What is the tipped minimum wage?

The short answer

Many states let employers pay tipped employees a lower cash wage and count tips toward the minimum through a tip credit — but the employee must still reach the full minimum once tips are included, and several states ban the tip credit outright, requiring the full minimum in cash. The headline figure most sources quote is the general classification; tipped, youth, and small-employer rates are separate and jurisdiction-specific, which is exactly where classification errors and back-pay exposure hide.

Stop re-deriving this by hand. See rates by employee classification — The free lookup shows the general rate; the paid product resolves tipped, youth, and small-employer classifications too.