2021 West Virginia Tipped Minimum Wage
The 2021 West Virginia Tipped Minimum Wage is $2.62.
Effective 2021-01-01Source: Minimum Wage FAQ (West Virginia Division of Labor)Verified 2026-08-31
Compared with 2020
Every figure on this page is unchanged from 2020.
| Item | 2020 | 2021 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum cash wage | $2.62 | $2.62 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
Who it applies to
Employers of tipped service employees in West Virginia who are subject to the state minimum wage (i.e., those with six or more non-exempt employees at a single work location).
What changed this year, and why
West Virginia's minimum cash wage for tipped employees remained $2.62 per hour in 2021, unchanged from 2020. Employers may take a tip credit against the state minimum wage, meaning tipped employees must receive at least $2.62 per hour in cash wages and their total earnings (cash wage plus reported tips) must reach at least the full state minimum wage.
Common questions
- What is the tipped minimum cash wage in West Virginia for 2021?
- The minimum cash wage for tipped employees is $2.62 per hour.
- Must a tipped employee's total earnings reach the full minimum wage?
- Yes. The employee's cash wage plus reported tips must equal at least the full state minimum wage. If tips are insufficient, the employer must make up the difference.
What a tip credit is, and the cash wage underneath it
In West Virginia, the tip credit is the difference between what your employer pays you directly and the full minimum wage. West Virginia allows employers to take a 70% credit against the minimum wage for tipped workers. This means your employer can pay you a direct cash wage of $2.62 per hour. But this is only lawful if your cash wage plus your reported tips together reach at least $8.75 per hour. The tip credit is not a flat reduction in what you earn; it is a mechanism that lets your employer count your tips toward its minimum-wage obligation, while you still walk away with the full state minimum wage each hour. The $2.62 cash wage is the floor your employer must hand you regardless of how generous customers are.
West Virginia’s minimum wage standards allow employers a 70% credit against the minimum wage requirement for their service employees that receive tips. 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, your employer must have written tip records completed by you in order to claim a tip credit against the minimum wage. If you do not provide those records, or if your reported tips are not enough to bring your total hourly earnings up to $8.75, the employer would have to pay you the full minimum wage of $8.75 per hour. This protects workers in West Virginia from losing wages when their tips fall short. The employer cannot simply assume you received a certain amount; it needs your written documentation to justify paying you less than the full state minimum wage in cash.
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)
The notice an employer owes you before it takes the credit
In West Virginia, before an employer can pay a tipped worker the reduced cash wage of $2.62 per hour, it must have written tip records completed by the employee. These records document the tips the worker actually received. If the employer lacks these written records, it cannot claim the tip credit at all. The written-record requirement is the state's way of ensuring the tip credit is based on documented earnings rather than assumptions. For a tipped employee in West Virginia, this means your employer must keep your written tip documentation on file before it is allowed to pay you anything less than the full state minimum wage. Without that documentation, the tip credit is unavailable and the full minimum wage applies.
In order to take a credit against the minimum wage for tips, the employer must have written tip records completed by the employee.
Minimum Wage FAQ (West Virginia Division of Labor)
When state law gives more than the federal rule
In West Virginia, state minimum wage rules only apply at a work location that has six or more non-exempt employees. If an employer does not meet that six-employee threshold at your workplace, the state tip credit does not apply and the federal tip credit of $2.13 per hour may apply instead. In that situation you would need to contact the United States Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division for information about your rights. The rule means that depending on the size of your employer's workforce at your specific work location, either the West Virginia standard or the federal standard will govern your tipped wages. Workers in West Virginia should check which regime applies to their particular workplace.
Should the employer not meet the condition of having six employees at any one separate, distinct and permanent work location to fall under state minimum wage requirements, the federal tip credit of $2.13 per hour may apply.
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, your manager, and your supervisor may not keep any portion of your tips. The state law is clear: under no circumstances may the employer receive a share of any tips. This applies whether your employer is covered by state minimum wage requirements or not. All tips belong to you, the employee who received them. While tip pooling among eligible employees is allowed, the employer cannot participate in or benefit from any tip sharing arrangement. This protection ensures that tips you earn go to you, not to the business or its management.
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 limited to employees who are eligible to receive tips. Only workers who customarily and regularly receive tips can be included in a tip pool or tip sharing situation. This means your employer cannot force you to share your tips with employees who don't typically earn tips as part of their job, such as cooks or dishwashers who don't interact with customers. The law is designed to ensure that tip pooling arrangements benefit only those workers whose compensation traditionally depends on gratuities from customers.
Only those employees that are eligible to receive tips may be included in a tip pool, or tip sharing situation.
Minimum Wage FAQ (West Virginia Division of Labor)
Doing two jobs for one employer
In West Virginia, the tip credit and reduced cash wage for service employees who receive tips apply only to the work in which you are actually a tipped employee. If you perform both tipped and non-tipped duties for the same employer, the 70% credit and the $2.62 cash wage apply only to the hours you spend in the tipped role. For the hours you spend doing non-tipped work, the employer cannot use the tip credit and must pay you at least the full state minimum wage. This means that workers in West Virginia who split their time between, say, serving tables and working the kitchen must be paid differently for each role. Employers must track your hours in each capacity separately and cannot apply the tip credit to time you spend on non-tipped tasks.
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)
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 Wage FAQ (West Virginia Division of Labor)
- Minimum cash wage
That means an employer may pay his or her tipped employees a cash wage of $2.62 per hour
Other years
Every West Virginia Tipped Minimum Wage year · Tipped Minimum Wage in every state