Split the tips — by hours, by points, or as a tip out.
Enter the shift and every share is worked out to the cent, with the pot adding back up exactly. Managers and supervisors are left out of the pool, because federal law does not let them take a share.
Each share
| Who | Share | Of pool |
|---|---|---|
| Server — Alex | $248.89 | 29.6% |
| Server — Sam | $186.67 | 22.2% |
| Bartender | $248.89 | 29.6% |
| Busser | $155.55 | 18.5% |
Three ways a restaurant splits tips
The words get used interchangeably. The maths does not.
By hours worked
The pot is divided by the hours everyone worked. Six hours of a thirty-hour shift takes a fifth of the pool. Simple to run, and hard to argue with — but it pays a busser and a server the same for the same hour.
By points
Each role carries a weight — a server on 1, a busser on 0.5, a food runner on 0.75 — and the weight is multiplied by the hours worked. A half shift earns half the points, so it rewards the role and the time together.
Tip out from your own tips
No pot at all: each server keeps what they were tipped and hands a percentage to the bar, bussers and runners. Usually a percentage of net sales, sometimes of tips. This is the one that can go wrong on a bad night.
What federal law actually says about tip pools
Three rules decide whether a pool is lawful. The calculator applies all three.
An employer, manager or supervisor may never take a share
The 2018 amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act put this beyond argument: tips belong to the employees who earn them, and an employer may not keep any part of them for any purpose. That includes a manager taking a cut of the pool, and it applies whether or not the business takes a tip credit. In January 2025 the Labor Department confirmed that anyone who meets the executive duties test is barred — even on a night they spent bartending.
An employer that breaks this owes the tips back, and can be made to pay the same amount again in liquidated damages.
The kitchen can share only when nobody is on a tip credit
A tip credit means paying a cash wage below the minimum and counting tips toward the rest. Take it, and the pool is limited to staff who customarily and regularly receive tips — the front of house. Pay everyone the full minimum wage in cash instead and the pool may include cooks, dishwashers and other back-of-house staff. That is the trade in 29 CFR 531.54, and it is the single most common way a well-meant pool becomes unlawful.
The 80/20 rule no longer applies
For a few years the tip credit was limited by how much side work a tipped employee did. The Fifth Circuit struck that rule down in 2024 and the Labor Department removed it, going back to the older dual jobs standard: the tip credit applies to a job in which the worker customarily receives at least $30 a month in tips, with no percentage of time attached. Calculators and guides written before 2024 still say otherwise.
State law can be stricter, and several states ban the tip credit entirely — in those states everyone is on the full minimum wage, so the kitchen may share. Check your own state before changing how a pool is run.
Why the shares add up to the cent
A pool that loses a penny a shift loses real money over a year.
Dividing $840 between seven people is easy. Dividing $137.37 between five people who worked different hours is not: the exact shares run to fractions of a cent, and rounding each one on its own leaves the total short or over. This calculator works in whole cents and hands the leftover ones to the shares the division shortchanged most, so what goes out always equals what came in.
It matters for the same reason payroll rounding matters. A pool that is two cents light every shift is about $7 a year quietly unaccounted for, and nobody can tell you where it went.
Tip pooling: common questions
How do you calculate a tip pool?
Add every tip taken on the shift, then divide the pot in proportion to what each person contributed. By hours, someone who worked six hours of a thirty-hour pool takes a fifth of it. By points, each role carries a weight that is multiplied by the hours worked, so a server on one point earns twice a busser on half a point for the same shift.
Can a manager or owner take a share of the tips?
No. Since the 2018 amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act, an employer, manager or supervisor may not keep any part of an employee's tips, including a share of a pool. It makes no difference whether the business takes a tip credit, or that the manager waited tables all night. The Labor Department confirmed in January 2025 that anyone meeting the executive duties test is barred.
Can cooks and dishwashers be included in the tip pool?
Only where the employer pays every tipped worker the full minimum wage in cash and takes no tip credit. That is the trade in 29 CFR 531.54: give up the tip credit and the pool can reach the kitchen. Take the credit and the pool is limited to staff who customarily and regularly receive tips, which means the front of house.
What is a fair tip out percentage?
Common arrangements run from 1% to 3% of a server's net sales for each supporting role, or 15% to 25% of the tips taken. Nothing in federal law sets the figure. What matters is that the tip out goes to staff who may lawfully receive it, and that it never drops your pay below the minimum wage for the hours worked.
Is a tip out based on sales or on tips?
Both are used, and the difference matters on a bad night. A percentage of sales does not fall when the tips do, so a busy shift that tipped poorly can cost a server money out of pocket. A percentage of tips moves with what was actually earned. The calculator does either, and flags it when the tip out is more than the tips taken.
Does the 80/20 rule still apply to side work?
Not federally. The rule limiting tip-credit work to 20% side work was struck down by the Fifth Circuit in 2024 and removed from the regulations. The Labor Department went back to the older dual jobs standard: the tip credit applies to a job in which the worker customarily receives at least $30 a month in tips, with no time limit attached.
Related calculators
The rest of the shift, worked out.
Labor cost percentage
What the schedule costs as a share of revenue, taxes and benefits included.
Time card calculator
Hours for the whole week from clock-in and clock-out times.
Overtime calculator
Tipped workers earn overtime on the full minimum wage, not the cash wage.
Last updated Thursday, September 24, 2026. Spotted something wrong? Report an error.