CashoutTipped minimum wage / West Virginia
West Virginia tipped minimum wage
What employers must pay
In West Virginia, the minimum wage is $8.75 an hour. An employer can pay a tipped employee as little as $2.62 an hour in cash, as long as tips bring the total to at least $8.75. The difference, $6.13, is the tip credit.
The state rate applies to employers with six or more workers at one location. Smaller employers covered by federal wage law pay the federal $7.25, or $2.13 in cash for tipped workers.
Who counts as a tipped employee: any employee who customarily receives tips; state law sets no dollar amount (federal rule is more than $30 a month).
If your cash wage plus tips comes up short of $8.75 an hour in a workweek, your employer has to make up the difference.
What changes next
No change to the West Virginia minimum wage is scheduled. West Virginia's rate is not tied to inflation, so it stays at $8.75 until lawmakers change it.
Tip pooling and service charges
Pooled tips may go only to tipped service workers, including people who split time between a tipped job and a non-tipped job, for the hours they work the tipped job. The employer and non-tipped staff may not share in them.
Overtime
1.5 times the regular rate after 40 hours a week, no daily overtime. For tipped workers overtime is figured on the full $8.75, not the cash wage.
Taxes on your tips
West Virginia 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 West Virginia's minimum of $8.75 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 West Virginia Division of Labor, Wage and Hour Section: how to file. You can also call the U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, at 1-866-487-9243.
