Share a tip or service charge pool by hours, by points or equally, with optional role weighting. Every share, its percentage and a check that it all adds up.
| Person | Hours / points | Weight % | Share |
|---|
Enter the amount in the pool and a row for each person with the hours they worked, and the calculator gives everyone's share, their percentage of the pool and a check that the shares add back up to the total. Sharing by hours is the method most staff find fairest because every hour earns the same slice, and it is easy to verify against the time records.
If your house weights roles, switch on weighting and give each row a percentage: 100% for servers, 50% for a busser, 120% for a head bartender, whatever your written policy says. A person's weighted hours are hours × weight, and the pool is split in proportion to those. If you use a points system instead of hours, type the points into the hours column; the maths is the same. The equal split option divides the pool by the number of people regardless of hours.
Shares are rounded to cents, so a few cents can be left over or short; the calculator tells you how much so you can decide what to do with it and write it down. Rows are remembered in this browser between visits. The worked example is the same restaurant week used in our tips and service charge guide.
Background reading: Paying service charge and tips fairly by hours worked
Add up everyone's hours, divide the pool by that total to get an amount per hour, then multiply by each person's hours. A $1,200 pool over 160 staff hours is $7.50 an hour; someone who worked 38 hours gets 38 × 7.50 = $285.00.
Each role is given points per shift or per hour (for example server 10, bartender 10, busser 5, host 4) and the pool is divided by total points. It is a weighting by role. In this calculator, enter the points in the hours column, or keep hours and use the weighting percentage, which gives the same result.
In many places owners and managers may not take from a pool of tips left for staff, and in others it is allowed only if they do the same work. Service charge rules can differ from tip rules. Check your labour law and write the policy down before the first payout.
It varies by country. Service charge paid through payroll is often treated like wages and subject to the usual deductions; cash tips may be the employee's responsibility to declare. Ask your payroll or tax office, and show tip and service charge lines separately on the payslip. The guide has a section on it.
Rounding each share to cents can leave a few cents over or short. Give the remainder to one person in rotation or carry it into next period's pool; either is fine as long as the rule is written down and applied the same way each time.
Free to use, works in your browser, nothing is sent to our servers. Figures are for guidance only: pay rules are set by each country's law and by your contract, so check anything that matters with your labour department or payroll.
PunchClock shares service charge and tips from the hours actually clocked and prints the split on the payslip, with caps and role weights set once.