Tipped Minimum Wage in Washington

How the Tip Credit Works

Under federal law, employers can pay tipped employees a cash wage as low as $2.13 per hour and claim a 'tip credit' for the difference, but only if tips bring the worker up to at least the full minimum wage. If tips fall short, the employer must make up the gap.

Tipped Wages in Washington

Washington does not allow a tip credit. Tipped employees must be paid the full state minimum wage in cash, with tips on top.

Staying Compliant

Track tipped hours and tips so you can show that cash wages plus tips met the full minimum for every shift, the most common tipped-wage claim is exactly that they didn't.

Tipped Pay in Washington, Worked Through

Washington does not allow a tip credit, so tipped staff are paid the full $17.13 minimum in cash before any tips. Tips are on top, and they belong to the employee.

Overtime for tipped staff is calculated on the full minimum wage, not on the reduced cash wage. Working the premium from the cash wage is a common and expensive error, because it understates every overtime hour.

A valid tip pool can include employees who customarily receive tips. Managers and supervisors cannot take from it, and neither can the business, regardless of how the arrangement is described to staff.

Washington Labor-Law Snapshot

Washington does not allow a tip credit, so tipped staff earn the full $17.13 before tips. The Washington minimum wage is $17.13/hour (about $9.88 above the federal $7.25), with a higher local minimum in Seattle, so a tipped worker's effective floor tracks that figure.

For Washington employers these rules interact with timekeeping: accurate, audit-logged hours drive overtime, sick-leave accrual, final pay, and break records. Washington requires meal breaks on longer shifts and requires paid rest breaks; a final paycheck is due by the next regular payday when an employee resigns. Confirm current Washington figures with the state labor office before relying on any single number.

What Washington Employers Should Keep on File

Federal law requires employers to keep payroll records for at least three years, and the records used to calculate pay, such as time cards and work schedules, for at least two. Several states require longer. The practical standard is simple: if a former employee filed a claim tomorrow, could you evidence every hour you paid and every hour you did not?

The records that matter are the daily start and end times, the total hours for each workweek, the regular rate and any premium, all additions and deductions, and the pay period the payment covers. Keeping the underlying punches matters more than keeping the summary, because a total nobody can trace back is not evidence.

Where the record is missing or unreliable, the employee's reasonable recollection is generally accepted, and the employer carries the burden of disproving it. That is the single strongest argument for an automatic time clock over a paper sheet reconstructed at the end of the week.

How Washington Compares with the States Next Door

Washington borders 2 states, and goes beyond the federal floor here. Oregon bans the tip credit; Idaho allows a tip credit.

Minimum wage across the line: Idaho $7.25, Oregon $15.55. Washington is at $17.13.

If you employ people on both sides of the Washington border, the stricter of the two states usually governs each worker, based on where the work is actually performed rather than where your business is registered.

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Official Sources

• U.S. DOL, Minimum wage by state
• U.S. DOL, State overtime
• U.S. DOL, State labor offices

More Washington Guides

Tipped Minimum Wage in Other States

Washington Tipped Minimum Wage: Frequently Asked Questions