The cash wage (also called the direct wage or tipped minimum wage) is what your employer itself pays per hour when it counts your tips toward the minimum wage. On your stub it is usually the regular hourly rate. If the stub shows 32 hours at $2.13, your cash wages are $68.16.
The federal floor is $2.13, but your state may require more. For example, Florida requires $11.98 from September 30, 2026, and Connecticut sets $6.38 for servers and a higher $8.23 for bartenders. In states with no tip credit, the cash wage is the full minimum wage.
Overtime is not 1.5 times the cash wage. Under federal rules a worker paid $2.13 is owed $5.755 an hour for overtime (1.5 × $7.25, minus the $5.12 tip credit), not $3.195. See overtime for tipped workers.
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