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Tip math, wage floors, and paycheck rights for restaurant and bar workers.
Food service pay is a patchwork of hourly wages, tips, tip-outs, and rules that change at every state line. It is also one of the industries where wage theft is most common, precisely because the pay structure is confusing enough that most workers cannot verify their own checks. These tools make your pay verifiable.
Start with the two numbers your employer hopes you never look up. First, the tipped minimum wage in your state: the federal tipped floor is $2.13 an hour, but many states set much higher minimums, and seven states require the full minimum wage before tips. If your state requires $12 an hour for tipped workers and you are getting $5, that is not a gray area. Second, your tip-out math. On a $1,400 night, the difference between a fair split and a skimmed one is real money per shift, hundreds per month. The tip-out calculator runs the standard formulas so you can check your payout against the house policy every single night.
Taxes deserve attention because tip income is taxable and largely unwithheld. If you will owe more than $1,000 beyond withholding, quarterly estimated payments apply to you too. Set aside a percentage of cash tips weekly, not annually. The quarterly calculator sizes the payments.
And know your exit rights. Restaurant turnover is high and final paychecks are where employers get creative. Every state sets a deadline, some as tight as the next business day. The deadline reference covers all 50 states. If you pick up gig delivery work between jobs, the 1099 vs W-2 calculator shows what that app income is actually worth after self-employment tax.
Read your pay stub like the contract it is, because it is one. Verify the tip-out math every week, know your state's wage floor by heart, and keep copies of schedules and pay records. In this industry the workers who check get paid correctly and the workers who do not quietly subsidize everyone else. Verification is not distrust, it is bookkeeping.
When your employer legally owes your final paycheck, by state.
Open the tool →Estimate quarterly estimated tax payments and avoid underpayment penalties.
Open the tool →The federal tipped minimum is $2.13 an hour, but most states set higher floors and several require the full standard minimum wage for tipped workers. Employers must make up the difference if tips plus base pay do not reach the applicable minimum. Check your state's exact number in the wage data.
Common methods split by hours worked, by fixed role percentages, or by a points system. Whatever the house policy, it should be consistent and transparent. Run the night's numbers through the tip-out calculator and compare against your actual payout.
Yes. All tip income is taxable, including cash. You should report tips to your employer monthly if they exceed $20, and set aside money for any tax not covered by withholding. Quarterly estimates apply if you will owe more than $1,000.