Nothing sours a team faster than tip maths done behind a closed door. The fairest widely-used system is points: each person's role weight multiplied by hours worked, paid out as their share of the pool. Enter the pool and the team, and this calculator shows every share, ready to publish on the notice board.
Each staff member's share = (their role weight × their hours worked) ÷ total points of the whole team × the pool amount. Common weights: captain 1.5, steward 1.0, busser 0.7.
| Staff member | Role weight | Hours worked | Points | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 72 | ₹9,297.52 | ||||
| 48 | ₹6,198.35 | ||||
| 40 | ₹5,165.29 | ||||
| 33.6 | ₹4,338.84 |
Common role weights: captain/senior 1.5, steward 1.0, busser/helper 0.7, kitchen share (if pooled) set by policy. Publish the weights to the team, opaque tip maths is the fastest way to lose good staff.
Increasingly yes, especially where service charge (which guests read as covering everyone) forms most of the pool. Common approaches: a fixed 20-30% carve-out for the kitchen before floor distribution, or kitchen roles in the same points table at agreed weights. Whichever you choose, write it down.
Guidelines from consumer-affairs authorities treat service charge as voluntary for the guest, and where collected, the expectation is that it reaches staff. Practice varies and litigation continues, so keep collection transparent, keep distribution records, and take advice for your specific setup.
Weekly or fortnightly beats monthly: staff feel the link between good service and the payout, and departing staff settlements stay clean. Month-end pooling tends to blur into salary in everyone's head, which weakens the incentive the pool exists to create.
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