2023 Virginia Tipped Minimum Wage
The 2023 Virginia Tipped Minimum Wage is $2.13.
Effective 2023-01-01Source: 2023 Virginia Minimum Wage Act Notice (Virginia Department of Labor and Industry)Verified 2026-08-30
Who it applies to
Tipped employees in Virginia — workers who regularly receive tips each month — covered under the Virginia Minimum Wage Act.
What changed this year, and why
Virginia's tipped minimum cash wage is $2.13 per hour in 2023. The tipped minimum wage is the minimum amount an employer may pay a tipped employee in direct wages before counting tips.
Common questions
- What must an employer pay a tipped employee in Virginia?
- An employer must pay at least $2.13 per hour in direct wages. The employee's direct wages plus tips must total at least the full Virginia minimum wage. If they do not, the employer must pay the difference.
Who counts as a tipped employee
In Virginia, a tipped employee is someone who regularly receives more than $30.00 a month in tips. This threshold determines whether an employer is allowed to pay the lower tipped minimum wage of $2.13 per hour instead of the full state minimum wage. If you work in a role where tips are customary — such as a server, bartender, or bartender — and those tips add up to more than $30.00 each month, your employer may classify you as a tipped employee. However, even if you meet this definition, your employer must still ensure that your total earnings (the $2.13 cash wage plus your tips) reach at least the full Virginia minimum wage rate. If your tips fall short of bringing you to that rate, the employer is required to make up the difference. The $30.00 monthly test is a bright line: it applies to tips you actually receive, not what you could theoretically earn in tips, so workers in any occupation where tips are genuinely part of regular pay may qualify.
Tipped employees (those who regularly receive more than $30.00 a month in tips) may be paid at the tipped minimum wage of $2.13 per hour.
2023 Virginia Minimum Wage Act Notice (Virginia Department of Labor and Industry)
What a tip credit is, and the cash wage underneath it
In Virginia, a tip credit is the mechanism that allows employers to pay tipped workers a cash wage lower than the full state minimum wage. The tipped minimum cash wage in Virginia is $2.13 per hour. The idea is that tips count toward meeting the full minimum wage obligation, so the employer's direct cash payment plus the employee's tips together must reach at least the state's required hourly rate. For someone working in Virginia as a server, bartender, or other tipped role, this means your employer can pay you $2.13 per hour in direct wages, but only if your tips are large enough that your combined earnings equal or exceed the full Virginia minimum wage. The tip credit represents the gap between what the employer pays in cash and what the full minimum wage requires — in effect, your tips fill that gap. If your tips are insufficient in any workweek, the employer cannot rely on the credit for those hours and must cover the shortfall directly.
Tipped employees (those who regularly receive more than $30.00 a month in tips) may be paid at the tipped minimum wage of $2.13 per hour.
2023 Virginia Minimum Wage Act Notice (Virginia Department of Labor and Industry)
The notice an employer owes you before it takes the credit
In Virginia, before an employer can pay a tipped employee the cash wage of $2.13 per hour and count tips toward the minimum wage obligation, the employer must inform the employee about the tip credit arrangement. This notice requirement ensures that workers understand how their wages are being calculated and that they know their employer is relying on their tips to satisfy part of the minimum wage obligation. For someone working as a server, bartender, or in another tipped position in Virginia, this means your employer should explain that they are paying you $2.13 per hour in direct wages, that your tips will be counted toward meeting the full state minimum wage, and that if your tips plus the cash wage do not reach the minimum wage, the employer must make up the difference. Without proper notice, the employer cannot legally claim the tip credit and may be required to pay the full minimum wage directly. This protection gives tipped workers in Virginia the information they need to verify they are being paid correctly and to raise concerns if their total compensation falls below what the law requires.
Tipped employees (those who regularly receive more than $30.00 a month in tips) may be paid at the tipped minimum wage of $2.13 per hour.
2023 Virginia Minimum Wage Act Notice (Virginia Department of Labor and Industry)
Your employer, your manager and your supervisor may not keep your tips
In Virginia, employers, managers, and supervisors are prohibited from keeping any portion of an employee's tips. This means that all tips received by a tipped employee belong to that employee, and no one in a management or supervisory role can take a share of those tips for themselves. For someone working as a server, bartender, or in another tipped position in Virginia, this rule ensures that the tips you earn are yours to keep, whether they are paid in cash or added to a credit card transaction. Your employer cannot deduct a portion of your tips to cover administrative costs, breakage, or any other expense, and your manager cannot participate in a tip pool or take a cut of the tips you receive. This protection is especially important because Virginia allows employers to pay a cash wage of $2.13 per hour to tipped employees, relying on the tips to make up the difference to the full minimum wage. If employers or supervisors could keep part of those tips, the tip credit system would undermine the minimum wage guarantee. The rule ensures that tips serve their intended purpose: compensating the employee who earned them.
Tipped employees (those who regularly receive more than $30.00 a month in tips) may be paid at the tipped minimum wage of $2.13 per hour.
2023 Virginia Minimum Wage Act Notice (Virginia Department of Labor and Industry)
Which tip pools you can be made to join
In Virginia, tip pools are limited to employees in occupations in which they customarily and regularly receive tips. This means that an employer can require tipped employees to share their tips with other workers, but only if those other workers are also in traditionally tipped positions. For someone working as a server, bartender, or in another tipped role in Virginia, this rule means you may be required to participate in a tip pool with other servers, bartenders, or similar workers, but you cannot be forced to share your tips with cooks, dishwashers, janitors, or other back-of-house staff who do not customarily receive tips from customers. The purpose of this restriction is to ensure that tip pools benefit workers who rely on tips as a significant part of their compensation, rather than allowing employers to redistribute tips to employees who are already paid the full minimum wage. If your employer requires you to participate in a tip pool that includes non-tipped employees, that arrangement may violate Virginia law, and you may be entitled to recover the tips that were improperly shared. The $2.13 cash wage structure makes this protection especially important, since tipped workers depend on their tips to reach the full minimum wage.
Tipped employees (those who regularly receive more than $30.00 a month in tips) may be paid at the tipped minimum wage of $2.13 per hour.
2023 Virginia Minimum Wage Act Notice (Virginia Department of Labor and Industry)
Doing two jobs for one employer
In Virginia, when an employee works in two different roles for the same employer — one as a tipped position and one as a non-tipped position — the employer can only apply the tip credit to the hours worked in the tipped role. This means that if you work as both a server (a tipped position) and a cook (a non-tipped position) for the same employer, your employer can pay you the tipped cash wage of $2.13 per hour only for the hours you spend working as a server. For the hours you work as a cook, your employer must pay you the full Virginia minimum wage. For someone working multiple roles in Virginia, this rule ensures that you receive appropriate compensation for each type of work you perform. The tip credit is tied to the specific occupation, not to the employee as a whole. Your employer cannot average your tips across all your hours or claim that because you work some tipped hours, all your hours can be paid at the lower rate. This protection prevents employers from using the tip credit to underpay workers for non-tipped work, and it ensures that the minimum wage guarantee applies to every hour you spend in a position that does not customarily receive tips.
Tipped employees (those who regularly receive more than $30.00 a month in tips) may be paid at the tipped minimum wage of $2.13 per hour.
2023 Virginia Minimum Wage Act Notice (Virginia Department of Labor and Industry)
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.
2023 Virginia Minimum Wage Act Notice (Virginia Department of Labor and Industry)
- Minimum cash wage
Tipped employees (those who regularly receive more than $30.00 a month in tips) may be paid at the tipped minimum wage of $2.13 per hour.
Other years
Every Virginia Tipped Minimum Wage year · Tipped Minimum Wage in every state