What restaurant employees get

Servers and bartenders get the Alice Card, a Visa commercial credit card issued by Celtic Bank and powered by Stripe, with program funds held at Fifth Third Bank, N.A. (Member FDIC). They tap it at the subway turnstile, the commuter rail vending machine, the bus farebox, the parking garage, the parking lot, the parking meter, or the parking app. The IRS 2026 limits are $340 per month for transit and $340 per month for qualified parking under Rev. Proc. 2025-32.

Uber and Lyft are not IRS-eligible for the commuter benefit, with a narrow carve-out for qualifying vanpool arrangements. That carve-out rarely applies to a restaurant server's daily commute, so we coach employees to use Alice for transit passes and parking they would already buy.

How restaurant payroll connections work

Alice connects with 30+ payroll providers, including connections to ADP, UKG, Paylocity, Paycom, Paychex, Toast, and others. For restaurants on Toast Payroll, the deduction posts against the tipped employee's reported wages and not just the cash wage line. That is the key piece for tipped-wage compliance. The deduction will not drop a server below the federal minimum cash wage, because the deduction takes from the larger wage base that includes reported tips.

Setup speed

We will get you onboarded in one call. Most restaurants are launched within a week or two of that call, depending on how fast payroll credentials are shared.

How much restaurant servers actually save

A server who buys a $130 monthly transit pass and parks twice a week near the restaurant saves about 20% on those dollars, actual savings depend on your tax situation. We label that take-home difference as cash back at enrollment to make the value concrete to a tipped employee who reads it on their phone between shifts.

FAQs for restaurants

Will the deduction violate minimum wage rules for tipped employees? No. Alice deducts from the wage base that includes reported tips, not from the cash wage floor alone, so the deduction sits inside the legal envelope.

Do owners and partners qualify? Owners and certain partners are excluded from Section 132(f). W-2 hourly staff is the core eligible group.

What if a server's commute changes? Elections can adjust pay period to pay period within IRS rules, so a schedule change does not lock a server into the wrong election.