Washington allows no tip credit. Cash wage = full minimum.
Washington is one of seven states (along with California, Oregon, Alaska, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada) that allows employers to claim no tip credit against the minimum wage. Tipped workers must receive at least the full applicable minimum wage in cash — $17.13/hr (state) or up to $21.65/hr (Tukwila large) — and keep all tips on top. Service charges and tip pools are regulated by RCW 49.46 and WAC 296-126. Manager and supervisor inclusion in tip pools is prohibited (matching federal law).
No-Tip-Credit Enforcement
Blocks any attempt to apply a tip credit to a Washington worker's cash wage. Tracks tips separately for compensation visibility and tip-pool composition rules. Reconciliation is unnecessary because there's no math.
What those rules do as Washington tipped workers are configured.
The hero card configuration: Block on tip-credit attempts, Block on manager tip-pool inclusion.
When an admin attempts to set up a Washington tipped worker with a cash wage below the applicable minimum and a tip-credit calculation, save fails. The worker setup defaults to full-minimum cash + separately-tracked tips.
Like federal law (which Washington matches), managers and supervisors cannot participate in tip pools. When an admin attempts to add a manager-tagged worker to a tip pool, the action is blocked.
Deploy no-tip-credit rules in your Teambridge.
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RCW 49.46.020(3) — tips do not count toward minimum wage.
Washington's no-tip-credit rule is unambiguous in statute. The state has consistently rejected proposals to allow tip credits, including in the voter-approved Initiative 1433 (2016) that established the current minimum wage indexing.
Cash wage = full applicable minimum
Washington tipped workers must earn at least the full state or city minimum wage in cash, regardless of tip income. A Seattle restaurant server earning $200 in tips on a 4-hour shift still gets $21.30 × 4 = $85.20 in cash wages — the tips are entirely additional.
Service charges vs. tips
Service charges (mandatory amounts added to bills, like banquet service charges) are different from tips. Under RCW 49.46.160, the percentage of a service charge retained by the customer-facing employees vs. the house must be disclosed on the bill. Service charges paid to employees count as wages for FLSA OT calculation but don't count as tips.
Teambridge models WA tipped work with no reconciliation engine — because there's nothing to reconcile.
The structural simplicity of WA tipped work means the system enforces full-minimum cash and tracks tips separately for visibility. No workweek-level math runs.
Cash wage = full applicable minimum.
When a Washington tipped worker is configured, cash wage defaults to the applicable minimum (state, Seattle, Tukwila, etc. based on work location). No tip-credit option is exposed.
Tips tracked separately.
Tipped workers declare tips through the worker app per shift. Tips display on the paystub as additional income alongside cash wages — no reconciliation math runs.
Manager exclusion enforced.
Tip pools can include only customarily-tipped employees. Manager-tagged workers cannot be added. Pool composition logged for FLSA + state audit defense.
Treated as wages, not tips.
Service charges (banquet fees, etc.) flow through as wages, included in OT regular-rate calculation. The disclosure required by RCW 49.46.160 is configured at employer level.
Still evaluating? Get a free Washington compliance audit.
Send us your existing Washington scheduling and pay configuration. Our compliance team returns a written audit within 5 business days — every Washington-specific exposure ranked by risk and back-pay liability.