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

Wisconsin's minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour since July 24, 2009, the same as the federal rate, and state law schedules no raise (DWD rates poster). A tipped employee can be paid $2.33 in cash wages, and a worker under 20 can start at the $5.90 opportunity wage for their first 90 days (Wis. Stat. ch. 104). What Wisconsin adds is paperwork: no tip credit without a tip declaration the employee signs every pay period (DWD 272). And the wage floor is the same everywhere, because a city or county can't set its own (Wis. Stat. ch. 104).

This page puts Wisconsin'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. Wisconsin's minimum wage is $7.25 an hour ($2.33 cash wage for tipped employees). No increase is scheduled. Since June 1, 2026, a state rule lets 16- and 17-year-olds use small countertop mixers and pizza-dough rollers with safety guards, which had been off-limits to every minor (CR 26-015; CR 26-015 rule text).

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.

Wisconsin pay rules at a glance

As of May 13, 2026:

Sources: DWD, minimum wage; Wis. Stat. ch. 104; US DOL, tipped wages by state; DWD 274; DWD, breaks; DWD rates poster.

Other Wisconsin rates:

• opportunity employees (under 20, first 90 consecutive calendar days with the employer): $5.90 an hour

Who counts as a tipped employee in Wisconsin

Wisconsin law sets no minimum amount of tips for the tip credit (Wis. Stat. ch. 104). 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 Wisconsin

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 $2.33 an hour in cash wages. That's the $7.25 minimum wage minus the most you can credit from tips, $4.92 (DWD, minimum wage).
• 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 $4.92 tip credit, you pay at least $5.955 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).

Wisconsin's own tip-credit rules

• A signed tip declaration every pay period. To take the tip credit you need a tip declaration signed by the employee each pay period, and payroll records showing the required taxes withheld. Without them, no tip credit is allowed (DWD 272). The employee can sign electronically (Wis. Stat. ch. 104).
• Check each week. The law measures wages plus tips in a week (Wis. Stat. ch. 104). The state labor department's own page talks about averaging over the pay period (DWD, minimum wage), but an employer the FLSA covers has to reach the minimum wage every workweek, so check each week of the pay period, the way the server example below does.
• Younger tipped workers. An opportunity employee who gets tips can be paid $2.13 an hour in cash wages until they turn 20 or their first 90 days are up (Wis. Stat. ch. 104).
• Tips kept by the house. If tips are turned over to the restaurant as its own receipts, there's no tip credit at all: you owe the full $7.25 (DWD 272).

What you must pay non-tipped staff in Wisconsin

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 (DWD, 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 (DWD 274).

Meals as part of pay. A meal an employee chooses to take can count toward the minimum wage, at no more than $4.15 a meal or $87 a week, but you can't require anyone to accept meals as part of their pay (Wis. Stat. ch. 104; DWD 272).

Worked examples (made-up numbers)

The names, hours and tips below are made up. The rates are Wisconsin's as of May 13, 2026.

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

Sam is a server paid the $2.33 cash wage. He works 29 hours in each of two weeks: a busy one with $380.00 in tips and a slow one with $90.00.

In the slow week, $90.00 in tips covers only part of the $142.68 tip credit (29 × $4.92), so you pay the difference by the regular payday: $210.25 − $157.57 = $52.68. 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 Wisconsin minimum wage, $7.25 an hour. Over five days she works 8, 9, 9, 10 and 8 hours: 44 hours in all.

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 Wisconsin

Wisconsin has its own tip-pool rules (DWD 272.03(2)): Wisconsin's rule recognizes tip splitting, as when servers give part of their tips to bussers, and counts what each person keeps as that person's tips, including tips the employer collects and redistributes under a basis the employees have agreed on among themselves. It doesn't say who may be in a pool an employer requires, so federal rules govern that. Tips turned over to the employer as its own receipts mean no tip credit at all.

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: 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). Wisconsin adds its own rule: A compulsory service charge, such as a percentage added to the bill, isn't a tip unless the employer distributes it to employees. Amounts negotiated with a banquet customer for distribution to the staff must be paid to them at the end of the pay period in which they are earned; where the payroll records break the charge down, only the part for tips must be paid out (DWD 272.03(2)).
• 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 Wisconsin

Wisconsin's overtime law draws the same line as the federal one (DWD 274): 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 Wisconsin 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).

The labor department puts it plainly for two-week pay periods: each week's hours stand alone, so a long week earns overtime even if the other week of the period is short (DWD, overtime FAQ).

Breaks in Wisconsin

• Meal breaks: No specific Wisconsin rule found — federal rules apply (DWD, breaks). 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 Wisconsin rule found — federal rules apply (DWD, breaks). 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 18: no more than 6 consecutive hours without a meal period of at least 30 minutes, which should start reasonably close to 6 a.m., noon, 6 p.m. or midnight, or about midway through the work period (Wis. Stat. ch. 103).

Short breaks are paid. Wisconsin doesn't make you give adults breaks, but a break shorter than 30 consecutive minutes counts as work time, and so does a meal period during which the employee isn't free of work for at least 30 minutes or can't leave the premises (DWD, breaks; DWD 274). For adults, the labor department recommends a 30-minute meal period near the usual mealtimes and says shifts of more than 6 consecutive hours without one should be avoided (DWD 274).

Other Wisconsin rules that affect pay

• Paid sick leave: No specific Wisconsin rule found — federal rules apply (DWD, Wisconsin FMLA). 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) (Wisconsin Food Code).

Paydays, deductions and family leave

• Pay at least monthly. Pay everyone at least once a month, for wages earned up to no more than 31 days before payday, and pay someone who quits or is fired in full by their next regular payday (Wis. Stat. ch. 109).
• Deductions for breakage, shortages or loss. You can't take them out of wages unless the employee authorizes it in writing after the incident, or it's been found to be their fault, with their representative or in court; an improper deduction costs you twice its amount (Wis. Stat. ch. 103; DWD, wage deductions).
• Wisconsin's family and medical leave is unpaid. It covers employers with 50 or more permanent employees and staff who have worked there more than 52 weeks in a row and at least 1000 hours in the past year, with up to 2 weeks of medical leave a year (DWD, Wisconsin FMLA; Wis. Stat. ch. 103).
• Dress rules at hire. Tell each new employee about any hairstyle, facial hair or clothing requirement when you hire them (Wis. Stat. ch. 103).

Local rates in Wisconsin

Wisconsin law bars cities and counties from requiring private employers to pay a minimum wage other than the state or federal one (Wis. Stat. ch. 104). Separate laws also bar local ordinances on employee hours and scheduling, and on leave and other employment benefits (Wis. Stat. ch. 103). So the state's $7.25 minimum wage applies everywhere in Wisconsin, and there's no local rate table for Wisconsin.

How Mays helps

Mays runs the schedule, time clock, tip pool and payroll export for each location. For Wisconsin 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 Wisconsin's rule before you turn that on: the tip pool card links the official source. With Labor law compliance on, the card also lists Wisconsin's service-charge rule as a checklist, with its 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.
• Tip declarations. Wisconsin asks for a tip declaration signed by each tipped employee every pay period when you take a tip credit (DWD 272.03(2)). With Labor law compliance on, when a pay period ends, Mays asks each tipped employee to confirm the tips it recorded for them, or correct them with a note, in the Mays app, and keeps who confirmed and when with the pay period.
• 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.
• Each workweek on its own. Switch a pay period's punches to the Cards layout and each person's punches are grouped by workweek, with regular and overtime hours and a total for every week, so a two-week period is checked week by week, the way the federal law counts.
• Opportunity wages. With Labor law compliance on, a location's minimum wage panel lists the $5.90 opportunity wage among Wisconsin's other rates, but Mays compares wages with the $7.25 rate, so a younger hire paid less gets a below-minimum warning; it never blocks the save. Mays doesn't track the 90-day window, so set their hourly wage on their Locations & pay tab and raise it yourself when they turn 20 or their 90 days are up.
• Paid short breaks. Add your short breaks as custom breaks under a location's Labor & compliance card and mark them paid, so they stay in the hours you pay.

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from these official pages, as they read on the date shown.

• Wisconsin DWD, minimum wage rates poster (ERD-9247-P), checked September 24, 2026
• Wisconsin Statutes, chapter 104 (minimum wage), checked September 24, 2026
• Wisconsin Administrative Code, chapter DWD 272 (minimum wage), checked September 24, 2026
• Wisconsin Clearinghouse Rule 26-015 (employment of minors), effective June 1, 2026, checked September 24, 2026
• Wisconsin Clearinghouse Rule 26-015, final rule text, checked September 24, 2026
• Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, minimum wage, checked September 24, 2026
• US Department of Labor, minimum wages for tipped employees by state, checked September 24, 2026
• Wisconsin Administrative Code, chapter DWD 274 (hours of work and overtime), checked September 24, 2026
• Wisconsin DWD, breaks and meal periods, checked September 24, 2026
• US Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #15: tipped employees under the FLSA, checked September 24, 2026
• Wisconsin Administrative Code, DWD 272.03(2) (tipped employees), checked September 24, 2026
• US Department of Labor, overtime pay, checked September 24, 2026
• US Department of Labor, tips under the FLSA, checked September 24, 2026
• Wisconsin DWD, overtime FAQ, checked September 24, 2026
• US Department of Labor, breaks and meal periods, checked September 24, 2026
• Wisconsin Statutes, chapter 103 (employment regulations), checked September 24, 2026
• US Department of Labor, sick leave, checked September 24, 2026
• Wisconsin DWD, Wisconsin Family and Medical Leave Act, checked September 24, 2026
• Wisconsin Food Code (ATCP 75 Appendix), checked September 24, 2026
• Wisconsin Statutes, chapter 109 (wage payments), checked September 24, 2026
• Wisconsin DWD, wage deductions, checked September 24, 2026

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 Wisconsin 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.