Before we leave the topic of the Kentucky minimum wage, let’s look at one aspect of the Kentucky minimum wage—the tip credit. Before I do, here’s a funny side note. In putting together this blog entry here, I have been using my usual sources and contacts in Kentucky, but I also browsed the state Web site, just to see if they had changed it since the new law was put into effect. And it is funny that the Kentucky Department of Labor still has the old information up, along with the fact that the Kentucky minimum wage is $5.15 per hour. It still is, and will be until the new law goes into effect at the end of June, early July. Then let’s see if the state changes its minimum wage information on the Web.
Anyway, kidding aside, the information that they have on their Web site about the tip credit is still useful, so let’s get back to talking about this. It is only relevant for those employers in the state of Kentucky who have some employees that make a certain amount of their wages from the tips that get from customers. To qualify as a “tipped employee” in the state of Kentucky, these employees must make at least $30 per month in tips.
As it stands now, the tip credit for employers of these particular employees allows the employers to pay less than the regular minimum wage to these employees. In fact, as it stands now, the Kentucky employer with tipped employees can pay them as much as $2.13 per hour, as long as that other $3.02—the tip credit amount—is made up in hourly tips. In Kentucky, employers cannot take any of these tips away from employees if they make more than $3.02 per hour in tips.
