Guides

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

Mays TeamMarch 11, 2026
The Labor Cost page in Mays for an Oklahoma City location, from February 23, 2026 to March 8, 2026: the staffing vs revenue heatmap, coloring each half hour of the week by labor as a percentage of point-of-sale sales

Oklahoma pays the federal minimum wage by law: its statute sets the state rate at whatever the federal one is, $7.25 an hour (40 O.S. § 197.2). Since November 1, 2025, its tip credit follows the federal rule too, so tipped staff can be paid the federal $2.13 cash wage when tips make up the rest (40 O.S. § 197.16). Oklahoma's own wage law reaches only employers the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) doesn't cover, so for most restaurants the federal rules decide, with the same figures (40 O.S. § 197.4).

This page puts Oklahoma'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. Oklahoma's minimum wage is $7.25 an hour ($2.13 cash wage for tipped employees). No increase is scheduled. Voters rejected the minimum wage question on June 16, 2026 (State Question 832).

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.

Oklahoma pay rules at a glance

As of March 11, 2026:

Rule

Oklahoma

Minimum wage

$7.25 an hour, since July 24, 2009

Tipped employees: minimum cash wage

$2.13 an hour, if you take the tip credit

Maximum tip credit

$5.12 an hour

Who counts as tipped

Oklahoma law sets no minimum amount of tips; more than $30 a month for an employer the federal law covers

Overtime

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

Meal and rest breaks for adults

Not required by Oklahoma or federal law

Next change

None scheduled

Sources: 40 O.S. § 197.2; 40 O.S. § 197.16; US DOL, tipped wages by state; US DOL, overtime; Okla. DOL, wage and hour FAQs.

Who Oklahoma's law covers. The state act applies to an employer with more than 10 full-time employees, or the equivalent, at one location, or with more than $100,000 a year in business, and not to an employer the FLSA covers that pays the federal minimum wage (40 O.S. § 197.4). A restaurant with $500,000 or more in yearly sales is covered by the FLSA, and a smaller one can be too, through staff whose work regularly involves commerce across state lines (DOL Fact Sheet #14).

A vote was coming. On March 11, 2026, a state question on the June 16, 2026 primary ballot asked voters to raise the minimum wage in yearly steps to $15 an hour (State Question 832).

Who counts as a tipped employee in Oklahoma

Oklahoma law sets no minimum amount of tips for the tip credit (US DOL, tipped wages by state). An employer the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) covers must still meet the federal test to pay less than the federal minimum wage: 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 Oklahoma

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 $2.13 an hour in cash wages. That's the $7.25 minimum wage minus the most you can credit from tips, $5.12 (40 O.S. § 197.16).
  • Cash wages plus tips must reach $7.25 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 × $7.25 = $10.875. After the $5.12 tip credit, you pay at least $5.755 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 $7.25 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).

Until November 1, 2025, Oklahoma's own law let an employer it covered count tips for up to 50% of the minimum wage (40 O.S. § 197.16 (before November 2025)). The law now ties the cash wage to the federal rule instead, which is $2.13 an hour (40 O.S. § 197.16; 29 CFR 531.50). Some older posters and summaries still show the 50% rule.

What you must pay non-tipped staff in Oklahoma

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

  • At least $7.25 an hour for every hour worked (40 O.S. § 197.2). 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 $7.25 an hour, that's $10.875 (US DOL, overtime).
  • 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 Oklahoma's as of March 11, 2026.

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

Sam is a server paid the $2.13 cash wage. He works 32 hours in each of two weeks: a busy one with $430.00 in tips and a slow one with $100.00.


Busy week

Slow week

Hours worked

32

32

Cash wages (32 × $2.13)

$68.16

$68.16

Tips received

$430.00

$100.00

Cash wages + tips

$498.16

$168.16

Minimum for the week (32 × $7.25)

$232.00

$232.00

You pay on top

$0.00

$63.84

In the slow week, $100.00 in tips covers only part of the $163.84 tip credit (32 × $5.12), so you pay the difference by the regular payday: $232.00 − $168.16 = $63.84. 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 Oklahoma minimum wage, $7.25 an hour. Over five days she works 10, 9, 8, 9 and 9 hours: 45 hours in all.


Hours

Rate

Pay

Regular hours

40

$7.25

$290.00

Overtime hours (over 40)

5

$10.875 (1.5 × $7.25)

$54.38

Total

45


$344.38

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 Oklahoma

No specific Oklahoma rule found — federal rules apply (40 O.S. § 197.16). 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 Oklahoma

Oklahoma has no overtime law of its own (Okla. DOL, wage and hour compilation), so the federal rule applies: 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 Oklahoma 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 Oklahoma

  • Meal breaks: No specific Oklahoma rule found — federal rules apply (Okla. DOL, wage and hour FAQs). 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 Oklahoma rule found — federal rules apply (Okla. DOL, wage and hour FAQs). The FLSA does not require breaks. Short breaks an employer offers (about 5 to 20 minutes) are paid work time (US DOL, breaks).
  • Minors: Minors under 16: a 30-minute rest period for every 5 hours worked, and a 1-hour rest period for every 8 hours worked. No break rule stated for 16-17 (40 O.S. § 75).

Other Oklahoma rules that affect pay

  • Paid sick leave: No specific Oklahoma rule found — federal rules apply (Okla. DOL, wage and hour FAQs). 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 deductions

  • Paydays. Pay at least twice a month on regular paydays you set in advance, no more than 11 days after the end of the pay period, with an itemized statement of deductions (40 O.S. § 165.2).
  • Final pay. Someone who quits or is let go is paid on the next regular payday for the pay period they worked in (40 O.S. § 165.3; Okla. DOL, wage and hour FAQs).
  • Late pay. Wages withheld willfully, with no real dispute over them, add damages of 2% of the unpaid wages for each day they're late, up to the amount unpaid (40 O.S. § 165.3).
  • Deductions. Apart from what a law or court order requires, a deduction needs a written agreement signed by the employee (Okla. DOL, wage and hour FAQs).

Teenagers and alcohol

  • Hours for 14- and 15-year-olds. Only outside school hours and between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. (9 p.m. from the start of June through Labor Day); no more than 3 hours on a school day or 18 in a school week (Okla. DOL, child labor). They need a work permit from their school, which you keep on file (Okla. DOL, child labor).
  • Kitchen jobs. Under 16, no cooking or baking, fryers or grills, or slicers and sharp knives (Okla. DOL, child labor FAQs).
  • Alcohol. Servers can be 18 or older, but staff under 21 can't serve in a designated bar or lounge area (37A O.S. § 6-102). Anyone who serves, mixes or sells alcohol completes an approved server training course and gets an employee license from the ABLE Commission (ABLE Commission, employee license).

Local rates in Oklahoma

Oklahoma 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 (40 O.S. § 160). The same law says the Legislature occupies the whole field of minimum wages and of mandatory vacation and sick leave days, and it makes any existing or future local ordinance on them void. So the state's $7.25 minimum wage applies everywhere in Oklahoma, and there's no local rate table for Oklahoma.

How Mays helps

Mays runs the schedule, time clock, tip pool and payroll export for each location. For Oklahoma 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.
  • Minors. Turn on Labor law compliance and work rules for minors at a location, and Mays warns you when a shift breaks a minor's hours or time-of-day limits under federal law, and the auto-scheduler won't put a minor on one. It doesn't track minors' breaks yet, so build a minor's meal break into their shifts when you schedule them.
  • Staffing against sales, hour by hour. Insights → Labor Cost → Hourly Metrics colors each half hour of the week by labor as a share of sales, from your point-of-sale sales and the time clock, and charts scheduled against worked hours by hour of the day. Breaks started and ended at the time clock are saved with each punch, which helps when Oklahoma asks for records of the rest periods of workers under 16 (Okla. DOL, child labor FAQs).

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 Oklahoma 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.