Paid for Every HourTip pool calculator
Tips for each hour worked
$10.00an hour
- $240.00
- in the pool
- 4
- people
- 24:00
- hours
The pool
Write hours like 6:30 or 6.5.
Points set how the roles share: a server at 1 and a busser at 0.5 means the busser earns half as much for each hour.
Write hours like 6:30 or 6.5.
Saved on this device only.
Enter the tips for the shift and each person's hours. Each name shows what that person gets, and the shares always add up to the exact total.
How do you split tips by hours worked?
Add up everyone's hours, then divide the total tips by the total hours to get the tips for each hour. Multiply that by each person's hours. With $240 in the pool and 24 hours worked, each hour earns $10, so someone who worked 8 hours gets $80.
Under US federal law, employers, managers and supervisors may not keep any part of employees' tips or take a share of the pool.
Three ways to split
By hours worked
The most common. Every hour worked is worth the same: someone who worked 8 hours gets twice what someone who worked 4 gets. It is fair when everyone does similar work and shifts are different lengths.
Evenly
Everyone gets the same. It works when everyone worked the same full shift.
By hours and points
For places where roles share at different rates. Each person has points: for example, 1 for servers and 0.5 for bussers. Each share depends on hours multiplied by points, so a busser earns half what a server does for each hour.
In all three, shares are rounded to the cent and the leftover cents are handed out so the shares add up to the exact total. This is the same sum people call a tip out, a tip share or a tip split.
Who can be in a tip pool
- Not the employer, managers or supervisors. Federal law bars them from keeping any part of employees' tips, directly or through the pool. A manager may keep only tips from customers they served themselves.
- If you are paid a tipped wage (less than the full minimum wage), the pool can only include people who usually receive tips: servers, bussers, bartenders, counter staff.
- If everyone is paid at least the full minimum wage, the employer may include staff who do not usually receive tips, such as cooks and dishwashers.
- Your state may have stricter rules than federal law.
Source: US Department of Labor Fact Sheet 15: Tipped Employees.
This page does arithmetic. It is not legal advice. If you think your employer is keeping tips, the Wage and Hour Division takes calls free of charge at 1-866-487-9243.
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