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Tip pool calculator

Enter who worked which hours and what the jar counted. You get each person's exact share, worked out stretch by stretch from when they were actually on the clock — reconciled to the penny, with the math shown.

A tip pool is split fairly by cutting the shift into stretches at every clock-in and clock-out, giving each stretch a share of the money in proportion to how long it lasted, and dividing each stretch's share among the people who were actually working during it.

That is different from dividing each person's total hours by everyone's total hours, and the difference matters. If one person covered a slow stretch alone, that whole stretch is theirs — they do not have it diluted by people who came in later. This calculator segments the shift at every clock event and every count, so nobody shares in money earned before they arrived or after they left.

Who worked

Times are 24-hour or AM/PM depending on your device. Leave a shift open-ended and it runs to the last count. Shifts crossing midnight are fine.

What the jar counted

One count at the end of the night is fine. Add a count each time you actually empty or tally the jar and the split gets more accurate.

Taken off the top before the split. Percent of the count.

Segment by segment is the accurate one. The even split is here so you can see the difference.

Nothing you type here leaves your device. The whole calculator runs in your browser. There is no account, no signup, and nothing is stored or sent anywhere.

You just did this once. You'll do it again tomorrow.

This calculator does one night. The reason people go looking for it in the first place is that they are doing this every night, by hand, usually at close, usually tired — and then re-doing it when someone asks why their number looks low.

PaidFair runs the same math automatically from your team's real clock-ins, keeps the per-person record, and shows every person their own breakdown so you stop relitigating it at the end of the shift. Same arithmetic you see above, every night, written down.

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How the split is calculated, step by step

  1. Give each count its own window. A count covers the stretch since the previous count. Only people on the clock during that stretch can share in it.
  2. Cut the window into stretches. Every clock-in and clock-out inside the window is a boundary. A stretch where nobody was working is dropped, and its money spreads across the stretches that were actually covered — it is never handed to someone who was not there.
  3. Give each stretch money in proportion to its length. A 90-minute stretch out of a 6-hour window carries 25% of that count.
  4. Split each stretch among the people in it. Two people on the clock for that stretch, each gets half of it. This is what makes a solo stretch fully yours.
  5. Keep the exact shares, don't round yet. Rounding at each step is what makes totals drift a few cents off.
  6. Assign the odd pennies last. Everyone gets the whole-cent floor of their exact share, then leftover pennies go one at a time to the largest fractional remainders. The payouts now sum to the total exactly.

Worked example. Alice works 4pm–11pm. Bob joins at 8pm. One count of $700 at close.

4–8pm is 4 hours of the 7-hour window, so it carries $400 — and Alice worked it alone, so all $400 is hers. 8–11pm is 3 hours, carrying $300, split two ways: $150 each. Alice $550, Bob $150.

Divide total hours instead (7 vs 3) and you would get Alice $490, Bob $210 — moving $60 of the quiet early shift onto someone who wasn't there for it.

Common questions

Why not just split evenly?

Even splits are fine when everyone worked the same shift, and that is rare. The moment one person comes in for the last two hours of a Friday, an even split moves money from the people who worked the rush to the person who didn't. The toggle above will do an even split if you want to see it side by side — some teams genuinely prefer it, and that is a legitimate choice as long as everyone knows the rule before the shift, not after.

Should the tip-out come off before or after the split?

Off the top, before the split, is the common convention: the pool is reduced by the tip-out and the remainder is what gets divided. This calculator does it that way. What matters more than the convention is that it is written down somewhere your team can read it.

Can managers be included?

Under federal law, managers and supervisors may not share in a mandatory tip pool — regardless of how much tipped work they personally do. This is one of the few bright-line rules in the FLSA. See our guide on tip pooling law, and check your state, which may be stricter.

General information, not legal advice. This tool does arithmetic; it does not tell you what your jurisdiction allows. Tip pooling rules vary by state and by whether you take a tip credit. See the U.S. Department of Labor Fact Sheet #15, your state's rules, and an employment attorney for your situation.

Keep reading

Tip-out calculator How to split tips fairly Is tip pooling legal? Tip laws by state