2020 West Virginia Tipped Minimum Wage

Name: 2020 West Virginia Tipped Minimum Wage
Creator: DOL

The 2020 West Virginia Tipped Minimum Wage is $2.62.

Minimum cash wage$2.62

Effective 2020-01-01Source: Minimum Wage FAQ (West Virginia Division of Labor)Verified 2026-08-31

Compared with 2019

Every figure on this page is unchanged from 2019.

Item	2019	2020	Change
Minimum cash wage	$2.62	$2.62	+$0 (+0.0%)

Who it applies to

West Virginia employers of tipped service employees

What changed this year, and why

In 2020, the minimum cash wage for tipped employees in West Virginia is $2.62 per hour.

Common questions

What is the minimum cash wage for tipped employees in West Virginia?: Employers may pay tipped employees a minimum cash wage of $2.62 per hour, as long as the employee's cash wage plus reported tips reach the full minimum wage.

Who counts as a tipped employee

In West Virginia, you are considered a tipped employee if you work in a position where you receive tips as part of your regular compensation. The state allows employers to take a 70% tip credit against the minimum wage requirement for service employees who receive tips. This means your employer can pay you a direct cash wage of $2.62 per hour instead of the full minimum wage, as long as your cash wage plus your reported tips equal at least the full minimum wage. If you don't receive tips regularly as part of your job duties, your employer cannot apply this lower wage rate and must pay you the standard minimum wage.

West Virginia’s minimum wage standards allow employers a 70% credit against the minimum wage requirement for their service employees that receive tips.
Minimum Wage FAQ (West Virginia Division of Labor)

What a tip credit is, and the cash wage underneath it

In West Virginia, your employer can take a tip credit against the minimum wage requirement, but they must still pay you a direct cash wage of at least $2.62 per hour. This is the minimum amount your employer must pay you directly, regardless of how much you earn in tips. The tip credit allows your employer to count a portion of your tips toward meeting the full minimum wage obligation, but you must always receive this base cash wage. If your $2.62 per hour cash wage plus your tips don't equal the full minimum wage, the tip credit provisions still apply as long as you receive at least this direct wage amount from your employer.

That means an employer may pay his or her tipped employees a cash wage of $2.62 per hour, as long as the employee’s hourly cash rate, plus reported tips, equal $8.75 per hour.
Minimum Wage FAQ (West Virginia Division of Labor)

When the tips do not get you to the minimum wage

In West Virginia, if your hourly cash wage plus your reported tips don't add up to the full minimum wage, your employer is legally required to pay you the difference. This means that even though your employer can pay you a lower direct wage of $2.62 per hour as a tipped employee, you are still entitled to earn at least the full minimum wage for every hour you work. The employer must calculate your total earnings each pay period - your direct cash wage plus your tips - and if this total falls short of what you would have earned at the full minimum wage, they must increase your wages to make up the gap. This protection ensures that tipped workers never earn less than the standard minimum wage, regardless of how much they receive in tips during any given period.

That means an employer may pay his or her tipped employees a cash wage of $2.62 per hour, as long as the employee’s hourly cash rate, plus reported tips, equal $8.75 per hour.
Minimum Wage FAQ (West Virginia Division of Labor)

The notice an employer owes you before it takes the credit

In West Virginia, before your employer can take a tip credit and pay you the lower cash wage of $2.62 per hour, they must have written tip records completed by you as the employee. These records document the tips you actually receive. If you do not provide these written tip records to your employer, they cannot use the tip credit and must instead pay you the full state minimum wage of $8.75 per hour. This requirement ensures that there is a documented record of your tip income before your employer reduces your direct cash wage below the standard minimum. Without proper written documentation of your tips, the employer loses the ability to claim the tip credit and must compensate you at the full minimum wage rate for all hours worked.

In order to take a credit against the minimum wage for tips, the employer must have written tip records completed by the employee. If such tip records were not provided, the employer would have to pay the employee the full minimum wage of $8.75 per hour.
Minimum Wage FAQ (West Virginia Division of Labor)

When state law gives more than the federal rule

In West Virginia, when both state and federal minimum wage laws apply to your employment situation, the law that provides the most protection to you as an employee must be followed. This means that if the state minimum wage requirements offer better protections or higher wages than the federal rules, your employer must comply with the state standards. Conversely, if federal law provides greater protections in certain situations, those standards would apply instead. For tipped workers in West Virginia, this ensures that you always receive the benefit of whichever law - state or federal - gives you the highest wage or strongest protections. The most protective standard prevails, so you never lose out to gaps between different levels of government regulation.

As the state minimum wage requirement is currently higher than the federal, the state minimum wage will apply in all cases where there are at least six non-exempt employees working at one location.
Minimum Wage FAQ (West Virginia Division of Labor)

Your employer, your manager and your supervisor may not keep your tips

In West Virginia, your employer, managers, and supervisors are prohibited from keeping any portion of your tips under any circumstances. This means that all tips you receive belong to you as the employee, and no one in a management or supervisory role can take a share of your tip income. Even in tip pooling situations where tips are shared among employees, the employer cannot participate or retain any portion of the tips collected. This rule ensures that tipped workers in West Virginia retain full ownership of the gratuities they earn from customers, and management cannot benefit financially from the tip income generated by their employees.

Under no circumstances may the employer receive a share of any tips.
Minimum Wage FAQ (West Virginia Division of Labor)

Which tip pools you can be made to join

In West Virginia, tip pools are restricted to only include employees who are eligible to receive tips. This means you can only be required to participate in a tip pooling arrangement with other workers who customarily receive tips as part of their job duties. The law is specific about this requirement - managers, supervisors, and other non-tipped employees cannot be included in the tip pool. Additionally, under no circumstances may the employer take any portion of the tips collected through the pool. If you work in West Virginia and your employer requires you to share tips, they must ensure that only eligible tipped employees participate in the arrangement, and they cannot retain any part of the pooled tips for themselves or the business.

Only those employees that are eligible to receive tips may be included in a tip pool, or tip sharing situation. Under no circumstances may the employer receive a share of any tips.
Minimum Wage FAQ (West Virginia Division of Labor)

Doing two jobs for one employer

In West Virginia, if you work in multiple positions for the same employer, you are considered a tipped employee only during the hours when you are actually working in a job where you customarily receive tips. This means that when you perform work in a non-tipped position, your employer cannot apply the tip credit for those hours and must pay you the full minimum wage for that time. The lower tipped cash wage of $2.62 per hour only applies to the time you spend in tipped positions where you regularly earn gratuities from customers. Your employer must track your hours in each capacity and pay you appropriately based on whether you were in a tipped or non-tipped role during each work period. This ensures that workers who split their time between tipped and non-tipped duties receive proper compensation for all hours worked.