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Wednesday, April 8, 2026

A Beginner's Guide to Running Restaurant Payroll - The Motley Fool

Need to setup payroll software for your restaurant, but not sure where to start? Here are the best payroll software options for restaurants for you to consider.

Running payroll for the first time is always challenging, but running restaurant payroll can be particularly challenging. In fact, even experienced restaurant owners often struggle with restaurant payroll management.

We’ll break down some of the challenges that restaurant owners face, along with ways to make processing payroll for restaurant employees just a little bit easier.

What to consider when setting up and running payroll for a restaurant

Before you get started with payroll for your restaurant, you’ll want to have these four things in place:

  1. Your EIN (Employee Identification Number) and state tax I.D. numbers
  2. A separate bank account to pay employees and taxes
  3. Completed employment forms, such as I-9 and W-4
  4. A payroll schedule

Once these items are complete, you can move on to setting up your payroll system.

The first thing that is different about restaurant payroll is the minimum wage requirement. Unlike standard employees, restaurant employees who receive tips as part of their income can also earn a minimum wage that is different than other employees, depending on the state your business is in.

For instance, even though the federal minimum wage is currently $7.25, states like Texas and New Mexico can pay tipped workers $2.13 minimum wage, while other states like Illinois and Florida have a higher tipped...



Read Full Story: https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/small-business/payroll/articles/restaurant-pa...