What’s the minimum wage for servers in Maryland?

Maryland at a glance

As of the U.S. Department of Labor table revised July 1, 2026. Your city may set a higher rate.

What’s different in Maryland

Maryland keeps a low cash wage while running a high minimum. At $3.63 you get a bit more per hour than the federal $2.13, but the state guarantee of $15.00 dwarfs the federal $7.25. The $11.37 tip credit bridges those two numbers.

Because so much of the guarantee depends on tips, your stub alone won’t tell you whether you were paid correctly. You need your hours and your tips side by side to see if the week averaged at least $15.00. Maryland uses the familiar more-than-$30-a-month test to decide who counts as tipped.

Employers told BLS the median for Maryland servers was $17.67 an hour in May 2025, a figure that includes the tips they reported. Use it as a rough market marker, not a paycheck target.

Example shift

Say you work 6 hours and walk out with $120 in tips (illustrative numbers; use your own).

1. Wages: $3.63 × 6 = $21.78.
2. With tips: $21.78 + $120 = $141.78, or $23.63 an hour.
3. If your tips for the week don’t bring you to $15.00 an hour, federal law says your employer has to make up the difference.

What servers earn: BLS estimates the median hourly wage for waiters and waitresses in Maryland was $17.67 in May 2025. BLS counts tips in this figure, but the numbers come from employers’ estimates, so they may not reflect all the tips servers receive.

Check your own week: Am I being paid at least minimum wage?