OverviewSalaryAboutEducationWhere are the jobsEmploymentGenderRace/Origin
Overview
Take orders and serve food and beverages to patrons at tables in dining establishment.
Titles for this career often contain these words
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Responsibilities and activities
Waiters and waitresses typically do the following:
- Greet customers, present menus, and explain daily specials to customers
- Answer questions related to the menu and offer item suggestions
- Take food and beverage orders from customers
- Relay food and beverage orders to the kitchen staff
- Prepare drinks and food garnishes
- Carry trays of food or drinks from the kitchen to the dining tables
- Remove dirty dishes and glasses, and clean tables after customers finish meals
- Prepare itemized checks and take payments from customers
- Set up dining areas, refill condiments, and stock service areas
Waiters and waitresses, also called servers, are responsible for ensuring that customers have a satisfying dining experience. The specific duties of servers vary with the establishment in which they work.
In casual-dining restaurants that offer simple menu items, such as salads, soups, and sandwiches, servers provide fast, efficient, and courteous service. In fine-dining restaurants, where more complicated meals are typically prepared and served over several courses, waiters and waitresses emphasize personal, attentive treatment at a more leisurely pace. For example, they may offer a wine recommendation with certain foods.
Servers may meet with managers and chefs before each shift to discuss the menu or specials, review ingredients for potential food allergies, or talk about any food safety concerns. They also discuss coordination between the kitchen and the dining room and review any customer service issues from the previous day or shift.
In establishments where alcohol is served, waiters and waitresses verify the age of customers and ensure that they meet legal requirements for the purchase of alcohol.
Salary
Median salary: $23,740 annually
Half of those employed in this career earn between $19,290 and $30,650.
Context: Median Salary
How do salaries for this career compare to other jobs' salaries?
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Salary growth for waiters and waitresses
Is this job likely to reward you for sticking with it through pay raises and promotions? The higher a job’s “experience quotient,” the more you are likely to get as you stay there.
Experience quotient percentile
Take a minute to look at how much you might expect your salary to increase with each five years' experience, as well as how the numbers working at each age change. Does this seem to be a job for the young or the old, or could it be a career offering steady salary growth for many years?
Salary distribution
Number employed
About Waiters and Waitresses
How do benefits for this career compare to other jobs? The availability of health care, especially employer provided health care, and pension plans can add significantly to the value of compensation you receive in a career. These charts compare how this career compares to other careers with regard to health care and pension plans.
Employee has health insurance
Employer is providing health insurance
Employer-provided pension plan is available
Worker concerns
Some jobs are more stressful than others, and some are just plain dangerous. The following list gives the percentages of waiters and waitresses who report hazardous or difficult situations typically occurring at least once a week.
- Unpleasant or Angry People (65%)
- Responsible for Others' Health (38%)
- Time Pressure (35%)
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Personality and skills
Can you see yourself in the ranks of Waiters and Waitresses? Here are the skills and traits that could lead to success.
Communication skills
Waiters and waitresses must listen carefully to customers’ specific requests, ask questions, and relay the information to the kitchen staff, so that orders are prepared to the customers’ satisfaction.
Customer-service skills
Waiters and waitresses spend most of their work time serving customers. They should be friendly and polite and be able to develop a rapport with customers.
Detail oriented
Waiters and waitresses must record customers’ orders accurately. They need to be able to recall the details of each order and match the food or drink orders to the correct customers.
Physical stamina
Waiters and waitresses spend hours on their feet carrying trays, dishes, and drinks.
Physical strength
Waiters and waitresses need to be able to lift and carry trays or materials that can weigh up to 50 pounds.
Injury and Illness
About 52 waiters and waitresses become injured or ill for every 10,000 workers, making this job more dangerous than 69% of other careers. The most common specific illnesses or injuries are detailed following.
Heat (thermal) burns
Chemical burns and corrosions
All multiple traumatic injuries
Education pathways to this career
Education attained by waiters and waitresses
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), waiters and waitresses typically hold no formal educational credential.
Sometimes the typical education identified by the BLS differs a bit from the reality of the how much education current workers actually have. The donut shows the education level held by people currently working as waiters and waitresses as reported in responses to the American Community Survey.
Details: Education and training recommended for waiters and waitresses
No formal education is required to become a waiter or waitress.
Education level of Waiters and Waitresses
Only 13% of waiters and waitresses have a bachelor's degree or higher.
Education attained by waiters and waitresses
None
High School
Some College
Associate's Degree
Bachelor's Degree
Master's Degree
Professional Degree
Doctorate
Where are the jobs
State-by-state employment numbers
Some careers tend to be centered in specific parts of the country. For example, most jobs in fashion are in New York or California. Let's see if your dream job is easy to find in your dream location! We have a few choices for viewing the data that can help you get a full employment picture.
Select a state to see local area details
Number of Waiters and Waitresses per 1,000 workers (ACS)
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Job density versus job count
Which states hire the most waiters and waitresses? We wonder if that's a fair question since states come in all sizes, so instead let's start with the question of which states have the highest density of people working as waiters and waitresses. You can choose to view the number of jobs per state if you prefer.
Salaries by state
Let's get a feel for where waiters and waitresses earn the highest salaries. There are several choices for which data we consider and how we view that data, and each can lead to different conclusions, so please read on...
Median salary versus state ratio
We use two methods to compare salaries across states:
- In-state comparisons: the ratio of median (middle) salaries for waiters and waitresses compared to the median salary for all people working in each state, or
- Median salary: the unaltered median salaries for waiters and waitresses.
The darkest shading corresponds to states in which waiters and waitresses earn the highest salary when compared to other jobs in the state. We think this figure might be a better indicator than the actual salary for your buying power as a state resident.
Select a state to see local area details
Location-adjusted median salary for Waiters and Waitresses (ACS)
Employment
60% of Waiters and waitresses are working part time.
We’ve found that some jobs have a huge number of part-time workers, and typically that is because they are unable to find full-time work or the job itself can’t provide full-time hours. With 60% part-time workers, this occupation has a higher percentage of part-time workers than 97% of careers.
Employer types
This donut shares the break-down of workers by employer type, giving us a picture of what employers most typically hire for this career.
Employers of undefined (ACS)
Private for-profit
Private not-for-profit
Local government
State government
Federal government
Self-employed incorporated
Self-employed not incorporated
Working without pay
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Distribution: Salaries of waiters and waitresses by type of employer
Here are the salary distributions based on employer type.
Gender
Waiters and waitresses and gender
With 65% women, this occupation has a higher percentage of women than 78% of careers.
Gender of Waiters and waitresses
Men (35%)
Women (65%)
Distribution: salaries by gender
Does gender greatly influence your salary in this career? The closer the bars are, the less discrepancy there is.
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
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Context: Women in the workforce
How does this career compare to other careers with regard to the percentage of women in the career.
Context: Salary inequity
The median (middle) salary for all full-time male workers
in the US exceeds the full-time median salary for women
by 19%, and the difference
for waiters and waitresses tops that, with the median salary for
men 23% higher than the median
salary for women.
Race/Origin
Race and origin of Waiters and waitresses
This donut shows the distribution of race and origin among those employed as Waiters and waitresses.
Race/origin of waiters and waitresses
White (70% )
Black (9% )
Other (8% )
Asian (7% )
Multiracial (3% )
Hispanic (1% )
American Indian (1% )
Pacific Islander (0% )
Distribution: salaries by race/origin
Some careers might have a pay disparity based on race or origin, the closer the below bars are the less of a discrepancy is present.
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
