2024 Pennsylvania Tipped Minimum Wage
The 2024 Pennsylvania Tipped Minimum Wage is $2.83.
Effective 2024-01-01Source: Minimum Wage Law Summary (LLC-1) (Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry)Verified 2026-09-01
Compared with 2023
Every figure on this page is unchanged from 2023.
| Item | 2023 | 2024 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum cash wage | $2.83 | $2.83 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
Who it applies to
Pennsylvania employers who pay tipped employees
What changed this year, and why
Pennsylvania's minimum cash wage for tipped employees remains $2.83 per hour for 2024.
Common questions
- What is the tipped minimum wage in Pennsylvania for 2024?
- Employers in Pennsylvania may pay tipped employees a minimum cash wage of $2.83 per hour, provided the employee receives a required minimum amount in monthly tips. If the cash wage plus tips do not equal the regular Pennsylvania minimum wage, the employer must make up the difference.
- Does the employer have to make up the difference if tips are low?
- No. The employer must track tips and pay at least enough in cash wages so that the employee's total earnings meet or exceed the regular minimum wage for every hour 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.
Who counts as a tipped employee
In Pennsylvania, the Department of Labor's rule says that a tipped employee is someone who works in an occupation where they customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips. This threshold is what separates tipped employees from other workers who might occasionally get a tip. If you are a server, bartender, bellhop, or busser in Pennsylvania and your tips routinely exceed $30 per month, you fall under the tipped-employee provisions of federal wage law. That classification matters because it allows your employer to pay you a lower direct cash wage and to count your tips toward the minimum wage, subject to the other rules on this page. If your tips do not reach that $30-a-month level in your occupation, your employer must pay you the full minimum wage with no tip credit.
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 Pennsylvania, the federal tip credit rule lets your employer pay you a reduced cash wage and count your tips toward the minimum wage. The tip credit equals the difference between the cash wage your employer pays you directly and the federal minimum wage. In Pennsylvania, the minimum cash wage for tipped employees is $2.83 per hour. That means the tip credit your employer can claim is the gap between $2.83 and the federal minimum wage. Your employer must be able to show that in every workweek, your cash wages plus your tips together equal at least the full minimum wage. Only tips you actually received count toward this calculation. If the employer cannot document that your combined earnings reached the minimum wage, it may not take the tip 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
In Pennsylvania, your employer is required to make sure you earn at least the full minimum wage every workweek once cash wages and tips are combined. If your tips plus the cash wage your employer pays you fall short of the minimum hourly wage in a given workweek, the employer must make up the difference out of its own funds. This is a per-workweek obligation: a slow week with few tips still requires your employer to pay you the full minimum wage. The rule exists so that the risk of slow business falls on the employer, not on you. Your employer cannot average a good week against a bad one to avoid paying the shortfall. If your employer fails to cover the gap, it owes you back wages for every dollar it 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
In Pennsylvania, before your employer can take a tip credit against your wages, it must give you advance notice of five specific pieces of information: the cash wage it is paying you, the amount of the tip credit it is claiming, the fact that the tip credit cannot exceed the tips you actually received, your right to keep all your tips except for a valid tip pool, and the fact that the credit will not apply unless you have been told all of this. Your employer may give this notice orally or in writing. If the employer fails to provide this information, it loses the right to claim the tip credit entirely and must pay you the full minimum wage in cash. The purpose of the notice is so you know exactly what your employer is paying, what it is counting from your tips, and what your rights are before the arrangement takes effect.
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 Pennsylvania, when state law and federal law set different rules for tipped employees, the employer must follow whichever standard gives the worker more protection. Pennsylvania may require a higher cash wage than the federal floor, may restrict or forbid the use of a tip credit, or may impose other requirements that go beyond what the federal Fair Labor Standards Act demands. Where Pennsylvania's rule puts more money in your pocket or offers you greater safeguards than the federal rule, your employer must comply with the standard most protective to employees. This means you should look at Pennsylvania's own wage laws alongside the federal rules on this page, because the state rule may set a higher cash wage or otherwise give you stronger protections than the federal minimum.
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 Pennsylvania, federal law prohibits employers from keeping any portion of employees' tips for any purpose, whether directly or through a tip pool. This rule applies regardless of whether the employer takes a tip credit or pays you the full minimum wage in cash. Your employer may not require you to hand over your tips to the employer itself, to a supervisor, or to a manager. Tips belong to the employee who received them. The prohibition covers every layer of management: the business owner, any manager, and any supervisor. The only tips a manager or supervisor may keep are tips they personally received directly from customers for service they directly and solely provided themselves. If a manager serves their own tables, they may keep those particular tips, but they may not draw from any tip pool funded by other workers' tips. This ensures that your tips stay with you and the employees you share them with, not with the people who run the business.
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 Pennsylvania, when your employer takes a tip credit, any mandatory tip pool it requires you to join is limited to employees in occupations in which they customarily and regularly receive tips. That means a traditional tip pool under the tip-credit rules may include servers, bartenders, bellhops, bussers, and service bartenders, but it may not include employees who do not customarily and regularly earn tips, such as cooks or dishwashers. The employer may not take any portion of the pooled tips for itself, and no manager or supervisor may receive money from the pool. The employer must notify you of the required contribution amount and may only claim a tip credit based on the tips you ultimately retain after the pool is distributed. If the employer instead pays you at least the full minimum wage in cash with no tip credit, it may operate a broader pool that includes non-tipped workers.
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
In Pennsylvania, if you hold two separate jobs for the same employer, you are a tipped employee only with respect to their employment as a server, not with respect to the other occupation. For example, if you work as both a maintenance person and a server at the same hotel, your employer may take a tip credit only for the hours you actually spend serving, provided you customarily and regularly receive at least $30 a month in tips for that server work. No tip credit may be taken for the hours you spend doing maintenance. The employer must pay you the full minimum wage in cash for every hour you work in the non-tipped occupation. This rule prevents employers from applying the lower tipped wage to hours when you are not in a tip-producing role, even when both roles are performed for the same business.
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 Wage Law Summary (LLC-1) (Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry)
- Minimum cash wage
An employer may pay a minimum of $2.83 per hour to an employee who makes $30.00 per month in tips.
Other years
Every Pennsylvania Tipped Minimum Wage year · Tipped Minimum Wage in every state