CashoutTipped minimum wage / Georgia
Georgia tipped minimum wage
What employers must pay
In Georgia, the minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. An employer can pay a tipped employee as little as $2.13 an hour in cash, as long as tips bring the total to at least $7.25. The difference, $5.12, is the tip credit.
Georgia's own law sets $5.15, but it doesn't apply to tipped workers or to employers covered by federal wage law, so the federal $7.25 minimum and $2.13 cash wage apply to nearly all restaurant jobs.
Who counts as a tipped employee: more than $30 a month in tips.
If your cash wage plus tips comes up short of $7.25 an hour in a workweek, your employer has to make up the difference.
What changes next
No change to the Georgia minimum wage is scheduled. The federal rate that applies here changes only if Congress changes it.
Tip pooling and service charges
Federal rule applies: if the employer takes a tip credit, a mandatory pool may include only workers who customarily and regularly get tips. If no tip credit is taken, back-of-house staff may share. Employers, managers and supervisors may never keep any part of tips.
Overtime
Federal rules apply: time and a half after 40 hours a week, with no daily overtime. Tipped overtime is figured on the full $7.25 minimum, so the cash rate is at least $5.76 an hour.
Taxes on your tips
Georgia taxes wage income, and tips are wages, so its income tax applies to your tips. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare still apply. The federal tip deduction can cut the income tax part: see how the No Tax on Tips deduction works.
Check a week's pay
Enter one workweek to see whether your cash wage plus tips reached Georgia's minimum of $7.25 an hour.
You reached the minimum this week.
You came up short. Your employer owes you at least
If you are underpaid
Start by comparing your pay stubs with your own record of hours and tips. Georgia has no state agency that enforces the minimum wage, so complaints go to the U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division: how to file, or call 1-866-487-9243.
