New Jersey Tipped Minimum Wage 2026
Figure basis: Official New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce DevelopmentNew Jersey lets employers pay tipped workers a cash wage of $6.05 an hour and take a tip credit of up to $9.87, as long as tips bring total pay to at least the $15.92 minimum wage. This New Jersey tipped minimum wage calculator shows what that means in practice. Enter your average tips per hour and your weekly hours, and it works out whether your tips clear the tip credit, whether your employer owes you a top-up to reach the $15.92 minimum, and your effective hourly, weekly and yearly pay. A tip credit lets an employer pay a lower direct cash wage and count part of your tips toward the regular minimum wage, but it can never leave you below the minimum: if tips fall short in a given week, the law requires the employer to make up the difference. The cash wage, tip credit and minimum wage used here are the 2026 figures for New Jersey, sourced from the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Tips you earn above the minimum are always yours to keep.
New Jersey tipped workers get a cash wage of $6.05/hr, with up to a $9.87 tip credit toward the $15.92 minimum wage.
How the New Jersey tipped wage and tip credit work
cash wage = $6.05/hr (paid by employer)
total before top-up = cash wage + your tips per hour
if total < $15.92: employer tops up to $15.92
effective pay = greater of (cash + tips) and $15.92
These are gross figures before tax. Tips are taxable income and must be reported. For your after-tax pay, see the New Jersey paycheck calculator, and for the regular rate the New Jersey minimum wage calculator.
Do your New Jersey tips clear the credit?
New Jersey lets employers pay tipped staff a $6.05 cash wage and claim a tip credit of up to $9.87 an hour, but only if your tips actually bridge the gap to the $15.92 minimum. That $9.87 is the largest tip credit of any state in this group, so the amount riding on your tips is correspondingly high: nearly ten dollars an hour of your pay is expected to come from customers rather than the employer.
To check you are made whole, take the $6.05 cash wage, add your tips per hour, and confirm the total reaches $15.92. If a week averages, say, $8.00 an hour in tips, your $6.05 base plus tips is $14.05, and the employer must top up the missing $1.87 so every hour hits $15.92. Because New Jersey's minimum is indexed to inflation under the state constitution, the $15.92 target rises every January, so the number you check against will climb rather than hold steady.
One caution: New Jersey runs several minimum wages at once (seasonal and small employers at $15.23, agriculture at $14.20, long-term care direct-care staff at $18.92), but the standard tipped rules here track the $15.92 figure. Keep a personal log of hours and declared tips, and if your stub never shows a top-up in a lean week, that is worth a question to your employer or the Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
New Jersey tipped minimum wage: frequently asked questions
What is the tipped minimum wage in New Jersey in 2026?
In New Jersey, the minimum cash wage for tipped employees is $6.05 an hour in 2026. Employers may count up to $9.87 an hour of tips (the "tip credit") toward the $15.92 minimum wage. If an employee's cash wage plus tips does not average at least $15.92 an hour, the employer must pay the difference.
Does New Jersey allow a tip credit?
Yes. New Jersey allows employers to take a tip credit of up to $9.87 an hour, meaning the direct cash wage can be as low as $6.05 an hour provided tips make up the rest to $15.92. The federal tip-credit floor is a $2.13 cash wage.
What happens if my tips do not reach minimum wage in New Jersey?
Your employer must make up the shortfall. In any week where your cash wage of $6.05 plus your tips does not average at least $15.92 an hour, New Jersey and federal law require the employer to top your pay up to $15.92. You should never earn less than the full minimum wage once tips are counted.
How much does a tipped worker make in New Jersey?
It depends on tips, but here is a worked example: a server working 30 hours a week and averaging $12.00 an hour in tips. Cash wage $6.05 plus $12.00 tips is $18.05 an hour, which is above the $15.92 minimum, so the effective rate is $18.05 an hour, about $541.50 a week or $28,158.00 a year before tax. Use the calculator with your own tips and hours.
Is the tip credit the same as the tipped wage?
No, they are two sides of the same figure. The "tipped minimum wage" (or tipped cash wage) is what the employer pays directly: $6.05 in New Jersey. The "tip credit" is how much of your tips the employer is allowed to count toward the regular minimum wage: $9.87 in New Jersey. Cash wage plus tip credit equals the $15.92 minimum wage.
Official sources
- New Jersey 2026 tipped and minimum wage figures: New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, as at July 11, 2026.
- Federal tip credit and the $2.13 cash-wage floor: US Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division.
Reviewed by the CalculatorHub team, edited by James Graham, 11 July 2026. See our methodology. General information, not legal or financial advice. Cash wage $6.05 with a maximum tip credit of $9.87; tips plus cash must reach $15.92.