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Tipped Minimum Wage 2027: Which States Give Servers a Raise

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Quick answer: On January 1, 2027, servers' pay before tips goes up in 12 states, from 20 cents an hour in Ohio to 81 cents in Michigan (Vermont's amount is still to come), and Washington ($17.73) and California ($17.40) pay servers the full minimum wage. In Connecticut, Nebraska, Rhode Island and Virginia the minimum wage rises but servers' cash wage doesn't, New York's raise is frozen, Alaska goes to $15 on July 1, and the federal $2.13 hasn't changed since 1991.

Every fall, states put out next year's minimum wage. This year the list for January 1, 2027 is long: sixteen states raise their minimum wage, most of them because their law ties it to inflation. But a raise in the minimum wage isn't always a raise for servers. In states that let restaurants count tips toward the minimum (the “tip credit”), what you're paid before tips can stay exactly where it is while the headline number goes up.

So here is the 2027 list the way a server needs it: what an employer has to pay you an hour before tips, state by state, what changes and when. Every number below comes from the state's own labor department or its law, checked on October 13, 2026.

The 2027 raises at a glance

Tile map of the United States showing the lowest cash wage an employer can pay a tipped server before tips in 2027. It goes up on January 1 in Arizona ($12.65), California ($17.40), Colorado ($12.69), Maine ($7.85), Michigan ($6.30), Minnesota ($11.87), Montana ($11.20), New Jersey ($6.61), Ohio ($5.70), South Dakota ($6.15), Washington ($17.73) and Vermont (amount not announced yet). It goes up later in 2027 in Alaska ($15.00 on July 1), Oregon and D.C. In Connecticut, Nebraska, Rhode Island and Virginia the minimum wage rises but servers' cash wage stays the same. Every other state has no change.
Dark green: servers' pay before tips goes up on January 1. Blue: the minimum wage rises, but servers' cash wage doesn't.

Every state that changes in 2027, with what servers are paid before tips:

StateMinimum wage 2027Servers before tipsChange for servers
Alaska (July 1)$15.00$15.00*+$1.00
Arizona$15.65$12.65+$0.50
California$17.40$17.40*+$0.50
Colorado$15.71$12.69+$0.55
Connecticut$17.48$6.38no change
District of Columbia (July 1)pendingpendingpending
Maine$15.70$7.85+$0.30
Michigan$15.00$6.30+$0.81
Minnesota$11.87$11.87*+$0.46
Montana$11.20$11.20*+$0.35
Nebraskaabout $15.26$2.13no change
New Jersey$16.48$6.61+$0.56
Ohio$11.40$5.70+$0.20
Oregon (July 1)pendingpendingpending
Rhode Island$17.00$3.89no change
South Dakota$12.30$6.15+$0.22
Vermontpendingpendingpending
Virginia$13.75$2.13no change
Washington$17.73$17.73*+$0.60

Every change starts January 1, 2027, except the three marked July 1. * The full minimum wage before tips: these states allow no tip credit. Nebraska's exact 2027 figure (its law now adds 1.75% a year) is due from the state by October 15, 2026; Vermont's is usually announced in early October; Oregon and D.C. announce theirs in the spring.

Who gets the biggest raise before tips

Bar chart of how much the lowest hourly cash wage for tipped servers rises in 2027: Alaska $14.00 to $15.00 on July 1; Michigan $5.49 to $6.30; Washington $17.13 to $17.73; New Jersey $6.05 to $6.61; Colorado $12.14 to $12.69; Arizona $12.15 to $12.65; California $16.90 to $17.40; Minnesota $11.41 to $11.87; Montana $10.85 to $11.20; Maine $7.55 to $7.85; South Dakota $5.93 to $6.15; Ohio $5.50 to $5.70.
How much more an hour servers get before tips in 2027.

Michigan's is the biggest raise on January 1: 81 cents an hour, because its law raises both the minimum wage (to $15.00) and the share of it restaurants must pay servers (from 40% to 42%). Alaska's dollar comes on July 1, when its minimum reaches $15.00 for everyone, servers included.

Cents add up. At 30 hours a week, Michigan's 81 cents is about $1,260 more a year before a single tip, Washington's 60 cents about $940, and Ohio's 20 cents about $310. It also shows up in every hour you work that's slow, rained out or spent on side work, which is exactly when your base pay matters most.

Where the minimum rises but servers' pay doesn't

In four states the minimum wage goes up on January 1 while servers' cash wage stays put, because the law sets it as a fixed dollar amount rather than a share of the minimum:

The higher minimum still matters to you there. In these states, your cash wage plus your tips has to add up to at least the full state minimum wage for the hours you worked, and if it doesn't, the restaurant has to pay the difference. So on a dead week in Richmond, the floor under you rises from $12.77 to $13.75 an hour, even though your paycheck's hourly rate doesn't change. That only works if you know your real hourly with tips, which is why it pays to write your shifts down. Our guide to what your employer can and can't do with your tips covers the rest of those rules.

Where nothing changes in 2027

Later in 2027, and in your city

Three more raises come on July 1, 2027. Alaska goes to $15.00, with no tip credit. Oregon and Washington, D.C. adjust for inflation, by amounts they announce in the spring; Oregon has no tip credit, and D.C. servers get 56% of the minimum until that rises to 60% in 2028.

Cities can set their own, higher minimums, and many do. Denver's is $19.84 in 2027, and Seattle, Chicago and a long list of California cities have their own rates. If you work inside a city with its own minimum wage, that's the number that applies to you, so check your city's labor office too.

Check your first January paycheck

The new rate applies to hours worked from January 1, not to the first paycheck dated after it, so a pay period that straddles New Year's should show two rates. Look at the hourly rate on your pay stub for the first full week of January. If it's still the old number, ask your manager; it's usually a payroll setting someone forgot to change.

Then keep an eye on what you actually make. Tip’d keeps each shift's tips, tip-outs and hours on your iPhone, adds your hourly wage, and shows what you really made an hour, so you'll see the raise land, and you'll know if a slow week ever drops you below the minimum. Logging shifts is free, with no ads and no account. For what servers make with tips in every state, see our guide to server pay by state.

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