What Is the Minimum Wage for Servers in Virginia?

In Virginia, the minimum wage for servers is $2.13 per hour in direct cash wages, provided tips bring the server’s total pay up to the state’s full minimum wage of $12.77 per hour as of January 1, 2026. If tips fall short in any workweek, the employer must pay the difference out of pocket.¹

How the Tip Credit Math Works

Virginia uses what’s called a “tip credit.” The employer pays a lower cash wage and counts your tips toward the rest of the minimum wage. The $2.13 cash wage floor comes from the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, and Virginia’s Department of Labor and Industry confirms that floor applies here.²¹

The arithmetic is simple. The full minimum wage is $12.77. The cash wage is $2.13. The gap, $10.64, is the maximum tip credit your employer can claim. Your tips have to cover that gap for the credit to be valid.

Virginia’s minimum wage now adjusts automatically each January based on the prior year’s Consumer Price Index increase. The $12.77 figure for 2026 reflects a 2.9 percent bump over the 2025 rate of $12.41.¹ The $2.13 cash floor doesn’t move with it, so every annual increase widens the tip credit your tips have to fill.

When Your Employer Owes You Make-Up Pay

If your cash wages plus tips don’t average $12.77 per hour over a workweek, your employer owes you the shortfall.³

A worked example: you put in 40 hours and collect $350 in tips. Your employer pays $85.20 in cash wages (40 × $2.13). Total earnings are $435.20, which works out to $10.88 per hour. That’s $1.89 below minimum, so your employer owes you an extra $75.60 for that week.

The calculation runs on the full workweek, not shift by shift. A great Friday night can cover a dead Tuesday lunch. That cuts both ways: the weekly average also lets a single big night mask several underpaid shifts, so it’s worth checking the math yourself when your tips feel thin.

This is where most violations happen. Some employers don’t track shortfalls at all; others ignore them during slow seasons. Keeping your own record of hours worked and tips received, shift by shift, is the single most useful habit for catching this.

Overtime Pay for Servers

Overtime is based on the full minimum wage, not the $2.13 cash wage. For 2026, that puts the overtime rate at $19.16 per hour ($12.77 × 1.5).⁴

Your employer can still apply the tip credit to overtime hours, but the credit can’t be any larger than it is for a straight-time hour. In practical terms, that means at least $8.52 in cash per overtime hour ($19.16 minus the $10.64 tip credit).⁴ A common employer error is calculating overtime off the $2.13 cash wage instead of the $12.77 full wage. If your overtime cash rate isn’t noticeably higher than your regular cash rate, check the numbers.

Tips vs. Service Charges

Automatic gratuities added to large-party checks are not tips. The IRS treats them as service charges, which belong to the employer. A real tip has to be voluntary, chosen by the customer, and not dictated by restaurant policy. Miss any of those elements and it’s a service charge.⁵

Your employer can hand service charges to you, split them with the kitchen, or keep them. When they are passed along, they count as regular wages subject to normal payroll withholding, not as tips, and they can’t be used to fill the tip credit.

Your actual tips are a different matter. Employers and managers cannot keep any part of them, including to cover register shortages or breakage. Tip pools are allowed when the employer takes a tip credit, but only among traditionally tipped workers like bussers and bartenders; managers and supervisors are excluded.⁶

Reporting Your Tips to the IRS

If you receive $20 or more in cash tips in any calendar month from a single employer, you have to report the monthly total to that employer in writing. The report needs your name, Social Security number, employer information, the period covered, and the total tips received. Credit card tips that your employer already processes still count.⁷

No specific form is required. The IRS publishes Form 4070 as a convenient option, but what matters is that the report is written and includes the required details.⁷ Many restaurants handle this through their point-of-sale system. If yours doesn’t, a daily tip log is your protection in an audit.

What To Do if You’re Being Underpaid

You can file a wage claim with the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry if your employer skips the make-up pay, holds back your tips, or shorts your overtime. Claims can be filed electronically through the DOLI portal or on a paper form by mail.⁸

You have three years from the date of each violation to file a claim or sue. The clock runs on each paycheck separately, so old violations can expire while recent ones remain live. If you win, the award includes attorney fees equal to one-third of the judgment on top of the unpaid wages.⁹

Employers who willfully refuse to pay earned wages also face criminal charges. Unpaid wages under $10,000 can result in a Class 1 misdemeanor. At $10,000 or more, or with a prior conviction, the charge rises to a Class 6 felony.¹⁰

1
Virginia Department of Labor and Industry. Virginia Minimum Wage Rate Increasing Effective January 1, 2026
2
eCFR. 29 CFR 531.59 – The Tip Wage Credit
3
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 40.1-28.9 – Tipped Employees
4
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 15 – Tipped Employees Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
5
Internal Revenue Service. Tips Versus Service Charges – How to Report
6
U.S. Department of Labor. Tip Regulations Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
7
Internal Revenue Service. Tip Recordkeeping and Reporting
8
Virginia Department of Labor and Industry. Payment of Wage
9
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 40.1-29 – Time and Medium of Payment; Penalties
10
Virginia Code Commission. Code of Virginia Title 40.1 – Article 2