DOL Says Managers Can’t Share in Tip Pool, Even When They Perform Tipped Duties

Can a restaurant supervisor participate in the tip pool when picking up a bartender shift? The Department of Labor says no: a supervisor’s occasional performance of tipped work does not entitle them to share in a tip pool.

In Opinion Letter FLSA2026-13, the DOL tackled a common scenario: a shift supervisor occasionally works as a bartender and collects a share of “tipped out” gratuities from servers for those shifts. The DOL says supervisors can’t receive any portion of a tip pool—even when they’re doing tipped work—if those tips include gratuities earned by other employees. 

Key Takeaways

Primary duties, not titles, matter. Whether an employee is a manager or supervisor depends on the employee’s actual duties and responsibilities, not the employee’s title. The DOL looks to whether management is the employee’s primary duty, whether the employee regularly directs at least two full-time employees (or equivalent), and whether they have real hiring/firing authority.

No exception for managers performing tipped work on a shift. A manager or supervisor cannot receive pooled tips simply because they spend part of a shift bartending, serving, or performing other tipped work.

Managers and supervisors may retain personal tips. A manager or supervisor can keep a tip a customer directly gives them for service they personally and solely provided (because those tips are separate from the tip pool).

Supervisors may contribute tips to a pool. The FLSA prohibits managers and supervisors from receiving other employees’ tips, not necessarily from giving their own tips into a mandatory pool that benefits eligible employees if they want to do so.

Exempt status is not determinative. An employee does not need to be exempt to be considered a manager or supervisor under the FLSA’s tip rules. As noted above, the duties are what matters.

Action Items

Employers with tipped employees should:

• Review current tip pools and tip-out practices.
• Identify employees who might be considered managers or supervisors, ensure that any who qualify as such do not receive pooled tips.
• Confirm that any tips retained by a manager or supervisor are directly and solely attributable to the manager’s or supervisor’s own service.

This alert is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Employers should consult their employment law counsel with any questions regarding their tip-pooling practices or policies.

Written by Shelby Taylor and Samantha Shaps from Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal L.L.P. in Dallas, Texas.