Delaware Minimum Wage 2026: $15.00 an Hour, a $2.23 Tipped Wage and No Increase Scheduled for 2027

Delaware’s minimum wage is $15.00 an hour in 2026 [1][2]. That was the final step in the schedule written into state law, which reached $15.00 on January 1, 2025 [1]. The law doesn’t adjust the rate for inflation, so nothing is scheduled for 2027 [1].

No increase set for 2027

The Delaware Code lists each step up to $15.00 effective January 1, 2025, and stops there [1]. It has no automatic cost-of-living increase [1]. The one built-in trigger is federal: if Congress sets a federal minimum wage higher than Delaware’s, Delaware’s rate becomes equal to it [1]. So unless the General Assembly passes a new law or the federal rate rises, $15.00 stays the rate in 2027.

Tipped workers

A tipped employee in Delaware is a worker in a job where workers customarily and regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips [1]. For those workers, tips can count toward part of the minimum wage, but the cash wage can never be less than $2.23 an hour [1]. The Delaware Department of Labor adds that the rules ensure total earnings meet the minimum wage [2].

Delaware also protects service charges. If a restaurant or other business adds a mandatory service charge, it belongs to the employee who provided the main service unless the business clearly tells customers, in bold type on the menu, a placard or the bill, that all or part of it goes to management [1].

Who isn’t covered

Delaware’s minimum wage law doesn’t cover some workers, including [5]:

• People employed in agriculture or in domestic service in a private home.
• People in a bona fide executive, administrative or professional job, and outside commission salespeople.
• Federal employees.
• Junior counselors or counselors in training under 18 at a nonprofit summer camp.

The Department of Labor can also allow lower wages for learners and apprentices, but only under regulations it adopts after a public hearing [6].

When you have to be paid

• Regular paydays at least once a month [3].
• All wages due within 7 days after the end of the pay period [3].
• If you quit or are let go, your final wages are due by the later of your next regular payday or three business days after your last day [7].
• A 30-minute meal break is required after five consecutive hours of work, unless your job is exempt [2].

If an employer fails to pay wages it owes without reasonable grounds for a dispute, it’s also liable for liquidated damages of 10% of the unpaid wages for each day the failure continues, except Sundays and legal holidays, up to an amount equal to the unpaid wages [7].

If you’re not paid what you’re owed

The Department of Labor’s Office of Wage and Hour Enforcement handles complaints about unpaid wages, overtime and minimum wage violations [2]. To start one, you complete a Wage Claim Form with information about your employer, the dates you worked, the amount owed and the problem; you may be asked for pay stubs, time records or other documents [8]. The department suggests trying to resolve the problem with your employer first [9].

You can also go to court yourself. A civil action for unpaid wages and liquidated damages can be brought in any court that has jurisdiction, and a winning employee is awarded court costs and reasonable attorney’s fees [10]. An agreement to work for less than the minimum wage is no defense for an employer [11].

What $15.00 adds up to

At $15.00 an hour, a 40-hour week pays $600 before taxes, and 52 such weeks come to $31,200 a year [1].