2024 North Dakota Tipped Minimum Wage
The 2024 North Dakota Tipped Minimum Wage is $4.86.
Effective 2024-01-01Source: North Dakota Minimum Wage and Work Conditions Summary Poster (North Dakota Department of Labor and Human Rights)Verified 2026-09-01
Who it applies to
North Dakota employers who take a tip credit for tipped employees
What changed this year, and why
The minimum cash wage that North Dakota employers may pay to tipped employees, using the state's tip credit, remains $4.86 per hour for 2024.
Common questions
- What is the tipped minimum wage in North Dakota for 2024?
- The minimum cash wage an employer may pay a tipped employee in North Dakota in 2024 is $4.86 per hour. The employer must ensure that the employee's cash wage plus tips received equal at least the full minimum wage for all hours worked.
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 Dakota, an employer may take a tip credit equal to 33% of the minimum wage when it pays a tipped employee. With that credit applied, the minimum direct (cash) wage the employer must pay is $4.86 per hour. The tip credit is the gap between this cash wage and the full minimum wage; the employer treats the employee's tips as filling that gap. The employer cannot simply assume the tips are large enough: it must keep written records showing that the cash wage plus the tips received together equal at least the full minimum wage for every hour the employee worked. If they do not, the employer must pay the shortfall. The credit is available only for employees who meet the state's definition of a tipped employee, and the employer must notify the employee in advance before it begins using the credit.
Employers may utilize a tip credit of 33% of the minimum wage for tipped employees. With the tip credit applied, the minimum direct wage payable to a tipped employee is $4.86 per hour
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
In North Dakota, when an employer uses the tip credit, it must maintain written records verifying that each tipped employee receives at least the full minimum wage for all hours worked when the direct cash wage and tips are combined. In practice, this means the employer must add up the $4.86 per hour cash wage it paid and the tips the employee actually received during each pay period. If the combined total falls below the full minimum wage for any hour worked, the employer owes the difference and must pay it. The employer cannot rely on busy nights to offset slow ones on a weekly or monthly average; the guarantee applies hour by hour. This record-keeping duty is what protects tipped workers in North Dakota from being short-changed when customer traffic is light or when tips are otherwise below expectations.
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
In North Dakota, before an employer can apply the tip credit and pay a tipped employee the reduced cash wage of $4.86 per hour, it must inform the employee in advance. The notice must come before the employer starts counting tips toward the minimum wage, not after the fact. This gives the employee a chance to know what cash wage to expect and to track whether the tips actually bring earnings up to the full minimum wage. North Dakota's rule is shorter than the federal list of specific disclosures, but the core obligation is the same: the employer cannot quietly pocket the tip credit without telling the worker. An employee who was not notified in advance may have a claim for the unpaid difference between the cash wage actually received and the full minimum wage for every hour worked during that period.
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
In North Dakota, gratuities offered to a customer's server belong to the employee and may not be kept by the employer. This applies to the employer itself as well as to managers and supervisors: none of them may take any share of a tipped worker's tips, regardless of whether the employer uses the tip credit. The rule covers tips in every form - cash left on a table, amounts added to a credit-card charge, and any other gratuity a customer gives in recognition of service. An employer who violates this rule by retaining part of an employee's tips may be required to pay those amounts back to the worker, in addition to any other penalties that apply. This protection stands alongside the separate tip-pooling rules, which govern how tips can be shared among employees but never allow the employer or its agents to dip into the pool.
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
In North Dakota, tip pooling is allowed only among tipped employees. The employer cannot force a tip pool into existence unilaterally: a vote of all tipped employees must be taken, and a majority plus one of all tipped employees must approve the pool. The employer must keep a written record of every such vote, listing the names of the employees who voted and the totals for and against. If just over half of the tipped employees request a vote on whether to pool tips, the employer must hold one, and the requesting employees must provide documentation supporting their request. Only employees who meet the state's definition of tipped employee - those in occupations where they regularly receive more than the small monthly threshold in tips - may be included in the pool. Time spent in meetings called by employees exclusively about tip issues is not counted as work time.
Tip pooling is allowed only among the tipped employees. A vote of tipped employees to allow tip pooling must be taken, and fifty percent plus one of all tipped employees must approve it.
North Dakota Minimum Wage and Work Conditions Summary Poster (North Dakota Department of Labor and Human Rights)
Doing two jobs for one employer
In North Dakota, an employee who works in both a tipped occupation and a non-tipped occupation for the same employer is considered a tipped employee only during the time spent in the tipped occupation. The employer may apply the tip credit and pay the reduced cash wage of $4.86 per hour only for hours worked in the tipped role. For hours spent in the non-tipped role - such as cooking, dishwashing, or other duties that do not involve direct face-to-face service to customers - the employer must pay the full minimum wage without any tip credit. The employer must keep records showing how many hours the employee spent in each occupation so that the correct wage can be verified for each. This prevents an employer from paying the lower tipped wage for work that does not generate tips.
A tipped employee is any service employee in an occupation in which he or she receives more than thirty dollars per month in tips.
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