Tip pooling rules in BC: what restaurant owners can and can't do

Updated October 13, 2026. A summary for planning, not legal, tax or payroll advice. Check the official source before you rely on it.

What counts as a tip

The Act calls tips “gratuities”. Section 1 includes:

Money a customer leaves for an employee, when a reasonable person would see it as meant for the employee to keep or share with other employees.
Money a customer pays to the employer that is meant to go to employees.
A service charge or similar charge the employer adds that is meant to be shared with employees.

The definition also lets the regulation exclude certain payments and certain charges related to how the customer paid. Check the official wording before you take anything off a tip for card processing.

What an employer can’t do

Under section 30.3, an employer must not:

withhold an employee’s tips,
make a deduction from an employee’s tips, or
require an employee to give their tips back to the employer.

The exception is where a law of BC or Canada authorizes or requires it. Tips are also separate from wages: everyone must be paid at least minimum wage ($18.25 an hour since June 1, 2026) before tips. See BC minimum wage and overtime.

Tip pooling: what’s allowed

Section 30.4 lets an employer collect tips and redistribute them among some or all of its employees. In the government’s words, employers can pool tips and share them with all employees who shared in earning them, and the employer decides which employees get a share and how much.

A pool shared among servers, bartenders, bussers, hosts and kitchen staff can be lawful.
Certain employees or classes of employees can be excluded from pools by regulation.
The employer, or a director or shareholder of the employer, can’t take a share, except as the Act allows: the government’s guidance is that employers can only share in a tip pool if they do similar work to the employees who received the tips.

Can the owner or manager share in the pool?

Only when they do similar work to the employees who earned the tips. An owner who works the floor serving tables alongside the servers may be able to share; an owner or manager who runs the office and doesn’t serve guests should not take from the pool. Because the line depends on what someone actually does, write down why each role shares in the pool.

Setting up a fair tip pool in a café or restaurant

Write it down. Who is in the pool, how shares are worked out (by hours, by role points, or both) and how often it’s paid out. Give it to every new hire.
Keep it about the people who earn tips. Front and back of house can both be in; owners only when they do the same work.
Pay out everything collected. Keep a record of tips in and payouts per pay period.
Don’t mix tips with wages. Wages come first, at least minimum wage; tips are on top.
Card tips: before deducting any processing cost, check the Act’s definition and the regulation, or call Employment Standards.
Service charges: if you add an automatic service charge meant for staff, it counts as a gratuity and has to go to employees.

Tips are also taxable income for employees, and how they are reported can depend on whether the employer controls the pool; ask your accountant about the Canada Revenue Agency rules for your setup.

How Tasti Desk helps

Tasti Desk doesn’t manage or split tips, and it doesn’t run payroll. When it reads your Square sales, tips are taken out, so sales, labour % and food cost aren’t inflated by money that belongs to staff. The schedule gives you clean hours per person, which you can use for an hours-based pool, and the export hands those hours to your payroll provider.