How to calculate a bartender tip out

The bartender tip out runs in two directions and it is worth being clear about which one you are calculating.

Server to bar

A server whose tables order drinks is selling the bartender's work. The tip out is normally a percentage of that server's alcohol sales — commonly somewhere between 1% and 3% — rather than a percentage of total sales, because it is the drinks the bar actually made.

Houses that use total sales instead are usually simplifying rather than being unfair — but it does mean a server with a dry section subsidises the bar, and a server pushing cocktails pays less than the bar earned them. If your room has a serious bar programme, alcohol sales is the base that matches the work.

Bartender to barback

The bartender's own tip out usually goes to the barback, and here the base is normally the bartender's own tips rather than sales — often in the range of 10% to 20% of tips, or a percentage of the bar's own sales. On a busy service the barback is the reason the bar keeps moving, and this is the line that recognises it.

Setting it up once

Both directions are the same two rules in the tip-out calculator: a percentage of alcohol sales, and a percentage of tips or a flat amount. Save it under the name of the shift — “Friday bar”, “Closing” — and next time it is your sales figures and nothing else.

TYPTAPP does the math. Your workplace is responsible for making sure its tip policies follow applicable laws.