Have you ever wondered how your employees really feel about your tip pool?
While you can (and should!) source feedback from your own team, Reddit is always a great place to get brutally honest opinions on…well, just about anything.
So we did some digging in a few lively Subreddits (r/TalesFromYourServer and r/KitchenConfidential, among others) to understand how real workers feel about their own restaurant’s tip pooling policy.
Of course, no two tip policies are alike, but these Reddit tales may offer some helpful useful insights as you evaluate your own tip policy — and help you avoid common pitfalls.
Tip Pooling Tales from Reddit
Not surprisingly, there are strong feelings about tip pooling from servers and other restaurant employees on Reddit. The conversations often centered around these high-level themes:
- Does tip pooling really foster teamwork?
- Do top performers take the biggest hit?
- Can tip pooling help with income consistency?
- Is it fair to include back-of-house?
Read on for a deeper dive!
1. Tip pooling and teamwork
Many Redditors noted that tip pooling can help to create a collaborative, team-first culture where everyone wins.
Of course, that comes with some caveats from the Reddit crowd:
“I own a fine dining restaurant with tip pooling. … servers help each other out and care what’s going on in others sections … the servers REALLY care about training their coworkers right.”
“It’s the best system in the world if you work with a team where everybody is competent and pulls their weight.”
“We do tip pool… Less drama, more teamwork… efficient when you work with people that are hardworking and pull their own weight.”
“It forces a stronger team mentality…No system is perfect and the strongest servers definitely take a hit most days, but it’s the positive environment that makes up for it usually.”
“I think it helps encourage the senior staff to invest in the newbies. Obviously, if the newbies efforts or attitude aren’t cutting it, time to go.”
The takeaway: If you have the right people, then your tip pool becomes a motivator for your employees to have each other’s backs, to participate in training the newbies, and to be accountable to each other. As the last Redditor here noted, it also means you have to be willing to weed out your weakest links.
2. Does tip pooling penalize top performers?
On the flipside, some commenters highlight how employees — particularly top performers — feel the system redistributes their hard-earned earnings to less productive coworkers, which can erode motivation to upsell, promptly turn tables, or cultivate regulars.
“You lose the need to hustle…tip‑pools have taken away my ability to control how much money I walk with … which made me less willing to hustle.”
“‘Lazy people…hold up the tables so they work less than others but make the same money.’”
“I was pulling $400‑$600 by myself and then … only saw $150‑200 of it which really sucks.”
“Personally not a fan of tip pooling. I typically have the highest tip percentage and I’d rather keep that for me.”
The takeaway: When the link between effort and reward is weakened, the drive to earn more through performance can dwindle. Again, as always, the goal is to have a team of top performers across the board — but in reality, you’ll always have a range of talent.
If you’re using a tip management system like Kickfin, you can track your employees’ tip payouts over time and see how payouts actually stack up across your team. You can always tweak your tip pooling policy to ensure your performers are getting rewarded for their extra-hard work. Or consider offering shift-based performance bonuses outside of the pool, based on things like guest feedback or upselling performance. This keeps the pool intact but allows standout employees to earn more.
3. The case for income consistency
When tips make up the majority of your take-home pay — as is the case for many restaurant workers — you may not know what to expect from one shift to the next. That can make managing finances hard, especially for workers who are living paycheck to paycheck.
Tipping is supposed to reward high quality service, so theoretically, tipped employees wield a fair amount of control over what they earn. And tip-pool detractors argue that tip pooling takes away that control.
But in reality, it’s not so black and white. For example, some sections are busier than others; the employee working the patio on a warm summer evening might be set up to earn more than the server working the back corner next to the restroom. The bartender working the night shift is going to earn more than his coworker who’s there for lunch.
And unfortunately, research shows that customer bias and discrimination can impact tip earnings.
As some Redditors pointed out, tip pooling can help reduce this income variability.
“Pooling tips offsets any issues with tables that don’t leave a tip…Overall, this system has increased the quality of service…”
The income might decrease a little bit on busier days but it does usually increase on slower days. And the income is more consistent.”
The takeaway: Of course, it’s not fair to always work the busiest section of the bar, only to split tips evenly with bartenders who work in a much more laid-back section. If you’re pooling tips to help with income variability, it’s wise to find additional ways to control for other variables. For example:
- Strategically rotate busy and slow sections among your different servers.
- When scheduling, make sure the same people aren’t always opening and closing — and as much as possible, rotate your employees through high- and low-volume shifts.
- Offer easy section or shift trades for employees.
4. Should Back-of-House Be Included in Tip Pools?
In addition to the general pooling benefits (collaboration, culture) — there are some valid reasons to include BOH in your tip pool:
- Guest experience: When tipping, guests take into consideration things like quality of food and speed of service — which BOH staff heavily contribute to.
- Guest expectations: Guests may assume that their tips are getting distributed to everyone — not just servers. (And taking it a step further: clearly communicating that to your guests could generate higher tip volumes.)
- Retention: With rising labor shortages, offering tip sharing can help attract and retain skilled BOH workers who might otherwise leave for better-paying jobs.
(Keep in mind: There are some legal restrictions when it comes to including BOH in your pool — e.g., if you’re taking the tip credit, you generally can’t include BOH. Find more details on tip pooling laws and compliance here.)
So what do real-life servers say about including BOH?
“Many places in new orleans had made the switch after quarantine. It’s a God send to the back of house, for most cooks it can be life changing. The FOH is a revolving door now though, why split tips with the kitchen when you can make 600 a night at the bar down the street.”
“I am not upset, I’m getting paid decent and I know how hard it is to smile and be nice all the time and interact with the dreaded public. They are welcome to the extra money and the headache.”
The takeaway: First and foremost, ensure you can legally include back-of-house workers in your tip pool. If you feel it’s right for your restaurant, a few ways to make it work well for everyone:
- Get buy-in from FOH and BOH: Clearly communicate how and why the structure works. Share real numbers and example breakdowns, and emphasize shared success — tips reflect everyone’s effort (not just what happens tableside).
- Start small: If FOH is resistant, make the tip-out percentage minimal and see how it goes before increasing
- Use a weighted distribution model: To fairly divide the tip pool, assign different weights or percentages to each role based on their contribution.
📝 Final Thoughts
Reddit feedback makes it clear…that there’s a lot of gray area when it comes to employee perspectives on tip pooling.
Ultimately, restaurant workers seem to agree that well-executed, shift-based pools under strong management can foster unity and a dependable livelihood.
But in mixed teams or mismanaged setups, performers lose motivation, and the culture quickly deteriorates — which ultimately affects morale and retention. And unfortunately, all of that can spill over into the guest experience.
If you’re pooling tips, one of the most important things you should do (aside from ensuring your tip pool is compliant!) is track everything. Having a digital paper trail not only ensures accuracy and prevents tip disputes — but it also gives you the hard data you need to truly evaluate your tip policy.
Has Reddit swayed your opinion on tip pools? Or made you rethink your current tip policy? With Kickfin’s tip pooling software, you can easily customize and automate your tip pooling policy — then track every payment, all in one place. Schedule a demo today!
