Bartender pay rules look a lot like server rules, with a few twists. You often run the tip pool, you handle cash, and you work events where a service charge takes the place of a tip. This page covers what matters most for bartenders and what to check on your stub.
How bartenders are paid
Most bartenders are tipped employees. Under federal law your employer can pay a cash wage of $2.13 an hour and count up to $5.12 of your tips per hour toward the $7.25 minimum wage, as long as your tips actually cover it in each workweek. If they don't, the employer pays the difference.
State rules can be very different. California, Washington, Minnesota and several other states allow no tip credit at all. Connecticut sets a higher cash wage for bartenders ($8.23) than for servers ($6.38). Check your state page.
Service bartenders, who mostly make drinks for servers' tables, usually count as tipped employees too, even when guests rarely tip them directly. Their share comes through a tip-out or pool.
Tip pools and tip-outs
Bars often pool tips across a shift and split them by hours or points. Servers often tip out the bar a share of their sales. Both are generally legal, within limits:
- Owners, managers and supervisors can never take a share of the pool. A manager who pours drinks can keep only tips a guest gives directly for service the manager alone provided.
- If you are paid with a tip credit, the pool can include only tipped workers, such as barbacks, servers, bussers and runners. No cooks or dishwashers.
- If the employer pays everyone the full minimum wage and takes no tip credit, federal law allows kitchen staff in the pool. Massachusetts and New York still do not.
- In Minnesota, an employer cannot require tip sharing at all.
If you run the pool, keep the sheets. If you are in it, you can ask how shares are calculated. See how tip pools work and chain of service.
Service charges on events and private parties
Banquets, buyouts and private parties often carry a mandatory service charge, such as 20% of the bill. Under federal law that charge is the employer's money, not a tip. If some of it is paid to you, it is wages: taxed as wages and counted in your regular rate for overtime.
Several states require more:
- Massachusetts: a charge called a service charge, gratuity or tip goes to the staff who served. Only a fee clearly described to guests in writing as a house or administrative fee can be kept.
- New York: a charge for "service" is presumed to be a gratuity unless the contract, menu and bill clearly say it is not.
- Pennsylvania: for banquets and special functions, service fees and gratuities must be on separate lines, and contracts and menus must say if the fee is not a gratuity for employees.
- Washington: the receipt and menu must say what share goes to staff. If they don't, the whole charge goes to the employee who served.
If you worked an event, ask what the guest was charged and how much reached the staff. See is a service charge a tip?
Till shortages, comps and breakage
Bartenders handle cash, so shortage deductions come up. Under federal law, a deduction for a short drawer, a broken bottle or an unpaid tab cannot reduce your pay below the minimum wage, and at a tipped cash wage there is usually no room for one. It cannot come out of your tips either, because an employer cannot keep employees' tips.
Many states go further. New York, Washington and Oregon ban shortage and breakage deductions from your paycheck, and California allows them only for a dishonest or willful act or gross negligence. Other states require your written consent first. See which deductions are illegal.
What to check on your stub
- Hours, including doubles and late closes. Closing duties after last call are work time.
- Hourly rate, against your state's tipped cash wage for bartenders.
- Tips: card tips, pool shares and reported cash tips against your own totals.
- Event pay: any share of a service charge, shown as wages.
- Overtime: over 40 hours at $2.13 under federal rules, overtime cash pay is $5.755 an hour.
- Deductions for shortages, breakage, card fees or "adjustments".
The paycheck checker runs these checks against your state's rules. If something is off, start with payroll. Your state labor agency takes wage claims for free, without a lawyer. See what to do if you were underpaid.
Check your own paycheck
Enter your stub and your hours. The checker applies your state's rules and shows anything that is short, with the rule behind it. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
Questions
Can the bar manager share in the tip pool?
No. Under federal law, managers and supervisors cannot take any share of a tip pool. They can keep only tips a guest gives them directly for service they alone provided.
Is the service charge on a private event my tip?
Not under federal law. A mandatory service charge is the employer's money unless your state says otherwise. Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington all have rules that can give the charge, or part of it, to the staff.
Can my employer take a till shortage out of my pay?
Under federal law, not if it drops you below minimum wage, and never out of your tips. Many states ban shortage deductions or require your written consent first.
Do barbacks get tips?
Barbacks usually share in the bar's tips through a pool or tip-out. They are generally treated as tipped workers, so they can be in a pool even when the employer takes a tip credit.
TruWage is a calculator, not legal advice. It is not a law firm and does not refer you to one. Rules change and every situation is different; check with your state labor agency before acting on a result.