Guides

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

Mays TeamMarch 18, 2026
The Labor Variance tab of Labor Cost in Mays for a Charleston location, from March 2, 2026 to March 15, 2026: scheduled and worked labor hours day by day, with a call-out and an unscheduled extra shift showing as differences

West Virginia's minimum wage has been $8.75 an hour since January 1, 2016, and it isn't indexed: it moves only if the federal rate catches up (W. Va. Code § 21-5C-2). It applies location by location, wherever 6 or more non-exempt employees work at one location (W. Va. Division of Labor, minimum wage FAQ). Tipped staff can be paid $2.62 in cash wages, because the state lets an employer count tips for 70% of the minimum wage, as long as the employee's own written tip records show the tips (W. Va. Code § 21-5C-4; W. Va. Division of Labor, minimum wage FAQ).

This page puts West 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. West Virginia's minimum wage is $8.75 an hour ($2.62 cash wage for tipped employees). No increase is scheduled. Since June 8, 2026, the child labor law follows the federal list of jobs too hazardous for minors, and its ban on alcohol work for anyone under 18 allows exceptions for sales by 16- to 20-year-olds directly supervised by someone 21 or older, where the alcohol laws allow it (HB 4005 (2026)).

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.

West Virginia pay rules at a glance

As of March 18, 2026:

Rule

West Virginia

Minimum wage

$8.75 an hour, since January 1, 2016

Tipped employees: minimum cash wage

$2.62 an hour, if you take the tip credit

Maximum tip credit

$6.13 an hour

Who counts as tipped

West Virginia 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

West Virginia has break rules; see Breaks below

Next change

None scheduled

Sources: W. Va. Division of Labor, minimum wage FAQ; W. Va. tip credit fact sheet; 42CSR8 (2024); US DOL, tipped wages by state; W. Va. Code § 21-5C-3; W. Va. Code § 21-5C-2.

Who West Virginia's law covers. The state minimum wage applies where 6 or more non-exempt employees work at the same location, counted location by location, and at a location with fewer the federal minimum wage may apply instead (W. Va. Division of Labor, minimum wage FAQ). The law leaves out, among others, students who work 24 hours a week or less and people 62 or older who get Social Security retirement or survivors benefits (W. Va. Code § 21-5C-1; 42CSR8 (2024)).

Who counts as a tipped employee in West Virginia

West Virginia law sets no minimum amount of tips for the tip credit (42CSR8 (2024)). 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 West 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 $2.62 an hour in cash wages. That's the $8.75 minimum wage minus the most you can credit from tips, $6.13 (W. Va. tip credit fact sheet).
  • Cash wages plus tips must reach $8.75 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 × $8.75 = $13.125. After the $6.13 tip credit, you pay at least $6.995 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 $8.75 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).

Written tip records. To take the credit, you need tip records the employee fills in; without them, you owe the full $8.75 an hour (W. Va. Division of Labor, minimum wage FAQ).

What you must pay non-tipped staff in West Virginia

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

  • At least $8.75 an hour for every hour worked (W. Va. Division of Labor, minimum wage FAQ). 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 $8.75 an hour, that's $13.125 (W. Va. Code § 21-5C-3).
  • 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 (42CSR8 (2024)).

Worked examples (made-up numbers)

The names, hours and tips below are made up. The rates are West Virginia's as of March 18, 2026.

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

Sam is a server paid the $2.62 cash wage. He works 30 hours in each of two weeks: a busy one with $390.00 in tips and a slow one with $120.00.


Busy week

Slow week

Hours worked

30

30

Cash wages (30 × $2.62)

$78.60

$78.60

Tips received

$390.00

$120.00

Cash wages + tips

$468.60

$198.60

Minimum for the week (30 × $8.75)

$262.50

$262.50

You pay on top

$0.00

$63.90

In the slow week, $120.00 in tips covers only part of the $183.90 tip credit (30 × $6.13), so you pay the difference by the regular payday: $262.50 − $198.60 = $63.90. In the busy week you owe nothing extra, and every dollar of tips is still Sam's.

Side work past the 20% line

Sam works 30 hours in a week, and 8 of them go to side work that doesn't bring in tips, like folding napkins and setting tables. West Virginia lets you take the tip credit for that kind of work only while it stays at or under 20% of the week, 6 hours here (42CSR8 (2024)). Sam's 8 hours are over that line, so all 8 must be paid at the full $8.75, not just the hours past it: 8 × ($8.75 − $2.62) = $49.04 more than his cash wage alone would come to.

A cook's week with overtime

Ana is a line cook paid the West Virginia minimum wage, $8.75 an hour. Over five days she works 9, 8, 9, 10 and 9 hours: 45 hours in all.


Hours

Rate

Pay

Regular hours

40

$8.75

$350.00

Overtime hours (over 40)

5

$13.125 (1.5 × $8.75)

$65.63

Total

45


$415.63

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 West Virginia

West Virginia has its own tip-pool rules (42CSR8 (2024)): An employer taking a tip credit that allows tip sharing or pooling divides the tips only among service employees, and dual-job employees while working as service employees, has each employee document the tips paid out, and takes no share itself.

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, 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 West Virginia

West Virginia's overtime law draws the same line as the federal one (W. Va. Code § 21-5C-3): 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 West 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).

Breaks in West Virginia

  • Meal breaks: At least 20 minutes for meal breaks during a workday of 6 or more hours, at times reasonably designated by the employer. Required only where employees are not afforded necessary breaks and/or permitted to eat lunch while working. Applies to all employers. The statute does not say whether the break is paid; the Division of Labor rule treats one of 20 minutes or less as paid time (42CSR8-11.3.1) (W. Va. Code § 21-3-10a).
  • Rest breaks: No specific West Virginia 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: Children under 16: no more than 5 hours continuously without at least a 30-minute lunch period (W. Va. Code § 21-6-7).

Under the Division of Labor's rule, any break or meal period of 20 consecutive minutes or less that you allow is paid work time (42CSR8 (2024)). So the 20-minute meal break is paid, and only a longer one can be unpaid.

Other West Virginia rules that affect pay

  • Paid sick leave: No specific West Virginia rule found — federal rules apply (W. Va. fringe benefits fact sheet). 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 employee with supervisory and management responsibility; local health departments may require food handler cards (64CSR17).

Paydays, final pay and deductions

  • Paydays. Pay at least twice a month, with no more than 19 days between paydays (W. Va. Code § 21-5-3). Tell new hires in writing their rate of pay and the day, hour and place of payment, and give an itemized statement of deductions each pay period you make them (W. Va. Code § 21-5-9).
  • Final pay. Someone who quits or is let go is paid by the next regular payday, and an employer who doesn't pay on time owes 2 times the unpaid amount as liquidated damages (W. Va. Code § 21-5-4).
  • Uniforms. When you require a uniform, you can't take a credit against wages for buying or laundering it (42CSR8 (2024)).

Teenagers and alcohol

Local rates in West Virginia

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

How Mays helps

Mays runs the schedule, time clock, tip pool and payroll export for each location. For West 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. 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. With Labor law compliance on, Mays can take your card processor's fee out of card tips, but check West Virginia's rule before you turn that on: the tip pool card links the official source.
  • 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 protection manager certificate. Turn on Labor law compliance and keep your certified manager's certificate in Mays with its expiry date. Each location shows whether someone there holds a valid one, and Mays reminds them and their managers before it expires.
  • A short meal break, paid. Under a location's Labor & compliance card, add your 20-minute meal break as a custom break for shifts of 6 hours or more and mark it paid, so it stays in the hours you pay. Outside California, Mays doesn't track whether a break was taken, so review punches yourself.
  • Scheduled against worked hours. Insights → Labor Cost → Labor Variance puts each day's scheduled shifts and hours next to the ones worked at the time clock, so a location that ran short-staffed, or long, stands out before payroll.

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 West 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.