Tipped Minimum Wage in Montgomery County (2026)

Key numbers at a glance

How Montgomery County tipped pay works

Montgomery County sets its minimum wage by employer size, adjusted each July 1 with the regional CPI-W. As of July 1, 2026: employers with 51 or more employees must pay at least $18.00 an hour; mid-sized employers (11 to 50 employees) at least $16.50; and small employers (10 or fewer) at least $15.95 — per the county Office of Human Rights and the Maryland Department of Labor. All three tiers sit above Maryland's statewide minimum, which rose to $15.30 on July 1, 2026, and far above the $7.25 federal floor.

Tipped employees have their own county floor. A Montgomery County employer may take a tip credit, but must pay at least $4.00 an hour in direct cash wages, with tips closing the gap to the applicable county rate. Maryland raised its own statewide tipped cash minimum from $3.63 to $4.00 an hour on July 1, 2026, so the county and state floors now match — but the county's full minimums run up to $2.70 higher, which is what the tips must reach. If cash wages plus tips fall short for the workweek, the employer must make up the difference, and restaurants relying on the credit must give each tipped worker a Tip Credit Wage Statement every pay period showing the effective hourly rate including tips, per the Maryland Department of Labor.

Worked example, large employer (51 or more employees): 30 hours at the $18.00 rate sets a weekly floor of $540.00. The employer pays $4.00 × 30 = $120.00 in cash wages. With $480 in tips the week totals $600.00 — above the floor, an effective $20.00 an hour, no top-up owed. With $390 in tips the total is $510.00, short $30.00, and the employer owes $30.00 in make-up pay on the check. The check runs every workweek — a strong week cannot cover a slow one. The server paycheck calculator automates the whole test.

Montgomery County tiers, July 1, 2026

Montgomery County vs. Maryland and the federal rule

The tip credit is simply the full minimum minus the required cash wage: $15.30 − $4.00 = $11.30 for Maryland, $7.25 − $2.13 = $5.12 federally, and $18.00 − $4.00 = $14.00 at Montgomery County's large tier — the biggest credit of the three because the county minimum is the highest. Verify current figures with the Maryland Department of Labor and the county's Office of Human Rights before you rely on them; the statewide rules are on our Maryland tipped minimum wage page, and the city-by-city tipped wage hub compares the county with the other high-floor jurisdictions.

What Montgomery County servers should watch

Which tier your employer really is. The boundaries — 10, 11, 50, 51 employees — are worth real money: $2.05 an hour between the large and small tiers in 2026, about $60 a week at 30 hours. If you are unsure which rate applies to your workplace, ask, and check the county's minimum wage page.

The $4.00 floor at every tier. Some county employers still pay the old state minimum of $3.63. Every tipped worker in Montgomery County is owed at least $4.00 an hour in cash, whatever the employer's size.

Overtime on the full rate. Maryland owes 1.5x the regular rate after 40 hours. For a large-employer server whose tips satisfy the tip credit, the accepted method yields an overtime cash rate of roughly $4.00 + 0.5 × $18.00 = $13.00 an hour, with tips on top — never 1.5x the $4.00 cash wage alone. The overtime calculator runs your exact week.

The Tip Credit Wage Statement. Each pay period, the statement must show your effective hourly rate — employer-paid cash wages plus tips. A missing statement, or one whose numbers do not add up, is the first flag of a miscounted week.

The July 1 reset. County tiers adjust annually with CPI-W — the 2026 step took the large rate to $18.00 — and the state figures moved on their own mid-year calendar in 2026. Confirm both before quoting either in a conversation with a manager.