Guides

Montgomery County, Maryland restaurant pay rules (2026): wages, tips, scheduling and sick leave

Mays TeamJuly 13, 2026
The NFC punch tags card of a Silver Spring location in Mays: two active tags, at the back door and the front register, that open the punch screen when an employee taps one with their phone

Montgomery County, Maryland sets its own minimum wage by employer size. Since July 1, 2026 it's $18.00 an hour for employers with 51 or more employees, $16.50 for 11 to 50, and $15.95 for 10 or fewer, all above Maryland's $15.00 (Montgomery County). Tipped staff can be paid $4.00 an hour at any size, but a restaurant that counts tips toward the wage owes each tipped employee a wage statement every pay period and the county a wage report every quarter. The county's own sick and safe leave law runs alongside Maryland's.

This page puts what a restaurant or café in Montgomery County owes in one place: the county's own rules first, then the Maryland and federal rules that apply in Montgomery County as everywhere else in the state, two example weeks with the math shown, and what Mays does with each. Every figure links to the official page it comes from.

Updated October 5, 2026: these figures are still current. Montgomery County's minimum wage is $18.00 an hour ($4.00 cash wage for tipped employees) through June 30, 2027. It changes on July 1, 2027; the new rate had not been published when we checked (Montgomery County).

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.

Montgomery County pay rules at a glance

As of July 13, 2026:

Rule

Montgomery County

Minimum wage

$18.00 an hour, since July 1, 2026

Tipped employees: minimum cash wage

$4.00 an hour, if you take the tip credit

Maximum tip credit

$14.00 an hour

Who counts as tipped

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

Next change

Changes on July 1, 2027 (new rate not published yet)

Overtime

1.5× the regular rate after 40 hours in a workweek; no daily overtime (Maryland and federal law)

Fair workweek scheduling

No Montgomery County or Maryland law in our data

Paid sick leave

Montgomery County's own ordinance; see Paid sick leave below

Sources: Montgomery County; MD Labor, tipped employees; Md. Code, Lab. & Empl. § 3-420; Montgomery County, sick and safe leave.

Who Montgomery County's rate covers: employees working in Montgomery County; rate by employer size.

Other Montgomery County rates:

  • large employers (51 or more employees): $18.00 an hour
  • mid-size employers (11 to 50 employees; also nonprofits and Medicaid home-health employers with 11 or more): $16.50 an hour
  • small employers (10 or fewer employees): $15.95 an hour

The table gives the large-employer rate. A restaurant with fewer than 51 employees pays the mid-size or small rate above instead. The tipped cash wage is $4.00 at every size, so the tip credit is your rate minus $4.00.

Montgomery County vs. Maryland: what the county changes

Where Montgomery County sets a rule of its own, it applies on top of Maryland's, and an employer follows whichever gives the employee more. Here are the two side by side:

Rule

Maryland

Montgomery County

Minimum wage

$15.00 (MD Labor, minimum wage)

$18.00 (Montgomery County)

Tipped employees

$3.63 cash wage (MD Labor, tipped employees)

$4.00 cash wage (Montgomery County)

Next change (as of October 5, 2026)

None scheduled (Md. Code, Lab. & Empl. § 3-413)

Changes on July 1, 2027 (new rate not published yet) (Montgomery County)

Paid sick leave

1 hour per 30 hours worked (MD Labor, sick and safe leave FAQs)

1 hour per 30 hours worked in the County (Montgomery County, sick and safe leave)

Fair workweek scheduling

No state law in our data

No county law in our data

Our data has no Montgomery County rule of its own on overtime, breaks, tip pools or food handler training, so the Maryland and federal rules below apply in Montgomery County as they do across the state. For Maryland's rules in full, with their own worked examples, see Maryland restaurant pay rules (2026).

What you must pay tipped staff in Montgomery County

Under Maryland law, a tipped employee is someone who customarily and regularly receives more than $30 a month in tips (MD Labor, tipped employees).

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. 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).

You can pay tipped staff a lower cash wage and count part of their tips toward the minimum wage. That is the tip credit, and it comes with conditions:

  • Pay at least $4.00 an hour in cash wages. That's the $18.00 minimum wage minus the most you can credit from tips, $14.00 (Montgomery County).
  • Cash wages plus tips must reach $18.00 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 × $18.00 = $27.00. After the $14.00 tip credit, you pay at least $13.00 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 $18.00 an hour, their tips are all on top and there's nothing to make up at the end of the week.

The county's tip-credit paperwork

A restaurant that takes the tip credit must give each tipped employee a written or electronic wage statement for every pay period showing their effective hourly rate, cash wage plus tips, and must send the county a wage report on its tipped employees within 30 days after the end of each quarter (Montgomery County).

What you must pay non-tipped staff in Montgomery County

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

  • At least $18.00 an hour for every hour worked (Montgomery County). 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 $18.00 an hour, that's $27.00 (Md. Code, Lab. & Empl. § 3-420).

Young workers

The county wage doesn't cover an employee under 19 who works no more than 20 hours a week, and an employer may pay 85% of the county rate to an employee under 20 for their first 6 months (Montgomery County Bill 28-17).

Worked examples (made-up numbers)

The names, hours and tips below are made up. The rates are the ones that apply in Montgomery County as of July 13, 2026.

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

Sam is a server in Montgomery County paid the $4.00 cash wage. He works 30 hours in each of two weeks: a busy one with $450.00 in tips and a slow one with $280.00.


Busy week

Slow week

Hours worked

30

30

Cash wages (30 × $4.00)

$120.00

$120.00

Tips received

$450.00

$280.00

Cash wages + tips

$570.00

$400.00

Minimum for the week (30 × $18.00)

$540.00

$540.00

You pay on top

$0.00

$140.00

In the slow week, $280.00 in tips covers only part of the $420.00 tip credit (30 × $14.00), so you pay the difference by the regular payday: $540.00 − $400.00 = $140.00. 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 in Montgomery County paid the minimum wage, $18.00 an hour. She works five 9-hour days: 45 hours.


Hours

Rate

Pay

Regular hours

40

$18.00

$720.00

Overtime hours (over 40)

5

$27.00 (1.5 × $18.00)

$135.00

Total

45


$855.00

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.

Scheduling rules in Montgomery County

We found no Montgomery County or Maryland fair workweek law in our data: nothing here makes you post schedules a set number of days ahead or pay a premium for changing them. Breaks and overtime still shape the schedule (see below).

Montgomery County has a paid sick leave ordinance of its own (Montgomery County, sick and safe leave):

  • How it's earned: 1 hour per 30 hours worked in the County.
  • Who it covers: employers with employees who work in the county; an employer with fewer than 5 employees owes up to 32 hours of paid and 24 hours of unpaid leave a year.
  • What else it requires: Earned sick and safe leave under chapter 27 of the County Code, in effect since October 1, 2016: up to 56 hours earned in a calendar year, up to 80 hours used in a year and 56 hours carried over, with no use in the first 90 days of employment. A tipped employee on leave is paid at least the county minimum wage, and every payday comes with a written statement of the leave available. Maryland's Healthy Working Families Act applies too, and wins only where it is more generous.

Maryland's paid sick leave law applies in Montgomery County too (MD Labor, sick and safe leave FAQs): The Healthy Working Families Act: employers with 15 or more employees give paid sick and safe leave, and smaller employers unpaid leave. It accrues at 1 hour for every 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours a year, and up to 40 unused hours carry over unless that would take the balance past 64 hours. Nothing accrues in a two-week pay period with fewer than 24 hours worked, and it doesn't cover someone who regularly works less than 12 hours a week. For each term, how fast leave is earned, how much can be used, how much carries over and how soon a new hire can use it, follow whichever of the two is more generous.

Tip pools, overtime and breaks in Montgomery County

These are Maryland's rules, with the federal ones where Maryland sets none, and they apply in Montgomery County as they do across the state:

  • Tip pools: A tip credit requires that the employee keep all the tips they receive, and the statute says this "does not prohibit the pooling of tips". Maryland sets no rule of its own on who may be in a pool, on managers or on card fees (Md. Code, Lab. & Empl. § 3-419). Under federal law, the business, its managers and supervisors never keep employees' tips, and with a tip credit a pool you require can include only staff who customarily and regularly receive tips (US DOL, tips).
  • Service charges: A compulsory charge for service isn't a tip, even if the employee keeps it (Md. Code, Lab. & Empl. § 3-419).
  • Overtime: Maryland's law draws the same line as the federal one (Md. Code, Lab. & Empl. § 3-420): at least 1.5 times the regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek, with no daily overtime, double time or seventh-day premium (US DOL, overtime).
  • Meal breaks: No specific Maryland rule found — federal rules apply (Md. Code, Lab. & Empl. § 3-710). 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 Maryland rule found — federal rules apply (US DOL, state rest periods). The FLSA does not require breaks. Short breaks an employer offers (about 5 to 20 minutes) are paid work time (US DOL, breaks).
  • Minors' breaks: A minor (under 18) can't work more than 5 consecutive hours without a nonworking period of at least half an hour. In a calendar day, a minor's school and work hours together can't pass 12, and they must have at least 8 consecutive hours free of school and work (Md. Code, Lab. & Empl. § 3-210).

How Mays handles this

Mays runs the schedule, time clock, tip pool and payroll export for each location. For a restaurant in Montgomery County, that means:

  • The minimum wage for the address. Turn on Labor law compliance and Mays reads each location's minimum wage from its address. A county can't be told from a city name, so for a location in Montgomery County, pick Montgomery County under Rate area on the location's Labor & compliance card; it then gets Montgomery County's $18.00, and tipped positions are compared with the $4.00 cash wage. It warns you when a position's default wage, someone's hourly wage or a punch is below it, and never blocks the save. The rate for July 1, 2027 isn't published yet; once Mays has it, admins get a reminder 30 and 7 days before.
  • Paid sick leave per location. With Labor law compliance on, the Sick category under Scheduling → Settings → Time off & PTO accrual shows the paid sick leave law at each location's address, and Apply these rules fills in its figures, starting with at least one hour for every 30 worked (Montgomery County, sick and safe leave). Where Montgomery County's and Maryland's figures differ, it takes the more generous one. Where the law sets figures by employer size, Mays shows the largest employers', so a smaller employer can set its own. Mays doesn't guess a county from the address, so pick Montgomery County under Where this location is. Everyone who works hours earns it from approved punches, managers included, and a figure Mays doesn't have is left open for you to fill in from the official page.
  • Overtime by the address. Staff clock in on their phone, a shared kiosk or an NFC tag, and 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 Maryland sets too, which Mays reads from the location's address; the schedule's labor cost, the reports and the pay summary all include it.
  • A tip pool per location. Split pooled tips by hours worked, equally or by FTAR score, and choose which positions receive. Leave managers and admins out of the pool is on by default, so leave it on. Check Maryland's rule before you take card processing fees out of tips: the tip pool card links the official source. Each person's share appears in the Tip Payouts report and the payroll 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.
  • Mid-size and small employers. Mays applies the large-employer rate, $18.00. If you have fewer than 51 employees, turn on Use a different minimum for this location on the location's Labor & compliance card and enter your rate: the below-minimum warnings use it instead.
  • The county's tip paperwork is yours. Mays doesn't produce the pay-period statement of each tipped employee's effective hourly rate or the quarterly wage report, so prepare them from your payroll records.

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 Montgomery County payroll on the right numbers

Give each location its Montgomery County address, turn on Labor law compliance so the minimum wage, overtime and sick leave rules follow it, and let the time clock do the counting. Then payroll is an export, not an evening.

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