tipped work to underpay workers. If you spend a meaningful portion of your shift doing work that does not generate tips, your employer cannot average your tips across the entire shift to justify paying you $2.13 for non-tipped time. Each hour must be accounted for under the correct wage rate, and you are entitled to the full minimum wage for every hour spent in a non-tipped capacity.
In North Carolina, an employer MUST pay at least $2.13 an hour to tipped employees as long as each employee receives enough in tips to make up the difference between the wages paid and the minimum wage ($7.25).
Minimum Wage in N.C. (North Carolina Department of Labor)
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 Wage in N.C. (North Carolina Department of Labor)
- Minimum cash wage
In North Carolina, an employer MUST pay at least $2.13 an hour to tipped employees as long as each employee receives enough in tips to make up the difference between the wages paid and the minimum wage ($7.25).
Other years
Every North Carolina Tipped Minimum Wage year · Tipped Minimum Wage in every state