2018 North Dakota Tipped Minimum Wage
The 2018 North Dakota Tipped Minimum Wage is $4.86.
Effective 2018-01-01Source: North Dakota Minimum Wage and Work Conditions Summary Poster (North Dakota Department of Labor and Human Rights)Verified 2026-09-01
Compared with 2017
Every figure on this page is unchanged from 2017.
| Item | 2017 | 2018 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum cash wage | $4.86 | $4.86 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
Who it applies to
Employers and tipped employees subject to the North Dakota Minimum Wage & Work Conditions Order.
What changed this year, and why
This page states the 2018 minimum cash wage for tipped employees in North Dakota.
Common questions
- Who qualifies as a tipped employee in North Dakota?
- A tipped employee in North Dakota is someone who regularly receives tips above a small monthly threshold and provides direct face-to-face service to customers.
- Can employers require tip pooling?
- Yes, as long as all participants are tipped employees, a majority of tipped employees approve it by vote, and the employer keeps a written record of the vote.
What a tip credit is, and the cash wage underneath it
In North Dakota, employers can use a tip credit to count part of the tips you earn toward their minimum-wage obligation. Under N.D. Admin. Code § 46-02-07-03, employers may utilize a tip credit of 33% of the minimum wage for tipped employees. This means the employer can count 33 percent of what the minimum wage would be against the tips you bring in, and pay you the rest in cash. With that credit applied, the minimum direct cash wage the employer must hand you is $4.86 per hour. The tip credit is not automatic — your employer has to choose to use it, and if it does, it still owes you at least $4.86 an hour in direct wages on top of whatever tips you earn. If your tips plus the $4.86 cash wage do not reach the full minimum wage for all hours worked, your employer must make up the difference and keep written records showing you received at least the minimum wage.
Employers may utilize a tip credit of 33% of the minimum wage for tipped employees.
North Dakota Minimum Wage and Work Conditions Summary Poster (North Dakota Department of Labor and Human Rights)
When the tips do not get you to the minimum wage
North Dakota law requires employers to make sure tipped employees actually receive the full minimum wage once the direct cash wage and tips are added together. Under N.D. Admin. Code § 46-02-07-03, if your $4.86-per-hour cash wage plus your tips fall short of the minimum wage for any hour you work in a pay period, your employer must make up the difference. This is not optional — it is a continuing obligation, not something that averages out over a week or month. Employers must also maintain written records verifying that tipped employees receive at least the full minimum wage for all hours worked when the direct wage and tips are combined. In practice, this means your North Dakota employer has to track your tips hour by hour and add cash to your paycheck whenever your tips are light enough that the $4.86 hourly rate alone would leave you below the minimum wage.
The employer must maintain written records verifying that tipped employees receive at least the full minimum wage for all hours worked when the direct wage and tips are combined.
North Dakota Minimum Wage and Work Conditions Summary Poster (North Dakota Department of Labor and Human Rights)
The notice an employer owes you before it takes the credit
Under N.D. Admin. Code § 46-02-07-03, an employer who elects to use the tip credit must inform the employee in advance. North Dakota does not spell out a detailed list of disclosures the way the federal Fair Labor Standards Act does, but the state rule is clear: before your North Dakota employer counts any of your tips toward its minimum-wage obligation, it has to tell you it is doing so. The notice must come before the tip credit is taken, not after the fact, and it must be given to you as the employee — not just posted on a breakroom wall or mentioned in a handbook you never read. If your employer starts paying you the $4.86 cash wage without telling you first that it is using the tip credit, it has not complied with the state rule, and the credit may not be available to it for those pay periods.
An employer who elects to use the tip credit must inform the employee in advance.
North Dakota Minimum Wage and Work Conditions Summary Poster (North Dakota Department of Labor and Human Rights)
Your employer, your manager and your supervisor may not keep your tips
North Dakota law is explicit that tips belong to the employee, not the employer. Under N.D. Admin. Code § 46-02-07-03, gratuities offered to an employee by a customer belong to the employee and may not be retained by the employer. This means your North Dakota employer cannot keep any part of the tips customers leave for you, whether those tips are in cash or added to a credit card slip. The rule covers the employer itself; the snapshot does not separately address managers or supervisors keeping tips, though federal law in 2018 extended the same protection to supervisors and managers. If your employer in North Dakota takes any portion of your tips — for example, by pocketing credit-card gratuities or requiring you to turn over cash tips beyond a lawful tip pool — that is a violation of state administrative code, regardless of any internal company policy.
Gratuities offered to an employee by a customer belong to the employee and may not be retained by the employer.
North Dakota Minimum Wage and Work Conditions Summary Poster (North Dakota Department of Labor and Human Rights)
Which tip pools you can be made to join
North Dakota law allows tip pooling, but only among tipped employees. A vote of the tipped employees must be taken, and more than half of them must approve the pooling arrangement. The employer must keep a written record of each vote, including the names of employees who voted and the totals. If at least half plus one of the tipped employees request a vote on whether to pool tips, the employer must hold one. The tipped employees must also provide documentation of the vote. This means your North Dakota employer cannot simply decide to put your tips into a pool with back-of-house workers or supervisors. The pool is limited to tipped employees themselves, and they must vote to approve it. The employer cannot keep any portion of the pooled tips.
Tip pooling is allowed only among the tipped employees.
North Dakota Minimum Wage and Work Conditions Summary Poster (North Dakota Department of Labor and Human Rights)
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.
North Dakota Minimum Wage and Work Conditions Summary Poster (North Dakota Department of Labor and Human Rights)
- Minimum cash wage
With the tip credit applied, the minimum direct wage payable to a tipped employee is $4.86 per hour
Other years
Every North Dakota Tipped Minimum Wage year · Tipped Minimum Wage in every state