CashoutTipped minimum wage / Missouri
Missouri tipped minimum wage
What employers must pay
In Missouri, the minimum wage is $15.00 an hour. An employer can pay a tipped employee as little as $7.50 an hour in cash, as long as tips bring the total to at least $15.00. The difference, $7.50, is the tip credit.
Retail or service businesses with less than $500,000 in yearly sales are not covered by state law. If federal wage law covers them, they must pay at least $7.25, or $2.13 in cash for tipped workers.
Who counts as a tipped employee: anyone who gets and keeps tips (Missouri sets no dollar amount), as long as pay plus tips reach $15.00.
If your cash wage plus tips comes up short of $15.00 an hour in a workweek, your employer has to make up the difference.
What changes next
No change to the Missouri minimum wage is scheduled. A 2025 law removed the yearly inflation increase, so $15.00 stays until the law changes.
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
1.5 times the regular rate after 40 hours a week (52 hours for seasonal amusement or recreation businesses). Tipped overtime is figured on the full $15.00, so the cash rate is at least $22.50 minus the $7.50 tip credit, or $15.00.
Taxes on your tips
Missouri 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 Missouri's minimum of $15.00 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. If the numbers don't add up, you can file a complaint with the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Division of Labor Standards: how to file. You can also call the U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, at 1-866-487-9243.
