Alaska tipped minimum wage (2026)
In Alaska, a server starts every shift at $14.00/hr before a single tip — 7× the federal tipped floor — because Alaska bans the tip credit entirely. Here, tips are pure addition.
Note: State requires employers to pay tipped employees full state minimum wage before tips.
How Alaska compares
At $14.00/hr, Alaska ranks 4th of the 47 states with a single published tipped cash wage. No other state pays tipped workers exactly $14.00/hr.
Your employer has to hand you the entire $14.00/hr minimum in cash — tips cover none of it, so every dollar tipped is a dollar added.
Thirty hours on the schedule guarantees $420.00 before tips, $356.10 more than the same week would guarantee under the federal $2.13 floor.
Nearest rates on either side: Hawaii at $14.75 and Arizona at $12.15.
Alaska shares no land border with another state, so there is no neighbouring rate to cross into.
What's different about tipped work in Alaska
Alaska bans the tip credit, so a server's cash wage is the full state minimum — and by law that minimum can never sit less than $2.00 above the federal floor, which is why it has never gone near $7.25.
Where it's heading: Ballot Measure 1, approved in November 2024, took the minimum to $13.00 in July 2025 and $14.00 in July 2026, reaching $15.00 in July 2027. After that it is adjusted for inflation annually and must stay at least $2.00 above the federal minimum.
The number that actually matters
Because the base wage is already high here, published averages understate the gap between good and bad shifts — the swing that decides your real hourly comes almost entirely from tips, and cash tips rarely show up in any official figure. Your own shift log is the only record of what a Friday close actually paid.
Simulate a Alaska shift
Legal minimums are the floor. Enter a real shift — your actual hourly is what decides whether the night was worth it.
Example amounts to start. Enter your actual base wage and shift, including paid sidework time.
This is earnings before taxes and other payroll deductions, not cash paid out tonight. Include each tip once, even when card tips arrive later through payroll.
Use your actual base wage from your pay record. The starting value is only an example. This calculator does not determine the minimum wage required for your job.
Quick answers
What is the tipped minimum wage in Alaska?＋
Employers in Alaska must pay tipped workers a cash wage of at least $14.00/hr — the full state minimum wage, before tips (no tip credit allowed). Figures as of July 1, 2026 (US DOL).
Can my Alaska employer take a tip credit?＋
No. Alaska requires the full state minimum wage in cash before tips — your tips are 100% on top.
What if my tips don't reach the full minimum wage?＋
Federal law (FLSA) requires your employer to make up the difference whenever cash wage + tips falls below the applicable minimum wage for the pay period. Track every shift so you can prove a shortfall.
Source: U.S. DOL Wage and Hour Division (July 1, 2026). Federal floor: $2.13 cash / $7.25 total. Not legal advice — local ordinances (city minimum wages) may set higher rates.
Compare with other states
Working out what a shift actually paid you? Run it through the tips-to-hourly calculator — base pay plus tips, minus tip-out, divided by the hours you really worked.
TipScan reads your checkout slip and computes your real hourly every shift — with Alaska's wage rules built in. Free, no ads.
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