What is tronc pay?
"Tronc" is an old French word for a collection box. In UK hospitality it means a pooled tips scheme. Card tips, cash tips and service charge go into one pot. One person, the troncmaster, decides how to split it and pays it out through a separate PAYE scheme.
Tronc pay is extra to wages. It can't top up pay to the minimum wage. Tips, service charges and cover charges don't count towards National Minimum Wage pay (HMRC NMW manual).
How to split tips with a points system
Most UK troncs use points × hours. Each role gets points. Each person's share is their points times their hours, divided by everyone's total.
- 1
Add up the pot
Card tips, cash tips you pool, and any service charge, for the period.
- 2
List everyone in the scheme
And the hours they worked while tips were taken.
- 3
Give each role points
For example, server 1.0, chef 0.8, supervisor 1.2.
- 4
Multiply points by hours
For each person, then add them all up.
- 5
Divide the pot by the total
To get the value of one point-hour.
- 6
Pay each person
Their point-hours × that value, by the end of the month after the tips were taken.
Worked example: a £2,400 month. A 50-cover restaurant takes £2,400 in card tips and service charge in a month.
| Name | Role | Hours | Points | Point-hours | Share (points) | Share (hours only) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amy | Server | 120 | 1.0 | 120 | £448.60 | £423.53 |
| Ben | Server | 100 | 1.0 | 100 | £373.83 | £352.94 |
| Cara | Bartender | 80 | 1.0 | 80 | £299.06 | £282.35 |
| Dev | Chef | 150 | 0.8 | 120 | £448.60 | £529.41 |
| Eli | Kitchen porter | 90 | 0.6 | 54 | £201.87 | £317.65 |
| Fay | Supervisor | 140 | 1.2 | 168 | £628.04 | £494.12 |
| Total | 680 | 642 | £2,400.00 | £2,400.00 |
One point-hour is worth £2,400 ÷ 642 = £3.74. Rounding uses the largest-remainder method, so the shares always add up to the pot exactly.
Role pools are another option. Put 70% in a front-of-house pool and 30% in a kitchen pool, then split each pool by hours. Here, that gives Amy £458.18 and Dev £450.00.
There's no single right answer. The law asks for a split that is fair and written down. The method you choose matters less than applying it the same way every time.
Tronc and National Insurance: who decides matters
HMRC's rules turn on who decides the split:
| Who decides how the pot is split | Who runs PAYE | NI due? |
|---|---|---|
| You, the employer (or someone acting for you) | You | Yes: employer and employee Class 1 NI |
| An independent troncmaster | The troncmaster, on a separate tronc PAYE scheme | No NI |
| Someone outside the business, not acting for you | The troncmaster | No NI |
Income tax is due in every case. Tips paid through a tronc go through PAYE.
What the NI saving can look like. On the £2,400 pot above, employer NI at 15% would be £360. Employee NI at 8% would be up to £192 more, for staff earning above the threshold. That's up to £552 a month that goes to staff and the business instead of NI, if the tronc is truly independent (2026–27 rates).
"Independent" must be real. If managers or owners tell the troncmaster how to split the pot, HMRC can treat it as your scheme, and NI becomes due. You must also tell HMRC who the troncmaster is, so it can set up a PAYE scheme for the tronc.
The tips law in 60 seconds
The Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 came into force on 1 October 2024, with a statutory code of practice. It covers England, Scotland and Wales. In short:
- Pass on 100% of qualifying tips, with no deductions except tax.
- Split them fairly. The code lists factors such as role, basic pay, hours, performance, seniority and length of service.
- Pay out by the end of the month after the customer tipped. A tip left on 23 June must reach staff by 31 July.
- Have a written tipping policy that all workers can see.
- Keep records for 3 years. A worker can ask to see them once every 3 months.
- Agency workers count too.
Our UK tipping law guide covers service charge, VAT and disputes in more detail.
Tipping policy checklist
Use this list to write or check your policy. Print this page, or copy the points into your own document:
- Which tips are in scope (card, cash pooled, service charge, app tips)
- Who is in the scheme, and who isn't (and why)
- The split method and the points for each role
- Who the troncmaster is, and how they were chosen
- When payouts happen (for example, with the next payroll after month end)
- How cash tips handed to staff are treated
- How staff can see records and raise a concern
- When you'll review the policy
Tip: your rota already has the hours. Build it in the staff rota maker, then paste the hours here. At cash-up, count tips apart from takings. Our guide to cashing up a till shows how.
More orders, more covers, bigger pots. Take table orders by QR code with 0% commission. Create your free ordering page.