Pay rules for bussers and food runners: tip pools, tip credit and side work

Bussers and food runners usually earn tips through someone else: a tip-out from servers or a share of a tip pool. That makes busser and food runner pay harder to check, because the tips that count toward your wage pass through other hands first. Here is what the law says and what to look for.

Are you a tipped employee?

Under federal law you are a tipped employee if you regularly get more than $30 a month in tips, and tips you receive through a pool or tip-out count. Most bussers and runners qualify. That means your employer can pay you a cash wage as low as $2.13 an hour and take a tip credit for the rest of the $7.25 minimum, where state law allows it.

States change this. Pennsylvania requires more than $135 a month in tips. California, Washington, Oregon and several other states allow no tip credit, so bussers and runners there get the full state minimum wage plus tips. Check your state page.

When your tips are small

This is the biggest risk for bussers and runners. A tip-out of a few percent of server sales can be small in a slow week, and the tip credit only works if your tips actually reach the minimum wage. If they don't, your employer owes the difference for that workweek.

Say you work 25 hours at $2.13 and your tip-outs for the week total $60. The federal minimum for 25 hours is $181.25. You got $53.25 in wages plus $60 in tips, which is $113.25, so your employer owes $68.00 more. It should show up on your stub as extra wages, sometimes labeled a make-up or adjustment.

To check this, you need to know what you actually received each shift. If tip-outs are handed to you in cash at the end of the night, write them down. The tip credit calculator does the weekly math.

Tip-outs you receive are tips for tax purposes too. Report them along with any tips guests hand you directly, so your stub, your W-2 and your own record agree. See reported tips and FICA.

Being in a tip pool

Pools that include bussers and runners are common and generally legal. The federal rules that protect you:

• The employer, owners, managers and supervisors cannot keep any part of the pool.
• Tips the employer collects for the pool must be paid out in full, no later than the regular payday.
• If you are paid with a tip credit, the pool can include only tipped workers. Cooks and dishwashers cannot be added.

Some states add more. In Minnesota, your employer cannot require tip sharing at all. Pennsylvania requires written notice of a tip pooling arrangement before it takes effect. You can always ask how the pool is divided: the formula, the points per role and the total for the shift. See how tip pools work.

Side work and second jobs

Bussers and runners do a lot of work that earns no tips directly: resetting tables, polishing glassware, stocking stations, running dish racks. Work that supports your tipped job is generally treated as part of it.

A separate job is different. If you are regularly put on dish or prep shifts, your employer can take the tip credit only for your tipped hours, and the other hours need the full minimum wage. See dual jobs.

Federal rules on side work have shifted in recent years, and the 2021 "80/20" rule was vacated in 2024, so it is not current federal law. Some states set their own limits, including New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. If a big part of your shift goes to untipped work, note what you did and for how long.

What to check on your stub

• Hours, compared with your own record. Early setup and late breakdown count.
• Hourly rate, against your state's tipped cash wage.
• Tips: whether pool shares or tip-outs paid through payroll match what you were told.
• Make-up pay in weeks your tips were low.
• Separate rates for any non-tipped shifts.
• Overtime: over 40 hours at $2.13 under federal rules, overtime cash pay is $5.755 an hour.
• Deductions for breakage, uniforms or anything labeled "adjustment". See which deductions are illegal.

The paycheck checker runs these against your state's rules. If something is off, ask payroll first. Your state labor agency takes wage claims for free, without a lawyer. See what to do if you were underpaid.