Tips and tip pooling in BC and Ontario

If you work in a restaurant, café, or bar, tips can be a big part of what you take home. Both BC and Ontario have laws that protect your tips. This guide explains who keeps them, how tip pools work, and what to do if your tips go missing.

We checked these facts on October 12, 2026. Follow the links for the latest details.

What counts as a tip

In both provinces, a tip (the law calls it a "gratuity") includes:

Money a customer leaves for you, in cash or added to a card payment
Money a customer gives the employer for the staff
A service charge the employer adds to the bill, such as a set charge for large groups, when a reasonable customer would expect it to go to the staff

See the BC Employment Standards Act (section 1) and Ontario's tips guide.

Tips are extra, on top of your wage

Your employer must pay you at least minimum wage. Tips can't be used to make up that wage.

BC: Tips are not wages under the law. Since June 1, 2021, liquor servers must get the regular minimum wage, in addition to their tips. The general minimum wage is $18.25 an hour since June 1, 2026 (BC minimum wage).
Ontario: Tips are not counted when your minimum wage is worked out. The general minimum wage is $17.95 an hour since October 1, 2026, and there is no separate rate for servers (Ontario minimum wage).

Tips are also left out of vacation pay. In Ontario, they are left out of public holiday pay and overtime too (BC section 30.3 guidelines, Ontario tips guide).

What your employer can't do

In BC, your employer can't keep your tips, take deductions from them, or make you hand them over. The only exceptions are a tip pool, or when a law or court order requires it, such as a garnishment (BC tips and gratuities). The BC guidelines also say:

Your employer can't make deductions from a tip pool, or from tips it handles, such as tips paid by debit or credit card.
Your employer can't charge you for customers who leave without paying, for example through a "dine-and-dash fund."
Taking walkouts, spills, or breakage out of a tip pool breaks the law (section 30.4 guidelines).

In Ontario, your employer can't keep your tips, take deductions from them, or make you give them back. Only three kinds of deductions are allowed: taxes and other deductions required by law, court orders, and a tip pool (Ontario tips guide). Your employer can't:

Take money from tips for spills, breakage, losses, or damage
Ask you to give up all your tips in exchange for a higher hourly wage
Ask you to accept less than minimum wage so you can keep more tips
Make you "tip out to the house" outside a tip pool

There is one allowed charge in Ontario. For a tip paid by credit card, your employer may keep part of the tip to cover the card company's processing fee. The amount is the larger of the tip times the card company's percentage, or the tip times 1.5%. Your employer can't take debit card fees or any other processing fees from your tips.

In Ontario, you can't give up these rights, even in writing.

How tip pools work

A tip pool is when your employer collects tips and shares them among some or all of the staff. Both provinces allow tip pools.

Your employer sets the rules. They decide who shares and how big each share is. In Ontario, the rules can be written or spoken, and joining the pool can be a condition of your job.
Kitchen staff can share. In BC, the guidelines give cooks, dishwashers, and other staff who don't get tips as examples of people who can share. Managers can share if the employer's policy allows it, in both provinces.
Owners usually can't share. An employer, or a director or shareholder of the company, can't take a share unless they regularly do substantially the same work as the staff in the pool (BC Employment Standards Act, section 30.4; Ontario tips guide).
In Ontario, you only pay in from your tips. Some pools ask servers to pay in a percentage of their sales. Ontario says the money must come from tips only. A server who got no tips pays nothing into the pool, even after a busy shift.

Neither law sets a "fair" percentage for each job. In Ontario, the ESA can't enforce the pool's terms; it only protects tips that were wrongly kept or deducted.

What changed recently

2019, BC: BC changed its Employment Standards Act to protect tips. Employers were barred from keeping workers' tips, and limits were set on employers sharing in tip pools (BC news release).
June 1, 2021, BC: The lower minimum wage for liquor servers ended (BC minimum wage).
June 21, 2024, Ontario: Two new rules took effect (recent changes):
- Tips must be paid by cash, cheque, or direct deposit, which includes Interac e-Transfer. For direct deposit, you choose the account, and it must be in your name.
- If the employer, or a director or shareholder, shares in the tip pool, the employer must post its tip-sharing policy where staff can see it. It must keep each posted policy for 3 years after it stops being used.

Ontario doesn't set a schedule for paying out tips. But a long, unreasonable delay may count as keeping your tips.

If your tips are missing

Keep your own records. Write down your shifts, your tips, and any tip-outs. Take a photo of any posted tip policy.
Ask questions. Ask your manager, in writing if you can, how the tip pool works.
Get help from your province. Tips that were wrongly kept are a debt your employer owes you. The province can collect them like unpaid wages.

BC: Call Employment Standards at 1-833-236-3700, Monday to Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific time. You can get help in the language of your choice (contact). A complaint is free. If you have left the job, you must file within 6 months of your last day. Your employer can't punish you for complaining (complaint process). In a union job, tip problems go through the grievance process instead.

Ontario: Call the Employment Standards Information Centre at 1-800-531-5551 (toll-free) or 416-326-7160. Generally, you must file a claim within two years (filing a claim). Your employer can't punish you for asking about your rights or filing a claim (reprisals).

Next steps

Food service jobs in Metro Vancouver and the GTA
Read Food service and barista jobs
Get certified: FOODSAFE and Serving It Right in BC or Smart Serve and food handler certification in Ontario
Check your pay: How to read your pay stub
Your other rights: BC and Ontario