A reduced voltage soft starter (RVSS) includes a switching circuit configured to selectively couple an AC power source to a motor and a control circuit configured to sense a line voltage provided to the switching circuit to produce a first voltage signal, to sense a current of the motor to generate a current signal and to generate a second voltage signal representative of a voltage of the motor responsive to the first voltage signal and the current signal. The control circuit may be further configured to generate an estimate of a torque of the motor responsive to the second voltage signal and to control the torque of the motor responsive to the torque estimate.