re: Do restaurant waiters actually make decent money?

Captain Waiters at a nice restaurant in New Orleans can make over $50k a year easily. The one I worked at even had health benefits, 401k, paid vacation, etc.

It is a lifestyle though. To make that kind of money, you have to work the money shifts (Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday brunch) almost every week. You have to be working every holiday. You have to working every Saints game, Sugar Bowl, major event in town. And you better save some money or take a second job come summer time because it is slow.

quote:

---

Depends on the restaurant. I don't think a waiter a Chili's does very well. After all of the drugs they are usually in debt.

---

If you're basing this off of the Chili's in New Iberia, you're doing it wrong. The filthiest Chili's in America.

quote:

---

Yeah ~30 bucks an hour to tend bar is pretty cool while college kids are in town). But a few years of real work and 60 bucks an hour with benefits and security is a whole lot better.

---

Very true


I took a severe pay cut to get my first internship and I gave up restaurants. you can't put a price on being off every night and every weekend.

One nice thing about that job though, was that every day was a fresh start. You never took home any work, or any stress. You just went to work the next day and everything was reset.

I guess no, in our professional careers, they pay us for that stress

In many restaurants there are a few servers who make more than management. Not owners or GMs, but if you're good you can work less hours than management and make as much or more money with more flexibility. When it comes to dollars per hour, it's by even a question that in most places the top say 5%-10% servers make more per hour than management.

Thirty years ago I averaged $100 a night bussing tables at a nice restaurant (Jubans). The waiters paid us out of their tips and we got minimum wage. I made $600 a week and I was in HS. So I would assume a professional waiter would do very well if he cultivated repeat clientele at a nice restaurant. I know when I go to Flemings or somewhere I tip 25% if the service is the tits. That adds up.

Let me lowball some numbers. Eight tables a night, $180 dollar bill average, $1440 total, 20% tip, $288. $1440 a week x50 weeks a year is 72k and a reasonable living.

my boy once got a $500 tip from sevendust at joe's crab shack

You can make very good money, even at a shitty chain place like Outback. Wouldn't want to make a career out of it but people that bitch about being a server usually don't know what it's like to work a regular shitty job that pays hourly so you never get the benefit of tips. Those are the real shitty jobs



I know one girl that is a frickin 10 looks wise (and about a 3 personality wise, total SJW). Anyways this girl is super frickin fine and could pretty much make hand over fist at any place she works because of the way she looks. She works at one of the bigger bars in BR right now so there's no way she can sit there with a straight face and tell me she's not killing it money wise


And depite allllll that. This girl is still petty enough to go on a mile long Facebook rant EVERYTIME she gets stiffed. And just calls out about how shitty everyone is for not tipping. She probably brought home 200 bucks that night atleast in a couple hours but that one frickin person didn't tip so she's pissed at the world


She is the Brain vs penis girl from Seinfeld

i have a friend that makes 75k waiting at a bfast place. I was blown away when she said how much she made.

20 years ago, it was fairly easy for someone with no experience to get a job waiting tables and average EASILY over $10/hour.

You frequently had shitty hours (if you wanted the most money) and you had to put up with peoples bullshite (customers and coworkers), but all in all it was a wonderful experience but when it was bad, it was bad.