Tip pool point system: how points work, with a worked example

A point system gives each role a weight. Each person’s share of the pool is their points, or their points times their hours, over everyone’s. The points are the house’s decision; the math is simple enough that everyone on the sheet can check their own line.

The setup

A Thursday pool of $1,048.00. The house gives servers 10 points, the bartender 8, and the barback and busser 5 each:

Points × hours, step by step

1. Point-hours for each person: points times hours. Rosa: 10 × 7 = 70.
2. Add them up: 70 + 50 + 64 + 30 + 22.5 = 236.5.
3. Value of one point-hour: $1,048.00 ÷ 236.5 = about $4.43.
4. Each share: the pool times their point-hours over the total. Rosa: $1,048.00 × 70 ÷ 236.5 = $310.19.

Pool, split by points × hours$1,048.00

• Rosa10 pts × 7 h = 70 point-hours $310.19
• Theo10 pts × 5 h = 50 point-hours $221.57
• Kai8 pts × 8 h = 64 point-hours $283.60
• Mia5 pts × 6 h = 30 point-hours $132.94
• Sam5 pts × 4.5 h = 22.5 point-hours $99.70

Round each share to the cent below, then hand any leftover cents to the shares that lost most to rounding; this pool had 2 of them. The shares then add up to $1,048.00 exactly.

Points without hours

Some houses skip the hours and split on points alone. Same pool, same people:

On points alone, Theo’s 5-hour shift pays the same as Rosa’s 7, and Sam, the busser who left first, gets $137.89 to Mia’s $137.90 (the cent between them is rounding). That’s only fair when everyone works the whole shift. When cuts are staggered, multiply by hours. The last column shows the other extreme: on hours alone the busser and the servers earn the same rate.

Picking the points

Points aren’t set by law. Houses argue them out, and they change when the job does: a busser who also runs food has a case for more. Two rules keep it clean. Write the points down where everyone can see them before the shift, not after the pool is counted. And change them between pay periods, never in the middle of one.

What the points can’t do is bring a manager into the pool: federal law bars employers, managers and supervisors from keeping any part of employees’ tips (29 U.S.C. § 203(m)(2)(B)). State rules on who else may share a pool vary.

Run your own points

The tip pool calculator below is set to this pool. Change the points to your house’s.

For a pool where everyone does the same job, splitting by hours is simpler.

Every amount in this guide is worked out by the same calculation code as the TipCup app.

Run your own numbers in the tip pool calculator ›