Guides

Missouri restaurant pay rules (2026): what to pay tipped and non-tipped staff

Mays TeamMay 20, 2026
The Actuals report in Mays for a café location for the week of May 11, 2026: each day's sales next to actual labor and labor %, with totals for the week

Missouri voters raised the minimum wage in November 2024, and Proposition A's last step took it to $15.00 an hour on January 1, 2026 (Missouri SOS, Proposition A). Tipped staff can be paid 50% of it, $7.50, when tips make up the rest (Missouri DOLIR, minimum wage). Proposition A also promised yearly raises for inflation from 2027 and paid sick leave, but a 2025 law repealed both: no increase is scheduled, and employers haven't had to provide paid sick time since August 28, 2025 (RSMo § 290.502; Missouri DOLIR, paid sick time).

This page puts Missouri's figures in one place. It covers what you owe tipped staff like servers and bartenders, what you owe everyone else, and two example weeks with the math shown. Every figure links to the official page it comes from.

Updated September 24, 2026: these figures are still current. Missouri's minimum wage is $15.00 an hour ($7.50 cash wage for tipped employees). No increase is scheduled. The measures certified for the November 3, 2026 ballot include none on the minimum wage or paid sick leave (Missouri SOS, 2026 ballot).

This is general information, not legal advice. Whether a rule applies can depend on your business's size and your own facts; the note at the end says more.

Missouri pay rules at a glance

As of May 20, 2026:

Rule

Missouri

Minimum wage

$15.00 an hour, since January 1, 2026

Tipped employees: minimum cash wage

$7.50 an hour, if you take the tip credit

Maximum tip credit

$7.50 an hour

Who counts as tipped

Customarily and regularly receives more than $30 a month in tips

Overtime

1.5× the regular rate after 40 hours in a workweek; no daily overtime

Meal and rest breaks for adults

Not required by Missouri or federal law

Next change

None scheduled

Sources: Missouri DOLIR, minimum wage; US DOL, tipped wages by state; RSMo § 290.505; Missouri DOLIR, wage and hour; RSMo § 290.502.

Small businesses. Missouri's minimum wage and overtime law doesn't reach employees of a retail or service business whose annual gross sales are under $500,000 (RSMo § 290.500). The federal law can still cover a restaurant that size, through staff whose work regularly involves commerce across state lines, and then it owes the federal minimum wage and overtime (DOL Fact Sheet #14).

Who counts as a tipped employee in Missouri

Missouri has no threshold of its own, so the federal one applies: a tipped employee is someone who customarily and regularly receives more than $30 a month in tips (US DOL, tipped wages by state).

In a restaurant that usually means servers, bartenders, bussers and counter staff who serve customers, including baristas who get tips. Cooks and dishwashers usually aren't tipped employees. Only tips the employee actually receives count. If someone works two jobs, say a server who also works prep shifts, the tip credit applies only to the hours in the tipped job (DOL Fact Sheet #15).

What you must pay tipped staff in Missouri

Servers, bartenders, bussers and baristas who get tips can be paid a lower cash wage, with part of their tips counted toward the minimum wage. That's the tip credit, and it comes with conditions:

  • Pay at least $7.50 an hour in cash wages. That's the $15.00 minimum wage minus the most you can credit from tips, $7.50 (Missouri DOLIR, minimum wage).
  • Cash wages plus tips must reach $15.00 for every hour worked, week by week. If tips fall short in a workweek, you pay the difference by the regular payday for that week (DOL Fact Sheet #15).
  • Tell them first. Before you take the tip credit, tell each tipped employee, in writing or out loud: the cash wage you pay, the tip credit you claim, that the credit can't be more than the tips they actually get, that they keep all their tips except through a valid tip pool, and that the credit doesn't apply unless you've told them all this (DOL Fact Sheet #15).
  • Overtime is figured on the full minimum wage. An overtime hour is worth 1.5 × $15.00 = $22.50. After the $7.50 tip credit, you pay at least $15.00 of it in cash wages (DOL Fact Sheet #15).

You don't have to take the tip credit. If you pay tipped staff the full $15.00 an hour, their tips are all on top, there's nothing to make up at the end of the week, and you can put kitchen staff in the tip pool (see below).

Missouri checks the same way: wages and tips count in the workweek they're earned, and you can't move your workweek to get around the minimum wage (8 CSR 30-4).

What you must pay non-tipped staff in Missouri

Cooks, dishwashers, prep cooks, and cashiers or counter staff who don't get tips are paid like any other hourly employee:

  • At least $15.00 an hour for every hour worked (Missouri DOLIR, minimum wage). No tip credit applies.
  • The same goes for a tipped employee's hours in a non-tipped job, like a server's prep shift (DOL Fact Sheet #15).
  • Overtime is at least 1.5 times their regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek. At $15.00 an hour, that's $22.50 (RSMo § 290.505).
  • Can they share in the tip pool? Only if you take no tip credit and pay everyone in the pool at least the full minimum wage. If you take a tip credit, a pool you require can include only staff who customarily and regularly receive tips (US DOL, tips). Managers and supervisors can never take from the pool.

Worked examples (made-up numbers)

The names, hours and tips below are made up. The rates are Missouri's as of May 20, 2026.

A server's week: when you have to top up

Sam is a server paid the $7.50 cash wage. He works 31 hours in each of two weeks: a busy one with $410.00 in tips and a slow one with $150.00.


Busy week

Slow week

Hours worked

31

31

Cash wages (31 × $7.50)

$232.50

$232.50

Tips received

$410.00

$150.00

Cash wages + tips

$642.50

$382.50

Minimum for the week (31 × $15.00)

$465.00

$465.00

You pay on top

$0.00

$82.50

In the slow week, $150.00 in tips covers only part of the $232.50 tip credit (31 × $7.50), so you pay the difference by the regular payday: $465.00 − $382.50 = $82.50. In the busy week you owe nothing extra, and every dollar of tips is still Sam's.

A cook's week with overtime

Ana is a line cook paid the Missouri minimum wage, $15.00 an hour. Over five days she works 9, 8, 10, 9 and 8 hours: 44 hours in all.


Hours

Rate

Pay

Regular hours

40

$15.00

$600.00

Overtime hours (over 40)

4

$22.50 (1.5 × $15.00)

$90.00

Total

44


$690.00

Overtime is counted by the workweek, and hours can't be averaged across two weeks: a long week earns overtime even if the next one is short (US DOL, overtime). Bonuses can change the rate too; see Time clock, breaks and overtime: first-month payroll mistakes to avoid.

Tip pooling rules in Missouri

No specific Missouri rule found — federal rules apply (8 CSR 30-4). Under federal law (US DOL, tips):

  • The business, its managers and supervisors never keep employees' tips. A manager can't take anything from a pool; they may keep only tips for service they directly and solely provide. An owner with a real stake who helps run the business counts as a manager too.
  • With a tip credit, a pool you require can include only staff who customarily and regularly receive tips: servers, bartenders, bussers, counter staff who serve customers.
  • Without a tip credit, when everyone in the pool gets at least the full minimum wage, you can include cooks and dishwashers.
  • Card fees: you may reduce a card tip by the percentage the card company actually charges you, and no more (DOL Fact Sheet #15).
  • Service charges aren't tips. Money you share with staff from a mandatory service charge is wages, and it counts in the regular rate for overtime (DOL Fact Sheet #15).
  • Pay pooled tips out by the regular payday for the week or pay period (DOL Fact Sheet #15).

How to split a pool fairly, with a worked example: Tip pooling for new restaurant owners.

Overtime in Missouri

Missouri's overtime law draws the same line as the federal one (RSMo § 290.505): non-exempt employees get at least 1.5 times their regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek (US DOL, overtime).

A workweek is any fixed, recurring stretch of seven days that you choose, and hours can't be averaged across two weeks. There's no daily overtime, no double time and no seventh-day premium under Missouri or federal law, and weekend or holiday hours don't earn a premium by law.

For tipped staff, overtime is figured on the full minimum wage, not the cash wage (see the tipped section above).

Breaks in Missouri

  • Meal breaks: No specific Missouri rule found — federal rules apply (Missouri DOLIR, wage and hour). The FLSA does not require meal periods. A bona fide meal period (typically 30+ minutes) is not work time (US DOL, breaks).
  • Rest breaks: No specific Missouri rule found — federal rules apply (Missouri DOLIR, wage and hour). The FLSA does not require breaks. Short breaks an employer offers (about 5 to 20 minutes) are paid work time (US DOL, breaks).
  • Minors: No separate Missouri rule for minors; the adult rules above apply to them too (Missouri DOLIR, youth hours).

Other Missouri rules that affect pay

  • Paid sick leave: No specific Missouri rule found — federal rules apply (Missouri DOLIR, paid sick time). No federal paid sick leave requirement. The FMLA provides unpaid, job-protected leave (up to 12 weeks) where it applies (US DOL, sick leave).

Paydays, final pay and pay cuts

  • Paydays. A corporation pays hourly staff at least twice a month, within 16 days of the end of each pay period (RSMo § 290.080).
  • Final pay. Wages are due on the day you fire someone. If they ask for them in writing and aren't paid within 7 days, their wages keep running at the same rate for up to 60 days (RSMo § 290.110).
  • Pay cuts. A company that reduces wages gives the employees affected 30 days’ notice first (RSMo § 290.100).
  • Unpaid minimum wage or overtime costs triple. The employee can recover the unpaid wages plus twice that amount, and a claim can reach back 3 years (RSMo § 290.527).

Local rates in Missouri

Missouri law bars cities and counties from requiring private employers to pay a minimum wage other than the state or federal one, or to provide employment benefits, such as paid sick leave, that state or federal law doesn't require (RSMo § 290.528). So the state's $15.00 minimum wage applies everywhere in Missouri, and there's no local rate table for Missouri.

How Mays helps

Mays runs the schedule, time clock, tip pool and payroll export for each location. For Missouri pay rules, that means:

  • Positions and wages. Give each position a default hourly wage, for example the tipped cash wage for servers and at least the minimum wage for cooks. Turn on Labor law compliance and Mays looks up each location's minimum wage from its address and warns you when a position's default wage, someone's hourly wage or a punch is below it, comparing tipped positions with the tipped cash wage when it has that figure. It never blocks the save.
  • A tip pool per location. Split pooled tips by hours worked, equally or by FTAR score, per pay period or day by day, and choose which positions receive. Until you pick positions under Who receives, the positions marked Tipped share the tips; if no position is marked, everyone who worked does, cooks included. So if you take a tip credit, tick Tipped position only on positions whose staff get tips, or pick them yourself. A punch with no position counts under its shift's position, or else the person's primary or only position at that location; with neither, its hours get no share, and the tip pool card shows how many punches that leaves out. Leave managers and admins out of the pool is on by default, so leave it on. The tips come from your connected POS at that location (Square or Union) or from tips synced with 7shifts time punches, and each person's share appears in the Tip Payouts report and the payroll export. If you take your card processor's fee out of card tips, turn on Labor law compliance and Deduct the card processing fee from card tips: Mays deducts only your processor's percentage, split in proportion to each person's card tips, and shows it on the pay period and in the export.
  • The tip-credit make-up is yours to check. Mays doesn't compare a tipped employee's cash wages plus tips with the minimum wage, so check each workweek the way the server example above does.
  • Time clock and timesheets. Staff clock in on their phone, a shared kiosk or an NFC tag. Timesheets run by pay period. Overtime is counted by the workweek, and with Labor law compliance on, by any daily, double-time and seventh-day rule the location's state sets too, which Mays reads from its address; the schedule's labor cost, the reports and the pay summary all include it.
  • Payroll export. A standard CSV or a Gusto-format CSV with regular and overtime hours and pooled tips for each employee. A card surcharge you share with staff goes in as wages, not tips.
  • Labor against sales. Reports → Actuals shows each day's sales from your connected POS next to actual labor and labor %, with a total for the range, so you can see what the $15.00 rate does to your labor cost.
  • Twice-monthly pay periods. Under Scheduling → Settings → Pay periods, choose twice a month, and timesheets and the payroll export follow periods that start on the first and the sixteenth of each month.

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from these official pages, as they read on the date shown.

This page is general information, not legal advice. Laws change, and coverage rules (your business's size, whether federal law covers you) decide which of them apply. Check the pages above, and ask an employment lawyer or accountant about your situation.

Run Missouri payroll on the right numbers

Set each position's wage, turn on the tip pool with managers left out, and let the time clock count overtime by the workweek. Then payroll is an export, not an evening.

Start your free trial: 30 days, every module, no card needed. Setting up a tip pool? Read Tip pooling for new restaurant owners.