Guides

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

Mays TeamApril 29, 2026
The Shift Pool report in Mays for the two weeks ending April 26, 2026: shifts scheduled, offered up, picked up, traded and worked for each employee, with totals

Utah's minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, the federal rate, and state law doesn't let it go higher than the federal one (Utah Code 34-40-103). Tipped staff can be paid $2.13 in cash wages when tips make up the rest (Utah Admin. Code R610-1), and a worker under 18 can start at a $4.25 training wage for their first 90 days (Utah Admin. Code R610-1; Utah Labor Commission). Utah's tip rules go further than the federal ones: a pool you require is for tipped staff only, never cooks or dishwashers, and the arrangement has to be in writing (Utah Admin. Code R610-1).

This page puts Utah'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. Utah's minimum wage is $7.25 an hour ($2.13 cash wage for tipped employees). No increase is scheduled. Since May 6, 2026, you can't charge anyone for a medical exam or drug test you require, or make an employee take one unpaid outside their shift or use leave for it (Utah Code 34-33-102); and a certified food safety manager renews every five years instead of three (Utah Code 26B-7-412).

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.

Utah pay rules at a glance

As of April 29, 2026:

Rule

Utah

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

Receives $30 or more 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 Utah or federal law

Next change

None scheduled

Sources: Utah Admin. Code R610-1; US DOL, tipped wages by state; US DOL, overtime; Utah Labor Commission.

Other Utah rates:

  • minors under 18, first 90 days of employment (training wage): $4.25 an hour

Who counts as a tipped employee in Utah

In Utah, a tipped employee is someone in a job where tips are customarily part of the pay who receives $30 or more a month in tips (Utah Admin. Code R610-1).

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).

Utah's test is at least $30 a month in tips received and reported to you. For an employer the FLSA covers, the federal test is more than $30 a month (US DOL, tipped wages by state).

What you must pay tipped staff in Utah

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 (Utah Admin. Code R610-1).
  • 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. Utah still keeps cooks and dishwashers out of a tip pool you require, though (see below).

Utah also wants each employee told at hire that you take the tip credit (Utah Admin. Code R610-1).

What you must pay non-tipped staff in Utah

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 (Utah Admin. Code R610-1). 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? No. Utah limits a required pool to staff who customarily and regularly receive tips (Utah Admin. Code R610-1).

Worked examples (made-up numbers)

The names, hours and tips below are made up. The rates are Utah's as of April 29, 2026.

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

Sam is a server paid the $2.13 cash wage. He works 24 hours in each of two weeks: a busy one with $360.00 in tips and a slow one with $80.00.


Busy week

Slow week

Hours worked

24

24

Cash wages (24 × $2.13)

$51.12

$51.12

Tips received

$360.00

$80.00

Cash wages + tips

$411.12

$131.12

Minimum for the week (24 × $7.25)

$174.00

$174.00

You pay on top

$0.00

$42.88

In the slow week, $80.00 in tips covers only part of the $122.88 tip credit (24 × $5.12), so you pay the difference by the regular payday: $174.00 − $131.12 = $42.88. 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 Utah minimum wage, $7.25 an hour. Over five days she works 10, 9, 9, 10 and 8 hours: 46 hours in all.


Hours

Rate

Pay

Regular hours

40

$7.25

$290.00

Overtime hours (over 40)

6

$10.875 (1.5 × $7.25)

$65.25

Total

46


$355.25

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 Utah

Utah has its own tip-pool rules (Utah Admin. Code R610-1): Utah lets an employer require tips to be pooled or shared only among employees who customarily and regularly receive tips; dishwashers, chefs, cooks and janitors aren't eligible for a pool the employer requires. A tip pooling or sharing arrangement must be in writing and given to each affected employee at hire or before it starts, and card tips may be reduced by no more than the card company's percentage.

Federal rules apply too, and where the two differ, follow the stricter one (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, federal law would let you include cooks and dishwashers, but Utah doesn't: a pool you require stays limited to staff who serve customers.
  • 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: under federal law, a mandatory service charge isn't a tip: money you share from one is wages, and it counts in the regular rate for overtime (DOL Fact Sheet #15). Utah adds its own rule: a compulsory service charge isn't a tip: it's part of the employer's gross receipts, and where service charges are imposed and the employee receives no tips, the employer pays the full minimum wage and overtime (Utah Admin. Code R610-1).
  • Pay pooled tips out by the regular payday for the week or pay period (DOL Fact Sheet #15).

One caveat: Utah's minimum wage law, which these rules carry out, doesn't apply to employees the FLSA entitles to a minimum wage (Utah Code 34-40-104), and no official page we found says whether its pool limits still reach a restaurant the FLSA covers. Keeping cooks and dishwashers out of a pool you require, and putting the arrangement in writing, meets both.

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

Overtime in Utah

Utah has no overtime law of its own (Utah Labor Commission), 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 Utah 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 Utah

  • Meal breaks: No specific Utah rule found — federal rules apply (Utah Labor Commission). 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 Utah rule found — federal rules apply (Utah Labor Commission). The FLSA does not require breaks. Short breaks an employer offers (about 5 to 20 minutes) are paid work time (US DOL, breaks).
  • Minors: Under 18: a meal period of at least 30 minutes no later than five hours into the workday (paid if the minor can't be relieved of all duties), and a paid rest period of at least 10 minutes for each four hours or part of four hours, with no more than three hours in a row without one (Utah Admin. Code R610-2).

Other Utah rules that affect pay

  • Paid sick leave: No specific Utah rule found — federal rules apply (Utah Labor Commission). 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: Every food employee needs approved food-safety training. Who: food handlers: complete approved training within 14 days and obtain a local-health-department food handler permit within 30 days of starting food-handling work (Utah Code 26B-7-413).

Paydays, final pay and deductions

  • Paydays. Pay at least twice a month, within 10 days after each pay period closes; when payday falls on a weekend or holiday, pay the day before (Utah Code 34-28-3). Tell new hires the day and place of payment and their rate of pay (Utah Code 34-28-4).
  • Final pay. Someone you let go is paid within 24 hours; if you miss that after a written demand, their wages keep running until paid, for up to 60 days. Someone who quits is paid on the next regular payday (Utah Code 34-28-5).
  • Deductions. Take one only with the employee's written authorization or another reason the law allows (Utah Code 34-28-3). A cash shortage can come out of pay only if the employee agreed in writing at hire to be responsible for shortages, was checked in and out on the register in person, and was the only one using it (Utah Admin. Code R610-3).

Minors and alcohol

  • Alcohol. In Utah's alcohol law a minor is anyone under 21 (Utah Code 32B-1-102). A restaurant can't have a minor sell or serve alcohol, but can have one 16 or older bus tables (Utah Code 32B-5-308).
  • Server training. Staff who serve alcohol complete an alcohol training seminar before their first day of work, and it's good for 3 years (Utah Code 26B-5-205); a manager's training is due within 30 days of hire (Utah Code 32B-1-704).

Local rates in Utah

Utah law bars cities and counties from requiring private employers to pay a minimum wage other than the state or federal one (Utah Code 34-40-106). So the state's $7.25 minimum wage applies everywhere in Utah, and there's no local rate table for Utah.

How Mays helps

Mays runs the schedule, time clock, tip pool and payroll export for each location. For Utah 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.
  • Food handler cards. Turn on Labor law compliance and keep each person's card in Mays with its expiry date and a photo. Each location shows who has no card by the 30-day deadline after their hire date and whose card is about to expire, and Mays reminds the employee and their managers before a card expires.
  • Who picks up what. Reports → Shift Pool shows, for each person, the shifts they were scheduled, offered up, picked up, traded and worked in a date range, so you can see how shift trading is going at each location before it shows up in the hours you pay.
  • Keep cooks out of the pool. In the tip pool settings, pick the positions that share under Who receives, only jobs whose staff get tips; Utah doesn't let cooks or dishwashers into a pool you require, whether or not you take a tip credit. Mays doesn't write the pool agreement, so put it in writing and give each employee a copy.

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 Utah 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.