2019 Texas Tipped Minimum Wage
The 2019 Texas Tipped Minimum Wage is $2.13.
Effective 2019-01-01Source: Texas Guidebook for Employers: Especially for Texas Employers (Texas Workforce Commission)Verified 2026-09-01
Compared with 2018
Every figure on this page is unchanged from 2018.
| Item | 2018 | 2019 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum cash wage | $2.13 | $2.13 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
Who it applies to
Texas employers who take a tip credit against the wages of tipped employees
What changed this year, and why
Texas's minimum cash wage for tipped employees was $2.13 per hour in 2019.
Common questions
- What was the minimum cash wage for tipped employees in Texas in 2019?
- In 2019 a Texas employer that took a tip credit had to pay a tipped employee a direct cash wage of at least $2.13 per hour. Texas adopts the federal minimum wage, so the tip credit an employer may claim is the difference between that cash wage and the federal minimum wage.
- What happens if tips do not bring a tipped employee in Texas up to the minimum wage?
- The employer must make up the difference. A cash wage of $2.13 per hour plus the tips the employee actually receives has to equal at least the applicable minimum wage for every hour worked, and where it does not the employer owes the balance.
Who counts as a tipped employee
In Texas, a worker counts as a tipped employee under the FLSA only when they work in an occupation where tips are a regular part of the job and those tips add up to more than $30 in a typical month. The threshold is measured per occupation, not across all the jobs a person may hold for the same employer. If someone occasionally receives a tip but the occupation does not produce at least that much in tips on a customary basis, the FLSA does not treat them as a tipped employee and the employer cannot apply the lower cash wage or the tip credit against their pay for that work. Meeting the definition is the gateway to every other rule on this page: only once a worker is a tipped employee may the employer pay the federal minimum cash wage of $2.13 per hour and claim a tip credit toward its minimum wage obligations.
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
Texas employers may use a federal tip credit, which lets them pay a tipped worker a direct cash wage of $2.13 per hour and count the rest of the minimum wage as coming from the employee’s tips. The credit equals the difference between that $2.13 cash wage and the full minimum wage, so the employer is only obliged to make sure your cash wage plus your tips reach at least the minimum wage in every workweek. You must actually receive the tips for them to count; projected or shared tips that never reach you cannot be used to justify the credit. The cash wage of $2.13 is the floor an employer must hand you directly, and the tip credit is simply the gap the employer is allowed to fill with money that flows to you from customers instead of from the payroll.
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 your tips plus the cash wage your employer pays you do not reach the full minimum wage in a given workweek, the employer must make up the difference. The test is applied each workweek separately, so a slow week cannot be averaged against a busy one: the employer has to look at what you actually took home in cash wages and tips during those specific seven days and top it up if it falls short. For Texas workers this means the employer carries the risk of a bad week, not the employee. The rule exists because the tip credit is only justified when tips actually fill the gap; when they do not, the employer must pay enough directly to bring you to the minimum wage for that period.
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 a Texas employer can pay you the lower tipped cash wage and claim a tip credit, it must give you notice of specific facts: the amount of the direct cash wage it is paying you, the size of the tip credit it is taking, that the credit cannot exceed the tips you actually receive, that you retain all your tips (except for a valid tip pool), and that the credit will not apply unless you have been informed of these provisions. The notice can be oral or written, but it has to come before the employer starts using the credit. If the employer fails to give you this information, it loses the right to take the tip credit at all and must pay you the full minimum wage directly. The rule puts the burden on the employer to be upfront, so you know what you are being paid and why.
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 Texas law and the federal FLSA both apply but give different protections, the employer must comply with the standard most protective to employees. That means if Texas ever sets a higher cash wage than the federal $2.13 floor, or restricts the tip credit more tightly, the Texas rule controls for workers in the state. You are entitled to whichever version of the rule leaves you better off, and an employer cannot pick the more favorable one for itself. The principle runs through every part of tipped‑employee law: the definition of a tipped employee, the size of the credit, the notice required, and who may participate in a tip pool are all measured against the stricter of the two regimes whenever they disagree.
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 Texas, the FLSA prohibits employers from keeping any portion of employees’ tips for any purpose, whether directly or through a tip pool. That rule applies whether or not the employer takes a tip credit. Your employer, your manager and your supervisor may not require you to hand your tips over to them, and they may not use a tip pool as a way to route your tips to themselves. Tips belong to the employees who receive them from customers; the employer’s only permitted role is to collect and distribute them within a lawful pool or to pay them out to you. If a manager or supervisor keeps any share, that is a violation of the law regardless of how much you are being paid in cash wages.
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 a Texas employer takes a tip credit, any tip pool it requires must be limited to employees in occupations in which they customarily and regularly receive tips. That means the pool can include waiters, bellhops, counter staff who serve customers, bussers and service bartenders, but it cannot include back‑of‑house workers such as cooks or dishwashers who do not customarily receive tips. The restriction exists because the employer is already paying you a lower cash wage on the assumption that tips will make up the difference, so it may only redistribute tips among others in the same tipped occupation. If the employer wants to include non‑tipped workers in the pool, it must pay every participant the full minimum wage directly and give up the tip credit entirely for those employees.
Traditional Tip Pooling: 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 Texas, if you work two distinct jobs for the same employer, you are a tipped employee only with respect to the job in which you customarily and regularly receive tips. For example, if you work part of the week as a hotel maintenance worker and part as a server, you are a tipped employee only for the hours you spend serving. No tip credit can be taken for the hours you work in the non‑tipped occupation; for those hours your employer must pay you the full minimum wage directly. The rule prevents an employer from blending two jobs together and using your server tips to subsidize the wage for the other role. Each occupation is measured separately, and the tip credit follows only the hours in which you are actually engaged in tipped work.
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.
Texas Guidebook for Employers: Especially for Texas Employers (Texas Workforce Commission)
- Minimum cash wage
The FLSA sets minimum wage levels (minimum wage of $7.25 per hour (the Texas minimum wage is the same), a minimum cash wage of $2.13 per hour for tipped employees, overtime pay at one and a half times the regular rate of pay, and a minimum salary level of $684 per week for salaried exempt employees)
Other years
Every Texas Tipped Minimum Wage year · Tipped Minimum Wage in every state