2026 South Carolina Tipped Minimum Wage
The 2026 South Carolina Tipped Minimum Wage is $2.13.
Effective 2026-01-01Source: Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees (DOL)Verified 2026-08-30
Who it applies to
Employers of tipped employees in South Carolina. The cash wage is the part of the minimum wage the employer pays directly. The rest may be met by the employee's tips, up to the maximum tip credit the same row of the table states, and the table sets out separately how much an employee must receive in tips to count as a tipped employee at all.
What changed this year, and why
The Wage and Hour Division's table of minimum wages for tipped employees, in the version last revised July 1, 2026, gives $2.13 per hour as the minimum cash wage an employer may pay a tipped employee in South Carolina. The table carries only its own revision date and never dates the rate, so this page reports the figure as in force as of that revision rather than claiming an effective date no document states.
Common questions
- What is the tipped minimum wage in South Carolina in 2026?
- $2.13 per hour in cash wages. That is what the Department of Labor's table of minimum wages for tipped employees, last revised July 1, 2026, gives as the minimum cash wage for a tipped employee in South Carolina. Tips make up the remainder of the applicable minimum wage, up to the maximum tip credit stated in the same row.
- What if tips do not bring the employee up to the full minimum wage?
- The employer pays the difference. A tip credit is a credit against the minimum wage the employer already owes, not a lower wage in its own right, so an employee whose cash wage and tips together fall short of the applicable minimum wage is owed the shortfall in wages.
- Where does the figure on this page come from?
- From Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees, the table the Wage and Hour Division publishes by state, in the version last revised July 1, 2026. The row it was read from is quoted on this page, and the snapshot it was verified against is the one captured for this record.
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 South Carolina, federal law defines a tipped employee as someone who works in an occupation where they customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips. If you work as a server, bartender, bellhop, or in a similar role and your tips typically exceed that threshold, you meet this definition. This matters because once you are classified as a tipped employee, your employer may be allowed to pay you a lower direct cash wage and claim a tip credit toward its minimum wage obligations. If your tips fall below $30 in a typical month, or if your occupation does not normally involve tipping, you are not considered a tipped employee under this rule and your employer must pay you the full minimum wage directly.
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 South Carolina, the federal tip credit allows your employer to count a portion of the tips you receive toward its minimum wage obligation, as long as it pays you a direct cash wage of at least $2.13 per hour. The tip credit is the difference between that cash wage and the full federal minimum wage. Your employer must ensure that your cash wage plus your tips together reach at least the full minimum wage for every workweek. If they do not, the employer owes you the shortfall. Only tips you actually receive count toward this calculation. The tip credit is not a reduction in what you earn overall; it is a way for the employer to meet its minimum wage duty by combining a lower direct wage with the tips customers give you.
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 South Carolina, if your tips combined with the direct cash wage your employer pays you do not add up to at least the full federal minimum wage in a given workweek, your employer is required to pay the shortfall. This guarantee applies every workweek, not just on average over a pay period. For example, if business is slow and your tips are unusually low, your employer cannot simply accept the lower total; it must make up the difference so that your effective hourly earnings meet the minimum wage floor. This rule ensures that the tip credit does not leave you earning less than the minimum wage, regardless of how much customers tip in any particular 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
In South Carolina, before your employer can claim a tip credit and pay you the lower cash wage, it must give you specific notice of the arrangement. The notice must include the amount of the direct cash wage the employer is paying you, the additional amount it is claiming as a tip credit, that the tip credit cannot exceed the tips you actually receive, and that you have the right to keep all your tips except those required by a valid tip pool. Your employer may give this notice orally or in writing, but it must be provided before the tip credit is taken. If the employer fails to give you this information, it cannot use the tip credit at all and must pay you the full minimum wage directly.
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 South Carolina, when state law and the federal FLSA set different rules for tipped employees, your employer must follow whichever standard is more protective of you as a worker. For instance, if South Carolina were to require a higher cash wage than the federal $2.13 per hour or to prohibit the tip credit entirely, the employer would have to comply with that stricter state rule instead of the more permissive federal one. This principle ensures that you always receive the greater benefit available under either law. The federal rule sets a floor, not a ceiling; if South Carolina law gives you stronger protections, those protections apply.
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 South Carolina, federal law prohibits employers from keeping any portion of your 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 directly. Your employer may not require you to hand over your tips to the business, to a manager, or to a supervisor. Tips belong to the employees who receive them from customers. Managers and supervisors are barred from participating in tip pools or retaining any share of the tips that tipped employees earn. This protection ensures that the money customers intend for you reaches you and is not diverted to the house.
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 South Carolina, if your employer takes a tip credit and requires you to participate in a tip pool, that pool must be limited to employees in occupations where they customarily and regularly receive tips. This means only workers such as waiters, bellhops, bussers, counter personnel who serve customers, and service bartenders may share in the pool. Back-of-house staff who do not traditionally receive tips, such as cooks or dishwashers, cannot be included in this kind of traditional tip pool. The employer must notify you of the required contribution amount and may only take a tip credit for the tips you ultimately retain after the pool is distributed. Managers and supervisors may not receive any share from the pool.
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 South Carolina, if you work two distinct jobs for the same employer, you are considered a tipped employee only for the job in which you customarily and regularly receive tips. For example, if you work as a maintenance person at a hotel and also serve as a server, you are a tipped employee only with respect to your work as a server. Your employer cannot take a tip credit for the hours you spend doing maintenance work, even if you earned tips during your server shift that week. Each occupation is treated separately. For the non-tipped occupation, your employer must pay you the full minimum wage without relying on any tip credit. This rule prevents employers from using tips earned in one role to subsidize sub-minimum wages in another.
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 Wages for Tipped Employees (DOL)
- Minimum cash wage
South Carolina 11 $7.25 $5.12 $2.13 More than $30
Other years
- 2026
Every South Carolina Tipped Minimum Wage year · Tipped Minimum Wage in every state