← 🍽️ Restaurant Servers toolkit
Server Earnings Calculator
What a server really earns, from the wage and the tips you keep.
Part of the 🍽️ Restaurant Servers toolkit, with more tools made for the job.
Your hours and wage
The hourly wage the restaurant pays you, and how much you work.
The base pay before tips. Leave empty if you are paid only in tips.
Include side work and setting up if you are there for it.
Leave empty for 48, which allows for time off.
Your tables and your tips
This is the part that varies most, so start with a cautious guess and try a few.
Sales divided by hours worked. Your POS report shows it, or ask a colleague.
Tipping customs differ by country and place.
What you pass on to bar, bussers and others. The tip-out calculator works it out from your rules.
Type your hours, wage and what your tables spend, and what you earn appears here.
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Type your hourly wage, how long and how often you work, what your tables spend each hour and the average tip. This shows what you earn per hour, shift, week, month and year.
Server pay is odd, because it is two things at once: a wage that is the same every hour, and tips that depend on how busy you are and how generous your tables are. So the honest answer to "how much do servers make" is "it depends on the restaurant, the shifts and the tables". This tool does the sum for your own numbers. It starts from what your tables spend each hour, takes the average tip, subtracts what you tip out, and adds your wage. Try a cautious guess for tips and a better one, and see the range.
How it’s worked out
- Tips per hour are what your tables spend per hour times the average tip percentage.
- You keep that minus the share you tip out. Add your hourly wage to get your pay per hour.
- Per shift is that times the hours in a shift. Per week is that times your shifts a week.
- Per month is the weekly figure times about 4.33, and per year is the weekly figure times the weeks you work. If you leave the weeks empty, 48 is used.
With a wage of 5, tables spending 120 an hour, a 15 percent average tip and 20 percent tipped out, tips are 18 an hour and you keep 14.40, so you earn 19.40 an hour. A 6-hour shift is 116.40, and four a week is 465.60.
Common mistakes
- Guessing from your best night. Tips swing from night to night, so use an average, or try a cautious one.
- Forgetting the tip-out. What you pass on to others is not yours, so include it.
- Counting only the hours at tables. Setting up, side work and closing are part of the shift, so include them in the hours you are there.
- Forgetting tax. This is before tax, and how wages and tips are taxed differs by place.
Questions
Where do I find what my tables spend per hour?
Your POS or end-of-shift report shows your total sales. Divide it by the hours you worked. A colleague on the same shift can also give you a rough figure.
What tip percentage should I use?
Tipping customs differ a great deal between countries, restaurants and times of day. Use your own average from the tip percentage tracker, or a cautious guess.
Does it work if I am not paid a wage?
Yes. Leave the wage empty and it shows what you earn from tips alone, after tip-out.
What should I do next?
Check what you keep after a tip-out, compare shifts to see which pays best, or see your real earnings after travel and uniform costs. The links below the tool lead there.
Estimates only
These are estimates and general information, not legal, tax or employment advice. Tipping customs, tip-out and pooling rules, wages and tax on tips differ by country, state and restaurant, so use your own figures and your restaurant's written policy, and check the rules where you live.
Rain stopped play. Officially research.