2026 Virgin Islands Tipped Minimum Wage
The 2026 Virgin Islands Tipped Minimum Wage is $4.20.
Effective 2026-01-01Source: Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees (DOL)Verified 2026-08-30
Who it applies to
Employers of tipped employees in the Virgin Islands. 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 $4.20 per hour as the minimum cash wage an employer may pay a tipped employee in the Virgin Islands. 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 the Virgin Islands in 2026?
- $4.20 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 the Virgin Islands. 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 the Virgin Islands, you count 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 definition matters because it determines whether your employer is allowed to pay you the lower tipped minimum cash wage of $4.20 per hour and take a tip credit against the tips you earn. If you do not meet this threshold—for example, if you work in a back-office role where tips are rare or irregular—your employer must pay you the full minimum wage and cannot use the tip credit system. Only the tips you actually receive count toward this determination; tips that are promised but not collected 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 the Virgin Islands, the tip credit is the amount your employer counts from your tips toward meeting the minimum wage. Your employer must still pay you a direct cash wage of at least $4.20 per hour, which is the Virgin Islands minimum cash wage for tipped workers. The tip credit then fills the gap between that cash wage and the full minimum wage. In other words, the employer pays you $4.20 directly and credits your tips toward the rest. If your tips plus the $4.20 cash wage do not reach the full minimum wage in any workweek, the employer is responsible for covering whatever is missing. The concept comes from federal law, which describes the tip credit as equal to the difference between the direct cash wage the employer pays and the applicable minimum wage. Only tips you actually receive count—money that never reaches you cannot be used as part of the credit.
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 the Virgin Islands, every workweek your combined earnings—your $4.20 per hour cash wage plus your tips—must reach at least the full minimum wage. If in any workweek your tips fall short and the total does not reach the minimum wage, your employer must pay the shortfall out of its own pocket. This rule is evaluated separately for each workweek, so a slow week cannot be averaged against a busy one. The employer cannot shift the risk of a bad tip week onto you; if customers do not leave enough to bring you to the minimum, the employer is legally required to cover whatever is missing before the regular payday for that workweek ends. You should keep track of your tips, because if your employer does not make up the difference, you have a wage claim for the unpaid amount.
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 the Virgin Islands, before your employer can use the tip credit to count your tips toward the minimum wage, it must tell you certain things in advance. It must inform you of the cash wage it is paying you, the tip credit amount it is claiming, and that the credit cannot exceed the tips you actually receive. It must also tell you that you keep all your tips except for amounts going into a valid tip pool, and that the credit will not apply unless you have received all of this information. The notice can be oral or written, but it must come before the employer takes the credit, not after. If your employer skips this notice or gives it too late, it loses the right to use the tip credit altogether and must pay you the full minimum wage for every hour you worked. The Virgin Islands requires its employers to give you this notice so you can verify your pay is calculated correctly.
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); that the tip credit claimed by the employer cannot exceed the amount of tips actually received by the tipped employee; that all tips received by the tipped employee are to be retained by the employee except for a valid tip pooling arrangement limited to employees who customarily and regularly receive tips; and that the tip credit will not apply to any tipped employee unless the employee has been informed of these tip credit provisions.
Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) (DOL)
When state law gives more than the federal rule
In the Virgin Islands, both federal law under the FLSA and local Virgin Islands labor law may apply to your wages as a tipped employee. When the two laws differ, your employer must follow whichever rule gives you greater protection—meaning whichever one pays you more or restricts the employer more. For example, if Virgin Islands law requires a higher cash wage than the federal floor, or if it prohibits the tip credit entirely, the Virgin Islands standard controls. This means the $4.20 minimum cash wage that applies in the Virgin Islands must be honored regardless of what federal law alone would allow. You benefit from the better of the two rules without having to choose between them. If your employer applies only the federal standard and the Virgin Islands rule would have been more favorable to you, you may be owed back wages for the difference.
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 the Virgin Islands, your employer, your manager, and your supervisor are all prohibited from keeping any portion of your tips, no matter what. This rule applies whether your employer takes a tip credit or pays you the full minimum wage directly. Even if you earn well above the minimum wage from tips alone, your employer cannot require you to hand over any of those tips, and your managers cannot participate in a tip pool or take a cut of your earnings. This protection is absolute—there is no exception for administrative fees, house policies, or shared overhead costs. The only person who may keep tips is you, the tipped employee, or other eligible workers in a lawful tip pool. If your employer or any supervisor takes any share of your tips, that is a violation of federal law and you are entitled to recover those amounts.
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 the Virgin Islands, if your employer takes a tip credit and requires you to participate in a tip pool, that pool can only include employees who work in occupations where they customarily and regularly receive tips. This means servers, bussers, bartenders, and bellhops can be in the pool, but back-of-house workers like dishwashers and cooks generally cannot be included unless your employer pays everyone the full minimum wage without taking a tip credit. The rule exists to prevent employers from forcing tipped workers to share their earnings with staff who do not themselves depend on tips. If your employer operates a tip pool that includes ineligible workers while still taking the tip credit, the entire arrangement may be invalid and you could be owed additional wages. Your employer must also tell you how much you are required to contribute to the pool and cannot take any portion of the pooled tips for itself.
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 the Virgin Islands, if you work two different jobs for the same employer—one that is tipped and one that is not—you are only considered a tipped employee for the hours you spend in the tipped occupation. For example, if you work as a server for part of your shift and as a maintenance worker for the rest, your employer can take the tip credit only for the hours you worked as a server. For the maintenance hours, your employer must pay you the full minimum wage with no tip credit allowed. This prevents employers from using the lower tipped wage rate for all your hours just because you happen to do some tipped work. The rule applies even if both jobs are related to the same business. You need to be paid the full minimum wage for any time spent in a non-tipped occupation, regardless of how much you earned in tips during your server hours.
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.
Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees (DOL)
- Minimum cash wage
Virgin Islands $10.50 $6.30 40% of the applicable minimum wage ($4.20) Not specified
Other years
- 2026
Every Virgin Islands Tipped Minimum Wage year · Tipped Minimum Wage in every state