Guides

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

Mays TeamJuly 15, 2026
The Weekly Overtime report in Mays for the week of July 6, 2026: a line cook's worked hours with the overtime past 40 hours and its estimated cost, and a server's hours with none

Virginia's minimum wage is $12.77 an hour in 2026, and a law signed this spring sets the next two steps: $13.75 on January 1, 2027 and $15.00 on January 1, 2028 (Va. Minimum Wage Act). Tipped staff can be paid $2.13 an hour under the federal tip credit, which the state honors as long as wages plus tips reach Virginia's minimum (Virginia DOLI, payment of wage). The bigger change for restaurants took effect on July 1, 2026: unpaid wages, overtime and tips included, now carry double damages, or triple when the employer knew, and the state labor department can enforce overtime itself (Va. Code § 40.1-29).

This page puts Virginia'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. Virginia's minimum wage is $12.77 an hour ($2.13 cash wage for tipped employees) through December 31, 2026. It rises to $13.75 on January 1, 2027.

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.

Virginia pay rules at a glance

As of July 15, 2026:

Rule

Virginia

Minimum wage

$12.77 an hour, since January 1, 2026

Tipped employees: minimum cash wage

$2.13 an hour, if you take the tip credit

Maximum tip credit

$10.64 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 Virginia or federal law

Next change

$13.75 minimum wage from January 1, 2027

Sources: Virginia DOLI, 2026 minimum wage; Virginia DOLI poster; Va. Code § 40.1-29.2; Virginia DOLI, labor laws; Virginia DOLI, payment of wage.

Who counts as a tipped employee in Virginia

In Virginia, a tipped employee is someone who customarily and regularly receives more than $30 a month in tips (Virginia DOLI poster).

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 Virginia

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 $12.77 minimum wage minus the most you can credit from tips, $10.64 (Virginia DOLI poster).
  • Cash wages plus tips must reach $12.77 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 × $12.77 = $19.155. After the $10.64 tip credit, you pay at least $8.515 of it in cash wages (DOL Fact Sheet #15).
  • From January 1, 2027, the minimum wage is $13.75 (Virginia DOLI, payment of wage). Check the new tipped cash wage on that page before your first payroll at the new rate.

You don't have to take the tip credit. If you pay tipped staff the full $12.77 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).

Virginia doesn't set a tipped cash wage of its own. Its Minimum Wage Act counts tips toward the wage by an amount the employer determines, unless the employee shows by clear and convincing evidence that their tips were less (Va. Minimum Wage Act). The labor department applies the federal tip credit: at least $2.13 an hour in cash wages, with tips making up the rest of Virginia's $12.77 (Virginia DOLI, payment of wage).

What you must pay non-tipped staff in Virginia

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

  • At least $12.77 an hour for every hour worked, and at least $13.75 from January 1, 2027 (Virginia DOLI, payment of 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 $12.77 an hour, that's $19.155 (Va. Code § 40.1-29.2).
  • 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 Virginia's as of July 15, 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 $480.00 in tips and a slow one with $220.00.


Busy week

Slow week

Hours worked

32

32

Cash wages (32 × $2.13)

$68.16

$68.16

Tips received

$480.00

$220.00

Cash wages + tips

$548.16

$288.16

Minimum for the week (32 × $12.77)

$408.64

$408.64

You pay on top

$0.00

$120.48

In the slow week, $220.00 in tips covers only part of the $340.48 tip credit (32 × $10.64), so you pay the difference by the regular payday: $408.64 − $288.16 = $120.48. 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 Virginia minimum wage, $12.77 an hour. Over five days she works 10, 9, 9, 9 and 8 hours: 45 hours in all.


Hours

Rate

Pay

Regular hours

40

$12.77

$510.80

Overtime hours (over 40)

5

$19.155 (1.5 × $12.77)

$95.78

Total

45


$606.58

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 Virginia

No specific Virginia rule found — federal rules apply (Va. Minimum Wage Act). 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).

Tips are wages. Since July 1, 2026, Virginia's wage payment law counts tips among the wages an employer owes, so tips you hold back can be claimed like any unpaid wages (Va. Code § 40.1-29).

Automatic gratuities in your prices. If you add an automatic or mandatory gratuity, every advertised price that includes pricing information has to disclose its percentage clearly (Va. Code § 59.1-608).

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

Overtime in Virginia

Virginia's overtime law draws the same line as the federal one (Va. Code § 40.1-29.2): 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 Virginia 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).

What sets Virginia apart is the remedy. Since July 1, 2026, an employee owed overtime or minimum wage can recover the unpaid wages plus an equal amount as damages, with interest and attorney fees, or three times the unpaid wages if the employer knowingly failed to pay, and a claim can reach back three years (Va. Code § 40.1-29). An employer that acted in good faith avoids the extra damages only if it pays everything owed within 14 days of being told (Va. Code § 40.1-29). The state labor department now investigates overtime complaints too (Virginia DOLI, payment of wage).

Breaks in Virginia

  • Meal breaks: No specific Virginia rule found — federal rules apply (Virginia DOLI, labor laws). 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 Virginia rule found — federal rules apply (Virginia DOLI, labor laws). The FLSA does not require breaks. Short breaks an employer offers (about 5 to 20 minutes) are paid work time (US DOL, breaks).
  • Minors: A child under 16 can't work more than 5 hours in a row without a lunch period of at least 30 minutes, and a break shorter than 30 minutes doesn't interrupt those 5 hours. There's no separate rule for 16- and 17-year-olds (Va. Code § 40.1-80.1).

Other Virginia rules that affect pay

  • Paid sick leave: No specific Virginia rule found — federal rules apply (Va. Code § 40.1-33.3). 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 is required, not a card for every employee. Who: at least one certified food protection manager per establishment (not every food employee) (12VAC5-421-55).

A 2026 law gives Virginia employees paid sick leave, starting with larger employers: from July 1, 2027 at employers of 50 or more employees, from January 1, 2028 at 25 or more, and from January 1, 2029 at every employer. Employees earn at least one hour for every 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours a year unless you allow more, and it's paid at their regular rate but never less than the minimum wage, with no tip credit (Va. Code § 40.1-33.6:1 ff.).

Paydays, pay stubs and job postings

  • Pay hourly staff at least every two weeks or twice a month, and pay someone who leaves on the day they would have been paid anyway (Va. Code § 40.1-29).
  • A pay stub or online statement every payday showing hours, rate, gross wages and deductions, kept for at least 3 years since July 1, 2026 (Va. Code § 40.1-29).
  • Pay ranges in job postings. Since July 1, 2026, every job posting states the wage or wage range (Va. Code § 40.1-28.7:12).

Local rates in Virginia

We found no Virginia city or county with its own minimum wage, so the state figures apply across Virginia.

How Mays helps

Mays runs the schedule, time clock, tip pool and payroll export for each location. For Virginia 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. Mays doesn't check wages against the minimum wage, so update them yourself when the rate changes on January 1, 2027.
  • 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 choose, everyone who worked gets a share, cooks included, so if you take a tip credit, pick only tipped positions, and make sure every punch carries a position: once positions are picked, a punch without one gets no share. When you set it up, turn on Leave managers and admins out of the pool: it's off by default. The tips come from your connected POS at that location (Square) or from tips synced with 7shifts time punches, and 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.
  • Time clock and timesheets. Staff clock in on their phone, a shared kiosk or an NFC tag. Timesheets run by pay period, and overtime is counted by the workweek, with an optional daily threshold for states that have one.
  • Payroll export. A standard CSV or a Gusto-format CSV with regular and overtime hours and pooled tips for each employee.
  • Minors. Mays doesn't track minors' hours or breaks, so build a minor's meal break into their shifts when you schedule them.
  • Overtime from the time clock. Timesheets count overtime by the workweek, and each pay period's Labor Summary splits regular and overtime hours and pay for payroll, so you can check every long week before you pay it.
  • Sick leave accrual when the law reaches you. Under Scheduling → Settings → Time off & PTO accrual, set the Sick category to accrue Per hour worked, at least one hour for every 30 worked. The policy covers the whole organization, and Mays doesn't stop accrual at 40 hours a year or set a separate pay rate for sick hours, so check those against the law.

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 Virginia 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.