2023 West Virginia Tipped Minimum Wage
The 2023 West Virginia Tipped Minimum Wage is $2.62.
Effective 2023-01-01Source: Minimum Wage FAQ (West Virginia Division of Labor)Verified 2026-09-01
Compared with 2022
Every figure on this page is unchanged from 2022.
| Item | 2022 | 2023 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum cash wage | $2.62 | $2.62 | +$0 (+0.0%) |
Who it applies to
Employers of tipped employees in West Virginia
What changed this year, and why
The minimum cash wage for tipped employees in West Virginia is $2.62 per hour. Employers may pay this reduced cash wage provided that the employee's cash wage plus reported tips together reach the full state minimum wage.
Common questions
- What if a tipped employee's tips plus the cash wage do not reach the full minimum wage?
- Employers must ensure that the employee's cash wage plus reported tips together equal at least the full state minimum wage. If tips fall short, the employer must make up the difference.
Who counts as a tipped employee
West Virginia's minimum wage law defines tipped employees as service workers who receive tips as part of their job. The state allows employers to claim a 70% credit against the $8.75 minimum wage requirement, which means employers can pay a cash wage of $2.62 per hour instead of the full minimum. This reduced wage applies to workers in occupations where tips are customary - servers, bartenders, hotel staff, and similar service positions. The employer can only use this tip credit if your cash wage plus your reported tips add up to at least $8.75 per hour. If your tips don't bring you to that threshold, your employer must pay the difference. This system recognizes that tipped workers receive significant income from customers, allowing employers to pay a lower base wage while ensuring workers still earn at least the minimum wage when tips are included. The 70% credit represents how much of the wage obligation shifts from employer to customer tips.
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
When a tipped employee in West Virginia does not earn enough in tips to reach the minimum wage, the employer must cover the shortfall. The employee's cash wage of $2.62 per hour plus their reported tips must equal at least $8.75 per hour. If the tips fall short and the combined total is less than $8.75, the employer is required to increase the employee's total wages to meet that minimum. The employer cannot let the worker absorb the difference or reduce the cash wage below $2.62 per hour. This protection applies at work locations where the employer has at least six non-exempt employees and is therefore subject to state minimum wage requirements. Employers who fail to make up the shortfall are not meeting their obligation under West Virginia law.
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
West Virginia requires employers to maintain written tip records completed by the employee before claiming the tip credit. If such records are not provided, the employer loses the right to take the credit and must pay the full minimum wage directly. The written records serve as documentation that you actually received the tips your employer is counting on to meet the minimum wage obligation. This protects workers from employers who might claim a credit based on assumed or inflated tip amounts. For a tipped worker in West Virginia earning the cash wage of $2.62 per hour, this documentation requirement is important: without your written tip records on file, your employer cannot use the tip credit at all and owes you the full minimum wage regardless of what you actually received in tips. The rule creates accountability in the tip credit system and gives workers a way to verify that the tips their employer reports match their own records.
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
West Virginia minimum wage law applies to employers with at least six employees at any one separate, distinct and permanent work location. If your employer does not meet this threshold, federal rules take over instead, and the federal tipped cash wage of $2.13 per hour may apply. Where both state and federal standards could cover the same worker, the law requires compliance with the standard most protective to employees. For West Virginia workers, this generally means comparing the state cash wage and minimum wage to the federal amounts and following whichever gives the higher total compensation. The six-employee test is applied at each individual work location, not across the employer's entire business. A restaurant chain with several locations in West Virginia might have some locations covered by state law and others covered by federal law, depending on how many employees work at each one.
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
West Virginia law is clear that employers, managers, and supervisors may never keep any portion of tips earned by their workers. The rule applies in every situation: whether tips are handed directly to a server, collected through a tip pool, or gathered as part of a service charge added to a bill. Your tips belong to you. This protection is essential because West Virginia allows employers to pay tipped workers a cash wage of $2.62 per hour — well below the standard minimum wage — on the assumption that tips will make up the difference. If an employer were allowed to skim or retain tips, workers relying on the tip credit system could end up earning far less than the minimum wage. The prohibition covers all levels of management, so no one above you in the workplace can claim a share of what customers leave for the staff.
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
West Virginia law restricts tip pooling to only those employees who are eligible to receive tips. This means tip pools can only include workers in positions where tipping is customary - servers, bartenders, bussers, and similar service roles. Non-tipped employees like cooks, dishwashers, or janitors cannot be included in the tip pool, even if the employer wants to share tips more broadly across the staff. The law is specific about limiting tip sharing to eligible recipients only - only those employees who customarily receive tips may participate. This protection ensures that tips go to workers who actually serve customers and depend on tip income, rather than being redistributed to back-of-house staff or other workers who don't typically receive tips from customers. The employer still cannot take any portion of the tips, even in a pooling arrangement. All tips in the pool must be distributed among the eligible tipped employees according to whatever allocation method the employer uses, but the pool cannot include non-tipped workers.
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
West Virginia law allows employers to prohibit employees from accepting tips, but only if all covered employees receive at least the full $8.75 minimum wage. If your employer bans tips, they cannot claim the tip credit and pay you the reduced $2.62 cash wage. They must pay you the complete minimum wage directly. This rule gives employers flexibility to establish no-tipping policies - some restaurants, for example, prefer to eliminate tipping and instead pay higher base wages or include service charges. However, the employer cannot have it both ways. They cannot ban tips while also paying the lower tipped-worker wage. If they prohibit tips, they owe you the full $8.75 per hour regardless of what you would have earned in tips. This protection ensures that workers who are denied tip income through employer policy still receive adequate compensation at the standard minimum wage rate.
May an employer establish a policy that prohibits employees from accepting tips? Yes, as long as all employees that are covered by state minimum wage requirements receive an hourly rate of at least $8.75.
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