2025 Pennsylvania Tipped Minimum Wage
The 2025 Pennsylvania Tipped Minimum Wage is $2.83.
Effective 2025-01-01Source: Minimum Wage Law Summary (LLC-1) (Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry)Verified 2026-09-01
Compared with 2024
Every figure on this page is unchanged from 2024.
| Item | 2024 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum cash wage | $2.83 | $2.83 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
Who it applies to
Employers of tipped employees in Pennsylvania
What changed this year, and why
Pennsylvania's minimum cash wage for tipped employees remains $2.83 per hour for 2025.
Common questions
- What is the tipped minimum wage in Pennsylvania for 2025?
- Employers in Pennsylvania may pay a minimum cash wage of $2.83 per hour to tipped employees who receive a specified amount of monthly tips. The employer must make up the difference if the cash wage and tips together do not reach the regular Pennsylvania minimum wage.
- Does the employer have to make up the difference if tips plus the cash wage are below the regular minimum wage?
- Yes. The employer must ensure that the employee's tips plus the $2.83 cash wage reach at least the regular Pennsylvania minimum wage for every hour worked. If they fall short, the employer must pay the difference.
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 federal Fair Labor Standards Act defines who counts as a tipped employee. A worker meets the definition if they are engaged in an occupation in which they customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips. Only tips actually received by the employee count toward meeting this threshold. The definition matters because it determines whether an employer may use a tip credit against its minimum wage obligations. If a worker in Pennsylvania receives more than $30 a month in tips in the ordinary course of their job, they are a tipped employee under the law, and the employer may pay them the Pennsylvania tipped minimum cash wage of $2.83 per hour, provided the other conditions for taking the tip credit are satisfied. If the worker does not meet the $30-a-month threshold, the full minimum wage applies instead.
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
The tip credit allows an employer to count a portion of the tips a worker receives toward meeting the minimum wage obligation. Under federal law, the employer must pay the tipped worker a direct cash wage, and can claim a tip credit equal to the difference between that cash wage and the minimum wage. In Pennsylvania, employers must pay at least $2.83 per hour in cash wages to tipped employees under state law. The tip credit bridges the gap between that cash wage and the minimum wage the worker is owed. The employer must ensure that the employee's tips plus the cash wage together reach at least the applicable minimum wage. Only tips actually received by the employee count when applying the credit. This system means tipped workers receive a lower guaranteed wage from their employer, with the expectation that customer tips will bring their total compensation up to the required minimum.
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
If a tipped employee's tips combined with the employer's direct cash wages do not add up to the minimum wage in a given workweek, the employer is legally required to pay the shortfall. This guarantee applies in Pennsylvania under the FLSA. The employer must track earnings each workweek to confirm the worker receives at least the full minimum hourly wage when cash wages and tips are combined. If slow business, fewer customers, or other factors leave the worker short, the employer cannot pass that loss to the employee. Instead, the employer must make up the difference out of its own funds. This rule ensures that tipped workers in Pennsylvania never earn less than the minimum wage, regardless of how much customers leave in tips on any given week.
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
Before an employer can claim a tip credit, it must give the tipped employee specific information about how the credit works. Employers must provide the following information to tipped employees before taking a tip credit: the amount of the cash wage being paid, the additional amount claimed as a tip credit, confirmation that the credit cannot exceed the tips actually received, assurance that all tips belong to the employee except for valid tip pooling, and notification that the credit will not apply unless the employee has been informed of these provisions. In Pennsylvania, this notice requirement applies before the employer takes advantage of the lower cash wage. The notice may be given orally or in writing. If the employer fails to provide all required information, it loses the right to claim the tip credit entirely and must pay the full minimum wage.
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
When federal and state laws provide different protections for tipped workers, the employer must follow whichever standard offers greater protection to employees. In Pennsylvania, this means comparing the federal rules with the state's own wage laws and applying whichever gives workers the better deal. For example, some states require employers to pay a higher cash wage than the federal minimum or prohibit taking a tip credit altogether. When state law differs from the federal FLSA, an employer must comply with the standard most protective to employees. Pennsylvania workers are entitled to whichever combination of cash wage and tip protections results in higher earnings. This rule ensures that tipped employees in Pennsylvania benefit from the stronger of the two overlapping legal frameworks rather than being held to the weaker one.
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
Under the FLSA, employers are prohibited from keeping any portion of employees' tips, regardless of whether the employer claims a tip credit. This rule applies in Pennsylvania and nationwide. An employer may not require a tipped worker to hand over their tips to the business, to a manager, or to a supervisor. This protection holds even when the employer pays the full minimum wage directly and takes no tip credit at all. The tips belong to the employee who received them from customers. Managers and supervisors are specifically barred from participating in tip pools or retaining any share of the tips that workers collect. This rule prevents employers from using their position of authority to divert customer gratuities away from the workers who earned them.
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
When an employer claims a tip credit, any mandatory tip pool must be limited to employees in occupations in which they customarily and regularly receive tips. In Pennsylvania, this means a tipped worker can only be required to contribute to a pool that includes workers like waiters, bussers, bellhops, counter personnel, and service bartenders—people who typically earn tips as part of their job. The pool cannot include back-of-house workers who do not customarily receive tips, such as cooks or dishwashers. An employer that implements such a traditional tip pool must notify tipped employees of any required contribution amount, may only claim a tip credit for tips each employee ultimately retains after the pool distribution, and may not retain any of the pooled tips itself. This restriction ensures that tip credits are paired only with tip pools among workers who regularly depend on customer gratuities.
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
When a worker holds two different jobs for the same employer—one that involves tipping and one that does not—the dual-job rules apply. The employee is a tipped employee only with respect to their employment as a server or other tipped occupation. In Pennsylvania, if someone works as both a maintenance person and a server for the same employer, they qualify as a tipped employee only if they customarily and regularly receive at least $30 a month in tips from their server work. The employer can claim a tip credit for hours worked in the tipped occupation, but no tip credit can be taken for hours spent in the non-tipped occupation. For those hours, the worker must receive the full minimum wage. This rule prevents employers from applying the lower tipped wage to work that has nothing to do with receiving customer tips.
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