Tip-to-Hourly Wage Calculator

What does this tell me?

What a tipped shift actually paid per hour. It takes your gross tips, subtracts the share you tipped out, divides the remainder across the hours you worked, and adds your base rate — giving an effective hourly figure and the total earned for the shift.

What is "tip out" and why does it matter?

The percentage of your tips passed to bussers, runners, bartenders or a shared pool. It comes off the top, so a shift that looked like a good tip night can be an ordinary one after the share-out. Entering it is the difference between the number you felt and the number you were paid: net tips are gross tips × (1 − tip-out %).

How is the effective hourly rate built up?

net tips ÷ hours worked gives the tips portion per hour; the base hourly rate is added to it. Shift earnings are calculated separately as base rate × hours + net tips, so you can see the total alongside the rate.

Which hours should I enter?

The hours you were actually on the clock, including side work, setup and cleanup. Counting only the busy service window inflates the result — that is exactly the illusion this calculator is meant to dispel, since unpaid or low-tip hours at either end of a shift are what drag the real rate down.

Is this before or after tax?

Before. Nothing here accounts for income tax, payroll deductions or the tax treatment of tips, which varies by country and often requires tips to be reported as income. Your take-home will be lower than the figure shown.

Can I use it to compare two jobs?

That is one of its better uses — but compare across several shifts, not one. Tipped income swings with the day of the week, the season, your section and the weather. A Saturday night at one restaurant against a Tuesday lunch at another says very little; a few weeks of each says a lot.

What about credit card processing fees deducted from tips?

Not modelled. Some employers deduct a card-processing percentage from tips before paying them out, and the legality of that varies. If it happens to you, fold it into the tip-out percentage to get a realistic net.

Is my data stored?

No. Everything is calculated in your browser.

Can I use this for a wage dispute?

Not as evidence. It is arithmetic on figures you typed, with no record of what you were actually paid. Minimum wage rules for tipped work — including tip credits and required top-ups — differ by jurisdiction; take a genuine concern to your labour authority or an employment adviser.