What’s the minimum wage for servers in Washington?
The short answer
Washington at a glance
| Minimum wage | $17.13 | Federal: $7.25 |
|---|---|---|
| Tipped cash wage (paid before tips) | $17.13 | Federal: $2.13 |
| Can tips count toward minimum wage? | No | DOL: No |
| Who counts as tipped | n/a in tips a month | |
| State tax on the federal tips deduction | Washington doesn’t currently have an individual income tax. A new tax on income over $1 million starts January 1, 2028. | |
As of the U.S. Department of Labor table revised July 1, 2026. Your city may set a higher rate.
What’s different in Washington
Washington’s $17.13 is the highest state minimum wage in the DOL table, and it applies to tipped and untipped workers alike. The minimum is adjusted every year by a set formula.
Federal law lets a server’s cash wage go as low as $2.13. Here your base pay alone is well above the entire federal minimum of $7.25 before a single tip comes in, which makes a slow night far less painful.
Because the state doesn’t currently tax individual income, your tips aren’t taxed by Washington as income. That changes only at the very top: a new tax on income over $1 million begins January 1, 2028. The state’s May 2025 BLS median for waiters and waitresses was $26.98 an hour, an employer-estimated figure that includes reported tips. BLS counted about 45,400 waiters and waitresses working in the state that month.
Example shift
Say you work 6 hours and walk out with $120 in tips (illustrative numbers; use your own).
- Wages: $17.13 Ă— 6 = $102.78.
- With tips: $102.78 + $120 = $222.78, or $37.13 an hour.
What servers earn: BLS estimates the median hourly wage for waiters and waitresses in Washington was $26.98 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?
Official sources
Last verified
. Checked the U.S. Department of Labor state tables (revised July 1, 2026) and BLS OEWS May 2025, and Washington Department of Revenue: income tax.
Related
- Server minimum wage in every state
- More in Washington: Tip pooling · Paid sick leave · Benefits you can get
- Same rule in: Alaska · California · Minnesota
- Why is my server paycheck so small?
- Tip-outs and tip pools