For you / Hotel housekeepers

By NorseHorse. Updated October 16, 2026. General information, not legal or tax advice.

How housekeepers get paid

Most of a housekeeper's pay is the hourly wage. On top of that come the tips guests leave in the room, often in an envelope the hotel provides, and at some hotels tips guests add by card or through the hotel. Some days bring several; some bring none.

Look at the hourly rate on your pay stub. Under federal law, an employer can count tips toward the minimum wage only for a tipped employee, someone who customarily and regularly gets more than $30 a month in tips. For those workers it can pay a cash wage as low as $2.13 an hour and count up to $5.12 an hour of tips toward the $7.25 minimum. That's the tip credit. The hotel has to give you certain information before it takes one, and if your wage plus tips falls short of the minimum in a workweek, it has to make up the difference. Alaska, California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington don't allow a tip credit, so housekeepers there get the full state minimum before tips. Check your state on the tipped minimum wage page.

Housekeeping fees aren't tips

Some hotels add a mandatory housekeeping or service charge to the bill. A compulsory charge for service isn't a tip under federal wage law, and service charges and other mandatory amounts aren't qualified tips for the federal tax deduction, even when the hotel passes some of the money to you. A tip is what the guest chooses to leave.

Who can touch the envelope

• The hotel can't keep any part of your tips, for any purpose.
• Managers and supervisors can't receive tips from a pool. A supervisor can keep only tips a guest gives them directly for service they provided themselves.
• If the hotel requires housekeeping tips to be pooled and takes a tip credit, the pool can include only employees who customarily and regularly receive tips.

2026 taxes on room tips

All tips you receive are subject to federal income tax, even in a month when they come to less than $20. Once you get $20 or more in a month at one job, you also report them to your employer by the 10th of the next month. Reported tips land in box 1 of your W-2 with your wages, and they're generally subject to income tax withholding and Social Security and Medicare tax. If you don't report them, you figure that Social Security and Medicare tax yourself on Form 4137 and may owe a penalty of 50 percent of it. See reporting tips to your employer.

The federal tips deduction (No Tax on Tips) covers housekeepers. It applies only to occupations on the Treasury list of jobs that customarily and regularly received tips on or before December 31, 2024, and "Maids and housekeeping cleaners" are on it as code 304, with hotel maids and housekeeping staff as examples. Other hotel jobs on the list: baggage porters and bellhops (301), concierges (302), and hotel, motel and resort desk clerks (303).

• You can deduct up to $25,000 of qualified tips a year, for 2025 through 2028, with a phase-out once modified adjusted gross income passes $150,000 ($300,000 joint).
• For 2026, tips count only if they're on your W-2 in box 12 code TP (the cash tips you reported to your employer) or on Form 4137. Box 14b carries the occupation code; if it shows only 000, the box 12 amount doesn't qualify.
• It lowers federal income tax only. Social Security and Medicare still apply to your tips.

Because it only reduces income tax, the deduction is worth less if you owe little or no federal income tax to begin with. Run your numbers through the No Tax on Tips calculator or the tip tax calculator. Hotels have until February 1, 2027 to give you your 2026 W-2; check box 12 code TP against your log when it arrives. More in W-2 box 12 code TP.

What to track

• Tips at the end of every shift, including the days with nothing. Zero-tip days are part of your real hourly rate.
• Hours and your hourly wage, so you can check your pay stub.
• Cash tips and any card or app tips the hotel pays you, kept separate.
• What you reported to your employer each month.
• The property, if you work at more than one, and anything worth noting, like a convention week or a heavy checkout day.

The IRS tells tipped employees to keep a daily tip record. If paper is easier, print the tip log template and keep it in your locker.

How Cashout helps

Cashout is free on Android and iPhone, works offline, and doesn't need an account. Everything below works on both unless it says otherwise.

• Shifts. Log hours, hourly rate, Cash Tips and Card Tips, the tips you reported, and a note such as how many rooms you did. Days with no tips are worth logging too. See tip tracking.
• Effective Rate. Wages plus tips divided by hours, so you can see what a shift really paid.
• Insights. Your best days of the week, this month against last, and job comparisons if you work at two hotels. See Insights.
• Tip Reporting. Compares the tips you earned with the tips you reported, by month. On Android it uses the reported tips you enter on each shift; on iPhone it counts your card tips as the reported amount.
• Paycheck Check. Enter a pay stub and Cashout compares it with the shifts you logged; cash tips aren't expected on the check. The current iPhone version tends to flag tipped workers' stubs as a mismatch even when they're right. See Paycheck Check.
• Taxes. Estimates federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare, and state tax on your wages and tips. It doesn't include the No Tax on Tips deduction yet. See tax estimates.
• Export Shifts. CSV or PDF of any date range, plus a year-end tax summary PDF.

What it doesn't do: there's no room count field, so rooms go in the shift's notes and don't show up in charts. Cashout doesn't connect to your hotel's payroll and doesn't report anything to your employer or the IRS.

Common questions

Do I have to report a $5 envelope?

The test is your monthly total from that job, not the single tip. If your tips there come to $20 or more in a month, you report all of them by the 10th of the next month. Under $20, you don't have to report them to the hotel, but they're still income on your tax return.

Is the housekeeping fee on a guest's bill a tip?

No. A charge the guest has to pay isn't a tip under federal wage law, and it isn't a qualified tip for the tax deduction, even if the hotel shares it with staff.

Does No Tax on Tips cover housekeepers?

Yes. Maids and housekeeping cleaners are on the Treasury list as code 304. For 2026 your tips have to be on your W-2 in box 12 code TP or on Form 4137, and the deduction lowers income tax only.

Track it all with Cashout. Shifts, tips, unpaid breaks, taxes, and mileage, logged in seconds. iPhone · Android