Guides

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

Mays TeamJune 10, 2026
The day view of the Mays schedule for Saturday, June 6, 2026 at a Charleston location: five shifts laid out across the hours, a host's afternoon shift ending early in the evening, and the number of staff working each hour

South Carolina has no minimum wage law and no overtime law; the state labor department says both are left to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (SC LLR, rights under state and federal law). So a covered restaurant pays at least $7.25 an hour, or a $2.13 cash wage to tipped staff whose tips make up the rest. A business with $500,000 or more in yearly sales is covered, and a smaller one can be too, through staff whose work regularly involves commerce across state lines (DOL Fact Sheet #14). What South Carolina does regulate is how you pay: the Payment of Wages Act makes you put the terms in writing, change them only with notice and pay on time, or owe up to 3 times the wages (S.C. Payment of Wages Act).

This page puts South Carolina'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. The minimum wage for South Carolina employers the federal law covers is the federal $7.25 an hour ($2.13 cash wage for tipped employees).

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.

South Carolina pay rules at a glance

As of June 10, 2026:

Rule

South Carolina

Minimum wage

$7.25 an hour, since July 24, 2009 (the federal rate; South Carolina sets no higher one)

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

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 South Carolina or federal law

Sources: US DOL, minimum wage; US DOL, tipped wages by state; US DOL, overtime; SC LLR, wage FAQ.

Who counts as a tipped employee in South Carolina

South Carolina 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 South Carolina

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 (US DOL, tipped wages by state).
  • 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).

What you must pay non-tipped staff in South Carolina

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 (US DOL, 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 $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 the federal ones that apply in South Carolina as of June 10, 2026.

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

Sam is a server paid the $2.13 cash wage. He works 33 hours in each of two weeks: a busy one with $430.00 in tips and a slow one with $110.00.


Busy week

Slow week

Hours worked

33

33

Cash wages (33 × $2.13)

$70.29

$70.29

Tips received

$430.00

$110.00

Cash wages + tips

$500.29

$180.29

Minimum for the week (33 × $7.25)

$239.25

$239.25

You pay on top

$0.00

$58.96

In the slow week, $110.00 in tips covers only part of the $168.96 tip credit (33 × $5.12), so you pay the difference by the regular payday: $239.25 − $180.29 = $58.96. 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 federal minimum wage, $7.25 an hour. Over five days she works 10, 9, 9, 9 and 8 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 South Carolina

No specific South Carolina rule found — federal rules apply (SC LLR, rights under state and federal law). 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 South Carolina

South Carolina has no overtime law of its own (SC LLR, rights under state and federal law), 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 South Carolina 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 South Carolina

  • Meal breaks: No specific South Carolina rule found — federal rules apply (SC LLR, wage FAQ). 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 South Carolina rule found — federal rules apply (SC LLR, wage FAQ). 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 South Carolina rule for minors; the adult rules above apply to them too (SC LLR, child labor).

Other South Carolina rules that affect pay

  • Paid sick leave: No specific South Carolina rule found — federal rules apply (SC LLR, wage FAQ). No federal paid sick leave requirement. The FMLA provides unpaid, job-protected leave (up to 12 weeks) where it applies (US DOL, sick leave).
  • Food handler training: A certified food protection manager or person in charge is required on every shift. Who: at least one certified food protection manager among the staff who supervise, and a person in charge who is a certified food handler or certified food protection manager at all times during operation (S.C. Regs. 61-25).

The Payment of Wages Act

  • Put the terms in writing at hire. Tell each new employee in writing their normal hours and wages, when and where they'll be paid, and the deductions you'll take, or post those terms where they work. An employer with fewer than 5 employees throughout the past year is exempt from this notice (S.C. Payment of Wages Act).
  • Give notice before you change them. Any change goes in writing at least 7 calendar days before it takes effect; a raise needs no notice (S.C. Payment of Wages Act).
  • A pay statement every pay period. Give each employee an itemized statement of their gross pay and deductions, and keep records of wages and deductions for 3 years (S.C. Payment of Wages Act).
  • Final pay. When someone leaves, for any reason, pay them within 48 hours or by the next regular payday, which can’t be more than 30 days away (S.C. Payment of Wages Act).
  • Unpaid wages cost triple. An employee who isn't paid can sue for 3 times the unpaid wages plus attorney's fees, within 3 years (S.C. Payment of Wages Act).

Teenagers' hours

South Carolina's child labor rules are written to match the federal ones, with one difference for 14- and 15-year-olds: the state lets them work until 9 p.m. during their school district's summer break, while the federal rule allows that later hour only from the start of June through Labor Day. An employer the FLSA covers follows the stricter of the two (S.C. Regs. 71-3106; 29 CFR 570.35).

Alcohol server training

Since January 1, 2026, anyone who serves alcohol for on-premises drinking, managers included, needs an alcohol server certificate. If a new hire doesn't have one, you provide the training within 30 calendar days, for a fee of no more than $50. The certificate lasts 3 years and belongs to the server, who has to pay you back if they leave within 6 months of getting it (S.C. Code ch. 61-3).

Local rates in South Carolina

South Carolina law bars cities and counties from requiring private employers to pay a minimum wage other than the state or federal one (S.C. Code § 6-1-130). A separate law bars them from requiring employee benefits, paid sick leave included (S.C. Code § 41-1-25). So the federal $7.25 minimum wage applies everywhere in South Carolina, and there's no local rate table for South Carolina.

How Mays helps

Mays runs the schedule, time clock, tip pool and payroll export for each location. For South Carolina 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.
  • A certified person on every shift. Turn on Labor law compliance and keep food handler and manager certificates in Mays with their expiry dates. Before you publish, the schedule warns about any stretch with nobody certified on shift, and Mays reminds people before a certificate expires.
  • The day at a glance. Switch the schedule to Day and each shift is laid out across the hours, with the number of staff working each hour, so a young teenager's shift that has to end early in the evening stands out.
  • 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 checks the federal evening hour, not South Carolina's summer-break rule, so compare late shifts with your school district's calendar yourself.
  • Pay periods that match your notice. Under Scheduling → Settings → Pay periods, set the frequency and the date the first period starts to match the paydays you gave staff in writing; timesheets and the payroll export follow it.

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 South Carolina 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.