If the Duties Say Manager, the DOL Says Hands Off Other Employees’ Tips.

A supervisor can tend bar, cover tables, and help bus dishes. But under a DOL opinion letter, performing tipped work does not necessarily earn that employee a share of other employees’ tips.

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TL;DR: The DOL says an employee whose duties satisfy the FLSA’s definition of a manager or supervisor cannot receive other employees’ tips through a tip pool, even while bartending or helping tipped employees. The employee may keep tips received directly from customers for services the employee directly and solely provides.

📄 Read the DOL opinion letter.

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A bartending shift created the tip-pool question

On bartending shifts, the employee performed the usual bartender duties while continuing to schedule workers, decide when shifts ended, and handle other managerial tasks. The restaurant required servers to tip out a percentage of sales to bartenders, hosts, and bussers. The employee also helped hosts and bussers and received portions of the servers’ tip outs.

In its September 7, 2026 opinion letter, the DOL concluded that a manager or supervisor cannot receive those tips merely because the employee also performs tipped work. But the agency lacked enough information to determine whether this employee qualified as a manager or supervisor. It assumed the employee satisfied the duties test.

The duties decide who is a manager under the tip rules

Job titles do not control. For the FLSA’s tip provisions, an employee is a manager or supervisor when the employee’s primary duty is managing the business or a recognized department, the employee customarily and regularly directs at least two full-time employees or their equivalent, and the employee can hire or fire employees or makes recommendations about employment-status changes that receive particular weight.

Those are duties drawn from the executive exemption, but the salary requirements do not apply to the tip-rule definition. An hourly or otherwise nonexempt employee can therefore qualify as a manager or supervisor for tip purposes and be prohibited from receiving other employees’ tips.

The letter left a question unanswered. It did not address the reverse situation: a bartender or server who performs only occasional managerial shifts or functions.

Direct tips and pooled tips follow different rules

A manager or supervisor may keep a tip received directly from a customer for service that the manager or supervisor directly and solely provided. A manager covering several tables, for example, may keep the tips left by the customers at those tables.

Commingling changes the answer. If a supervisor’s bar tips are consolidated with other bartenders’ tips and divided among the group, the supervisor cannot receive any portion because the money cannot be attributed solely to that supervisor’s service.

The same restriction applies when the supervisor assists servers, hosts, or bussers. Pitching in does not permit the supervisor to take part of the tips customers gave those employees.

Employers should match their tip-distribution practices to employees’ actual duties and keep directly attributable tips separate from pooled money before payroll turns a busy shift into a wage claim.

Three tip-pool checks for employers

1. Actual duties outrank job titles

A supervisor label does not automatically exclude someone from a tip pool, and a bartender label does not automatically permit participation. Compare the employee’s authority and responsibilities against every element of the duties test.

2. Direct tips require clear attribution

Managers and supervisors may retain tips only for service they directly and solely provide. When tips are combined before distribution, the direct-service exception may disappear.

3. An unlawful distribution can affect the tip credit

The consequences may include recovery of the tips improperly kept and, when the employer claims a tip credit, disallowance of that credit for affected tipped employees. Tip-pool eligibility should be resolved before distributions are made.

When an employee’s duties satisfy the FLSA’s tip-rule definition of a manager or supervisor, the tip-pool restriction follows the employee behind the bar.