Maine Tipped Employee Laws

Tipped Minimum Wage in Maine

Back to Maine Overtime Law

Employers can use tips toward their obligation to minimum wage requirements for tipped employees, but the tip credit cannot exceed 50% of the Maine minimum wage. Employers utilizing tip credits must tell their workers in advance and demonstrate to their employees that the tip credit plus the direct hourly wage equals at least the minimum wage in Maine. Once the workers have seen that their tips were less than the tip credit, the employer will increase the hourly wage by the difference.

Tipped employees have a right to retain their tips, which cannot be shared with the employer. Tipped workers can volunteer to put their tips into a tip pool with other employees or to share some of their tips with workers who do not usually receive tips. If a customer places a tip on a credit card, the employer must pay the amount of the tip to the worker by the next pay day; employers are not allowed to wait reimbursement from the credit card company. Likewise, if a tip is automatically included in the customer's bill, the worker must receive the tip.