2025 Texas Tipped Minimum Wage
The 2025 Texas Tipped Minimum Wage is $2.13.
Effective 2025-01-01Source: Texas Guidebook for Employers: Especially for Texas Employers (Texas Workforce Commission)Verified 2026-09-01
Compared with 2024
Every figure on this page is unchanged from 2024.
| Item | 2024 | 2025 | 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 2025.
Common questions
- What was the minimum cash wage for tipped employees in Texas in 2025?
- In 2025 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.
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 Texas, you are classified as a tipped employee under federal law if you work in an occupation where you customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips. This threshold is the gateway to the rules that allow your employer to pay you a lower direct cash wage and to count a portion of your tips toward its minimum-wage obligation. If your tips in a given month do not reach that $30 mark, or if your occupation is not one in which tipping is customary and regular, the employer cannot treat you as tipped and must pay you the full applicable minimum wage in cash without relying on a tip credit. Only the tips you actually receive count toward this determination; projected or estimated tips do not qualify.
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 Texas, the federal tip credit is the amount an employer can subtract from the cash wage it pays you and still meet its minimum-wage obligation, as long as your tips make up the shortfall. The employer must pay you a direct cash wage of at least $2.13 per hour. The tip credit is the difference between that direct wage and the full minimum wage. The maximum credit allowed is $5.12 per hour. The employer must be able to show, for each workweek, that your cash wages plus the tips you actually received add up to at least the full minimum wage. If your tips are small in a given week and the cash wage plus tips falls short, the employer is responsible for covering the gap. Only tips you actually receive count toward this calculation.
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. The maximum tip credit that an employer can currently claim is $5.12 per hour: ($7.25 - $2.13 direct (or cash) wage = $5.12).
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 Texas, if your tips are slow in a particular week and your cash wage plus those tips does not bring you up to the full minimum wage, your employer must make up the difference. This is a workweek-by-workweek guarantee: the employer cannot average a bad week against a good one to escape the obligation. The cash wage you receive from the employer must be at least $2.13 per hour, and the combined total of that cash wage and the tips you actually received must reach the full minimum wage for every hour worked in the week. If it does not, the employer must pay the shortfall out of its own funds before the pay period closes.
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 Texas, before an employer can count any of your tips toward its minimum-wage obligation, it must give you notice of the tip-credit arrangement. The notice can be oral or written, but it must come before the employer takes the credit, not after. It must tell you the cash wage the employer is paying you, which must be at least $2.13 per hour; the additional amount the employer is claiming as a tip credit; that the credit cannot exceed the tips you actually received; that all your tips belong to you except for contributions to a valid tip pool limited to workers who customarily and regularly receive tips; and that the credit will not apply unless you have been told all of this. If the employer fails to give you this information, it cannot take the tip credit at all and owes you the full minimum wage in cash.
Employers must provide the following information to tipped employees before taking a tip credit under the FLSA: the amount of the direct (or cash) wage the employer is paying a tipped employee, which must be at least $2.13 per hour; the additional amount claimed by the employer as a tip credit, which cannot exceed $5.12 (the difference between the minimum required direct (or cash) wage of $2.13 and the current minimum wage of $7.25);
Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (DOL)
When state law gives more than the federal rule
In Texas, when state law and federal law set different standards for tipped workers, the employer must follow whichever rule is more protective of you. For example, if Texas were to require a higher cash wage than the $2.13 per hour floor set by federal law, or were to ban the tip credit altogether, the employer would have to follow the Texas rule. This comparison applies across every element of the tipped-employee framework: the cash wage floor, the size of the credit, the notice requirements, and the rules on tip pooling and tip ownership. You are entitled to whichever version of the rule puts more money in your pocket or gives you stronger protections on the job.
When state law differs from the federal FLSA, an employer must comply with the standard most protective to employees. For example, some states require a higher cash wage than the federal direct (or cash) wage of $2.13 per hour or in some cases prohibit the taking of a tip credit.
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 federal rule is clear: regardless of whether your employer takes a tip credit, it may not keep any portion of your tips for any purpose, whether directly or through a tip pool. An employer, manager, or supervisor may not require you to hand over your tips, even in a week where the employer pays you well above the minimum wage in cash and takes no tip credit at all. Your tips belong to you. The only lawful way your tips can be shared with other workers is through a valid tip pool limited to employees in occupations where tipping is customarily expected; the employer itself is never a participant in that pool and may not divert any share to itself or to its managers or supervisors.
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. An employer may not require an employee to give their tips to the employer, a supervisor, or a manager, even where a tipped employee receives at least the federal minimum wage (currently $7.25) per hour in wages directly from the employer and the employer takes no tip credit.
Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (DOL)
Which tip pools you can be made to join
In Texas, if your employer takes a tip credit and requires you to participate in a tip pool, that pool is limited to employees in occupations in which they customarily and regularly receive tips. Eligible participants include workers such as waiters, bellhops, counter personnel who serve customers, bussers, and service bartenders. Back-of-house workers who do not customarily receive tips, such as cooks and dishwashers, may not be included in this kind of pool. The employer must also notify you of any required contribution amount, and may only count toward its tip credit the tips you actually retain after your pool contribution is taken. The employer itself may not retain any part of the pooled tips.
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, when you hold two distinct jobs for the same employer, the tip-credit rules apply only to the job in which you actually receive tips. For example, if you work as a maintenance worker at a hotel and also serve as a server, and you customarily and regularly receive at least $30 a month in tips for your server work, you are a tipped employee only with respect to that server job. The employer may take a tip credit against the hours you work as a server, but it must pay you the full minimum wage in cash for the hours you spend doing maintenance work. The two jobs are treated as separate employments for wage purposes, and no tip credit carries over from one to the other.
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. The worker is employed in two occupations, and no tip credit can be taken for their hours of employment in their occupation as a maintenance person.
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