How Much Do Servers Make in Tips in the US? What Actually Decides It

Ask ten US servers what they make in tips and you will hear ten different answers, and all of them can be true. Tip income depends on where you work, when you work, what the restaurant charges and what your state's wage law requires.

This guide does not give an 'average tips per shift' figure, because no official source publishes one. Instead it shows what the official data covers, and what decides your own earnings.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes wages for waiters and waitresses (occupation code 35-3031) and bartenders (35-3011) through its Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program, nationally and by state.

According to the OEWS technical notes, these wage figures include tips, together with base pay. So the published hourly wages for servers are base pay plus tips combined. They do not show how much of that was tips.

The data also comes from employers, so it can only include tips that were reported. Use it as a broad guide to an area, not as a prediction of what you will earn in a particular restaurant.

In the US, tips are usually calculated as a percentage of the bill, so the size of the check matters as much as the percentage.

A simple example: at an 18 percent tip, a $60 check pays $10.80, and a $200 check pays $36. The same service at a restaurant with higher prices, or with more drinks and courses ordered, earns more per table. This is why servers often move from casual to higher-priced restaurants to raise their income.

Busy dinner and weekend shifts usually bring larger groups, more courses and more drinks than a quiet weekday lunch, so the same hours can pay very differently. In resort and seasonal areas, income also rises and falls with the season.

When you compare jobs, ask which shifts you would actually be given, not only what the best shifts pay.

Under federal law, an employer can pay tipped workers a cash wage of $2.13 an hour, as long as tips bring the total to at least $7.25. Many states set higher rules. In seven states, including California and Washington, employers must pay the full state minimum wage before tips; the Department of Labor's state table lists $16.90 an hour in California and $17.13 in Washington. Some cities set even higher minimums.

In a $2.13 state, most of your income comes from tips. In a full-minimum-wage state, tips come on top of a guaranteed hourly wage.

How many tables you are given, and how quickly they turn, decide how many checks you serve in a shift.

Many restaurants also ask servers to 'tip out' part of their tips or sales to bussers, food runners or bartenders. How this is calculated varies a lot, so ask about it before you accept a job. Under federal law, managers and supervisors may not take part in tip pools.

You cannot control your state's wage law, but you can control your service. If you want to work on the habits that help, our course How to Make More Tips as a Server in the US covers first contact, seat numbering, check-backs, honest upselling and handling mistakes. It costs €4.99, has six modules, and does not award a certificate. It does not promise a particular increase in tips.