Standard tip-out percentages: what's normal, what's not
There's no law setting tip-out percentages — every house writes its own policy. But three decades of industry practice have settled into pretty consistent ranges. Here they are, so you can tell whether your restaurant's numbers are typical or out of line.
| Role | Typical tip-out |
| Busser | 1–3% of sales, or 5–10% of tips |
| Bartender | 5–10% of bar sales, or 1–2% of total sales |
| Food runner | 1–2% of sales, or 3–7% of tips |
| Host / hostess | 0–2% of sales (many houses: none) |
| Expo | 0.5–1.5% of sales, often shared with runners |
| Total typical tip-out | 3–8% of sales ≈ 15–30% of tips |
Ranges reflect common full-service restaurant practice in the US; fine dining, fast casual, and bar-forward concepts all skew differently. Your house policy controls.
Percent of sales vs. percent of tips
Percent of sales is the most common system in full-service restaurants: if you sell $1,000 and the busser tip-out is 2%, you owe $20 — whether your tables tipped well or stiffed you. It's predictable for support staff and easy to audit from the POS, but on a bad tip night it can take a painful share of what you actually made.
Percent of tips ties everyone's fortunes together: 10% of your tips to the busser means a slow night costs everyone less. It feels fairer to servers, but support staff can't predict their pay, and cash tips are easy to underreport — which is why many managers prefer sales-based systems.
A useful sanity check: a sales-based tip-out of 3–8% of sales works out to roughly 15–30% of tips for a server averaging 20% gratuities. If your house's total tip-out costs you more than a third of your tips night after night, that's high by any standard.
What makes a tip-out fair
It matches the help you get. A busser tip-out at 3% is fair when bussers turn your tables fast; it's not when you're pre-bussing everything yourself. Tip-outs should track who actually touches the guest experience.
It's written down. Verbal policies drift. A fair house posts the exact percentages, what they're calculated on (sales vs. tips, total vs. category), and pays them through payroll or a documented nightly settlement.
It never touches managers. Whatever the percentages, federal law bars managers and supervisors from taking any share — see the tip pooling rules for your state.
Run your own night through the tip-out calculator to see exactly what each percentage costs you in dollars.