Tennessee Tipped Minimum Wage 2026
Figure basis: Official US Department of Labor, Wage and Hour DivisionTennessee lets employers pay tipped workers a cash wage of $2.13 an hour and take a tip credit of up to $5.12, as long as tips bring total pay to at least the $7.25 minimum wage. This Tennessee 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 $7.25 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 Tennessee, sourced from the US Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division. Tips you earn above the minimum are always yours to keep.
Tennessee tipped workers get a cash wage of $2.13/hr, with up to a $5.12 tip credit toward the $7.25 minimum wage.
How the Tennessee tipped wage and tip credit work
cash wage = $2.13/hr (paid by employer)
total before top-up = cash wage + your tips per hour
if total < $7.25: employer tops up to $7.25
effective pay = greater of (cash + tips) and $7.25
These are gross figures before tax. Tips are taxable income and must be reported. For your after-tax pay, see the Tennessee paycheck calculator, and for the regular rate the Tennessee minimum wage calculator.
Checking your Tennessee tip make-up week by week
Because Tennessee has never passed a minimum wage law, tipped pay here runs entirely on the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. An employer may pay a cash wage as low as $2.13 an hour and claim a tip credit of up to $5.12, but only when your tips carry the total to at least the $7.25 minimum. The state adds no rules of its own, so the federal $30-a-month tip threshold and the federal make-up requirement are the whole of the law from Memphis to Nashville.
The make-whole test is run over each full workweek, not each shift or each table. Add every dollar of cash wages to every dollar of tips you kept for the week, divide by the hours you worked, and compare the result to $7.25. If it lands below, your employer owes the difference in that paycheck; a strong Saturday cannot paper over a dead Tuesday, because the tip credit can never exceed the tips you actually received. Keep your own tally of hours and tips, since the burden of proving the credit falls on the employer and your record is the check on it.
Enter your real average tips and weekly hours in the calculator above to see whether you clear the $5.12 credit and what a full-time year of 2,080 hours comes to.
Tennessee tipped minimum wage: frequently asked questions
What is the tipped minimum wage in Tennessee in 2026?
In Tennessee, the minimum cash wage for tipped employees is $2.13 an hour in 2026. Employers may count up to $5.12 an hour of tips (the "tip credit") toward the $7.25 minimum wage. If an employee's cash wage plus tips does not average at least $7.25 an hour, the employer must pay the difference.
Does Tennessee allow a tip credit?
Yes. Tennessee allows employers to take a tip credit of up to $5.12 an hour, meaning the direct cash wage can be as low as $2.13 an hour provided tips make up the rest to $7.25. The federal tip-credit floor is a $2.13 cash wage.
What happens if my tips do not reach minimum wage in Tennessee?
Your employer must make up the shortfall. In any week where your cash wage of $2.13 plus your tips does not average at least $7.25 an hour, Tennessee and federal law require the employer to top your pay up to $7.25. You should never earn less than the full minimum wage once tips are counted.
How much does a tipped worker make in Tennessee?
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 $2.13 plus $12.00 tips is $14.13 an hour, which is above the $7.25 minimum, so the effective rate is $14.13 an hour, about $423.90 a week or $22,042.80 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: $2.13 in Tennessee. The "tip credit" is how much of your tips the employer is allowed to count toward the regular minimum wage: $5.12 in Tennessee. Cash wage plus tip credit equals the $7.25 minimum wage.
Official sources
- Tennessee 2026 tipped and minimum wage figures: US Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, 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. The federal FLSA tip credit applies: $2.13 cash plus tips to reach $7.25.