CashoutTipped minimum wage / Mississippi
Mississippi tipped minimum wage
What employers must pay
In Mississippi, 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.
Mississippi has no state minimum wage law, so the federal $7.25 and $2.13 apply to employers covered by federal law.
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 Mississippi minimum wage is scheduled. The rate changes only if Congress changes the federal minimum.
Tip pooling and service charges
No state rule beyond federal law: an employer taking a tip credit may require a pool only among customarily tipped staff; if it pays the full minimum wage, back-of-house may be included. Employers, managers and supervisors may never keep employees' tips.
Overtime
Federal rule: 1.5 times the regular rate after 40 hours a week, no daily overtime. Tipped overtime is figured on the full $7.25, so the cash rate is at least $10.88 minus the $5.12 tip credit, or $5.76.
Taxes on your tips
Mississippi 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 Mississippi'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. Mississippi 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.
