Tipped Minimum Wage in Tukwila (2026)

Key numbers at a glance

How Tukwila tipped pay works

Tukwila's minimum wage comes from a voter-approved ordinance that has been phasing up since 2023; in 2026 the phase-in tiers are gone and every covered employer pays one rate: $21.65 an hour, per the Washington L&I local rates list. Coverage is broad. It reaches employers with at least 15 employees worldwide — if even one employee has worked in Tukwila, even temporarily. It reaches employers generating over $2 million in annual gross revenue within city limits. And it reaches franchisees tied to a franchisor network employing more than 500 people worldwide, so a national burger chain's Tukwila location is in.

What it does not reach: genuinely small employers that meet none of those tests. They are not covered by the city ordinance and pay Washington's statewide $17.13 minimum instead — which, thanks to Washington's tip-credit ban, is still fully in cash. For covered workers the arithmetic is the simplest in the industry: no tip credit exists, so the employer pays the entire $21.65 an hour and tips are pure addition. A 40-hour week at a covered employer is 40 × $21.65 = $866.00 in wages, guaranteed in a dead week or a slammed one. Keep $520 in tips and you take home $1,386.00 — an effective $34.65 an hour. The same 40 hours at an uncovered small employer is $685.20 in wages, $180.80 less. Our server paycheck calculator runs your own hours and tips both ways.

The scale is worth pausing on. Tukwila's $21.65 tops Seattle's $21.30, SeaTac's $20.74 and every other Washington local rate for 2026 — and it is roughly three times the federal $7.25 minimum that still governs twenty states. The comparison:

Tukwila vs. Washington vs. the federal rule

Both Washington columns are all-cash floors: no employer in the state may count a tip toward the minimum. Tukwila's ordinance simply lifts the floor higher for covered workplaces than anywhere else in Washington in 2026.

What Tukwila servers should watch

The coverage test. The most common Tukwila dispute is not the rate but who owes it. Fifteen employees counts worldwide, not per store — a 12-person restaurant owned by a 40-location operator is covered. So is $2 million in revenue generated inside city limits, and so is franchise affiliation. If your employer claims the $17.13 state rate, ask which test they fail before accepting it, and verify with the city if the answer is unclear.

Overtime at about $32.48. Covered overtime is 1.5 × $21.65, about $32.48 an hour in cash, plus tips. Holiday-season doubles at the mall are priced at that rate — run them through the overtime calculator before you pick up the shift.

Tips stay yours. No tip credit means no employer may take any share of your tips or credit them against the $21.65. Pools are for employees only; managers and supervisors can never keep a share — the same federal rule, with a state law behind it that is even stricter about employer touches.

Neighbor math. The 2026 local rates cluster tightly: Seattle $21.30, SeaTac $20.74 for hospitality and transportation, Renton $20.57 to $21.57 by employer size, and Burien $21.78 for the largest employers — per the L&I local rates list. Tukwila's mall district sits at the junction of several of them; hours are owed at the rate of the city where they were worked. The city minimum wage hub compares them side by side.

Your real number. A $21.65 base with $24 an hour in tips is a $45.65-an-hour job — the strongest guaranteed-plus-tips combination in Washington. Compute effective hourly (wages plus kept tips, divided by hours) before comparing offers; the statewide rules behind it are in our Washington state breakdown.