Tipped Minimum Wage in District of Columbia (2026)

Key numbers at a glance

How District of Columbia tipped pay works

DC is still technically a tip-credit jurisdiction, but on a schedule. The employer pays a $10.30/hour cash wage and may take a tip credit of up to $8.10 against the $18.40 minimum — those are the figures per the U.S. Department of Labor table, July 2026. Under Initiative 82, employers must currently pay tipped staff at least 56 percent of the standard minimum in cash: 0.56 × $18.40 = $10.30. Your tips may legally cover only the remaining $8.10. If cash wage plus tips average at least $18.40 for every hour of the workweek, the employer owes nothing beyond the $10.30. The workweek is the unit of measurement: no averaging across weeks, and within one week a strong Saturday cannot subsidize a dead Tuesday.

The safety net is the top-up rule. If your tips don't bring you to $18.40 in a given workweek, the employer must pay the difference — every hour of every week lands at the full minimum or better. Numbers make it concrete: 30 hours at $10.30 is $309.00 from the employer, and the weekly floor is 30 × $18.40 = $552.00. Keep $400 in tips and you're at $709.00 — well clear. Keep only $150 and cash plus tips is $459.00, short by $93.00, which must appear on the check as make-up pay. Our server paycheck calculator runs this check against your own hours and tips in seconds.

Because the cash wage is already more than half the minimum, DC paychecks are far less tip-dependent than in federal-system states. The $8.10 credit is the largest single amount any employer in the country may still count toward a server's wage — but it is also a number with an expiration date. See how DC's transition compares with every state on the tipped minimum wage by state table.

Where Initiative 82 goes next

Initiative 82 does not freeze the tipped wage — it climbs a schedule. Each step raises the required cash share of the standard minimum until employers pay the full minimum in cash and the tip credit disappears entirely, with the phase-out completing by 2027. Two practical consequences: your guaranteed cash wage should rise on the schedule rather than sit still, and after completion tips arrive wholly on top of the minimum instead of counting toward it. Verify the current step before arguing a paycheck — a payroll system running last year's percentage is the most common way DC servers get shorted mid-transition.

District of Columbia vs. the federal $2.13 system

The contrast is not just magnitude but trajectory. The federal $2.13 system has been frozen since 1991 in real terms; DC is moving the other way, converting a tip-credit jurisdiction into a full-minimum-before-tips one on a published schedule. A DC server's guaranteed cash wage is nearly five times the federal floor today and set to reach the entire $18.40 minimum.

What District of Columbia servers should watch

The current phase step. The cash wage is a moving number tied to a percentage of the minimum. Each year of the Initiative 82 schedule raises the floor — confirm which step your paycheck is using before you accept it as correct.

The top-up, checked weekly. Your floor is $18.40 an hour regardless of where the phase-in stands. A slow August week triggers make-up pay automatically; a strong week cannot legally cover it.

Overtime math. Overtime in DC is based on the full $18.40 minimum, not the $10.30 cash wage: the OT cash rate = cash wage + 0.5 × full minimum ≈ $19.50/hour, plus your tips. An employer computing time-and-a-half on the cash wage owes you the difference for every overtime hour. The overtime calculator shows the exact number for your week.

Tip pool membership. Tip pools are legal for employees only, never managers. A supervisor taking a share of the pool is the classic violation, and it is the one that can void the employer's tip credit — jumping every affected server's cash wage to the full minimum while the credit still exists.