2022 West Virginia Tipped Minimum Wage
The 2022 West Virginia Tipped Minimum Wage is $2.62.
Effective 2022-01-01Source: Minimum Wage FAQ (West Virginia Division of Labor)Verified 2026-08-30
Compared with 2021
Every figure on this page is unchanged from 2021.
| Item | 2021 | 2022 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum cash wage | $2.62 | $2.62 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
Who it applies to
Employers of tipped service employees in West Virginia that are covered by the state minimum wage (those with six or more non-exempt employees at a single work location) and that claim the state tip credit.
What changed this year, and why
For 2022, the tipped minimum cash wage in West Virginia is $2.62 per hour.
Common questions
- What is the minimum cash wage for tipped employees in West Virginia in 2022?
- The minimum cash wage is $2.62 per hour. This applies when the employer claims the state tip credit and the employee's cash wage plus reported tips together reach at least the full state minimum wage.
- What must the employee earn in total?
- The employee's hourly cash wage plus reported tips must equal at least the full state minimum wage. If tips do not bring the employee's total earnings to that level, the employer must make up the difference.
- What if the employer has fewer than six employees at a work location?
- The state tipped minimum wage may not apply. Instead, the federal tip credit and federal tipped minimum cash wage could apply.
Who counts as a tipped employee
In West Virginia, you count as a tipped employee if your job is one where tips are a regular, expected part of your pay. The state law allows your employer to pay you a cash wage of $2.62 per hour instead of the full minimum wage, as long as your tips bring your total hourly earnings to at least $8.75 per hour. If your tips plus the cash wage don't reach $8.75 per hour, your employer must make up the difference. This means you're responsible for reporting your tips accurately, and your employer is responsible for ensuring you earn at least the minimum wage when everything is counted together.
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)
What a tip credit is, and the cash wage underneath it
In West Virginia, your employer can take a 70% tip credit against the minimum wage if you receive tips. This means instead of paying you the full minimum wage, your employer can pay you a direct cash wage of $2.62 per hour. The key requirement is that your cash wage plus your reported tips must add up to at least $8.75 per hour. If they don't, your employer is responsible for making up the difference. You need to report your tips accurately so your employer can verify that the total compensation meets the minimum wage requirement. This system allows employers to pay tipped workers a lower base wage while ensuring workers still receive at least the minimum wage when tips are included.
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 can only take a tip credit if they have written tip records completed by you. If your employer deducts wages for tips you didn't actually receive, or if you don't provide written tip records, your employer cannot use the tip credit. Instead, they must pay you the full minimum wage of $8.75 per hour with no credit for tips. This protects you from being paid less than minimum wage when your tips fall short of what would be needed to reach the minimum wage threshold when combined with your cash wage of $2.62 per hour.
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, your employer can only take a tip credit against the minimum wage if they have written tip records completed by you, the employee. These records serve as the employer's documentation that you actually received the tips they are counting. If you do not provide written tip records, your employer loses the right to claim the credit and must pay you the full minimum wage with no offset for tips. The written-record requirement ensures there is a clear paper trail showing how much you earned in tips, which protects both you and the employer from disputes about whether your cash wage of $2.62 per hour plus your tips reached the minimum wage.
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, most tipped workers are covered by the state minimum wage law, which allows a cash wage of $2.62 per hour with a tip credit. However, if your employer has fewer than six non-exempt employees at your work location, the state minimum wage law may not apply to you. In that case, you could fall under federal jurisdiction instead, where the federal tip credit and a federal cash wage of $2.13 per hour may apply. When both state and federal rules could reach you, employers must comply with the standard most protective to employees – whichever set of rules gives the worker the higher overall pay. For questions about federal coverage, you would need to contact the United States Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division.
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. Under no circumstances may the employer receive a share of any tips, whether through a tip pool or any other arrangement. All tips you receive belong to you. Your employer cannot deduct any portion of your tips for themselves, their managers, or their supervisors. This rule ensures that tips remain the property of the employees who earned them through their service to customers.
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, state law is very specific about tip pooling. Only employees who are eligible to receive tips may be included in a tip pool or tip sharing situation. This means the pool is limited to workers in occupations where they customarily and regularly receive tips, like servers and bartenders. Your employer, managers, and supervisors cannot take any portion of your tips. Under no circumstances may the employer receive a share of any tips collected through a tip pool. The tip pool must be composed entirely of tipped employees who are entitled to receive tips as part of their work.
State law is very specific relating to the sharing of tips. 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, if you perform two different kinds of work for the same employer – one where you customarily and regularly receive tips and another where you do not – you are a tipped employee only with respect to the job in which you actually receive tips. The 70% tip credit and the cash wage of $2.62 per hour apply only to the hours you spend in the tipped occupation. For all hours you work in the non-tipped job, your employer must pay you the full minimum wage without any tip credit. This rule prevents an employer from blending your tipped and non-tipped hours together and applying the lower cash wage to work where you are not earning tips.
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, as long as the employee’s hourly cash rate, plus reported tips, equal $8.75 per hour.
Other years
Every West Virginia Tipped Minimum Wage year · Tipped Minimum Wage in every state