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re: Do restaurant waiters actually make decent money?
Posted on 7/9/15 at 12:25 pm to LSUfan4444
Posted on 7/9/15 at 12:25 pm to LSUfan4444
Id be more curious about how much money casino dealers make. That's some shite work too but if you get on a high roller table, you could make your month in a couple hours
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Posted on 7/9/15 at 1:17 pm to texag7
When I waited tables out West, I was making a solid $700-900 a week. Moving up to an actual bar (not a bartender at a restaurant), I would make that just on Friday and Saturday. The hours blow, people are assholes, but it's damn good money (for a while) if you can deal with it. I definitely recommend it for any young person with good social skills and competent multi-tasking abilities who does not get money from elsewhere.
Posted on 7/9/15 at 1:20 pm to HempHead
Depends where you work. Are you serving two hundred dollar bottles of wine or two dollar sodas?
Posted on 7/9/15 at 1:24 pm to FakeName
Taking home about 10% of sales is generally a pretty good rule of thumb. That means $200 from $2,000 in sales...which can be done fairly easily in either a high-volume, quick-paced restaurant (that stays busy), or from just a few tables in which entrees are $50+ and typically the customers will order many rounds of alcohol. If the latter kind of place stays busy, and the server has a large enough section, $500 is not unreasonable.
Posted on 7/9/15 at 1:33 pm to texag7
A lot of times, waiters get no paycheck at all. They make $2.13/hr (or at least they did when I worked in the restaurant business), but have to claim a certain amount of tips to move them up to minimum wage. Once they're taxed on those tips, it adds up to more than their check.
I had a great 7 or 8 years in the business and will encourage my kids to work in a decent restaurant when they go to college. I met and worked with some great people and most of my closest friends were met there.
I had a great 7 or 8 years in the business and will encourage my kids to work in a decent restaurant when they go to college. I met and worked with some great people and most of my closest friends were met there.
Posted on 7/9/15 at 1:35 pm to REB BEER
A waiter at any Downtown Disny resturant has to make decent money. Every night is a saturday night there. Packed tables with money to spend.
Posted on 7/9/15 at 1:47 pm to HempHead
quote:
Taking home about 10% of sales is generally a pretty good rule of thumb.
Wait what?
Our computer calculated our tip % every night, and I never had a single shift where I made less than 18%-23% of my sales.
You pretty much average 20% every night. The only way you'd make 10% of your sales is if a lot of people stiffed you and shorted you. Generally, you get some shitty tips throughout the night.. but you also get some way beyond 20%, so it evens out.
This post was edited on 7/9/15 at 1:49 pm
Posted on 7/9/15 at 1:49 pm to texag7
I had a conversation with a guy who worked at a nice Italian restaurant in Rosemary Beach.
He said he had a nice little house on the beach about twenty miles away and he flew airplanes for fun during the day. Worked the restaurant at night.
He said he did VERY well waiting tables. Of course, my wife and I dropped over $100 on the meal and wine, but if he got $20 from us in an hour and he had six-seven tables a night, he was doing really well.
He said he had a nice little house on the beach about twenty miles away and he flew airplanes for fun during the day. Worked the restaurant at night.
He said he did VERY well waiting tables. Of course, my wife and I dropped over $100 on the meal and wine, but if he got $20 from us in an hour and he had six-seven tables a night, he was doing really well.
Posted on 7/9/15 at 1:49 pm to LouisianaLady
1. Females get better tips
2. Some of us were shitty servers
3. I always tried to lower my expectations so that a 20%+ night would make me giddy instead of content
2. Some of us were shitty servers
3. I always tried to lower my expectations so that a 20%+ night would make me giddy instead of content
Posted on 7/9/15 at 2:00 pm to HempHead
Fair enough
To answer the question .. I did okay at Dempseys. Very low tickets combined with the type of people that love that type of food (elderly people, mostly).. combined with no full bar..
Wasn't horrible, but wasn't great either.
Did AMAZING at the casino as a cocktail waitress, but the hours were ungodly. Sure, you go home with a lot, but your shift is also 8.5 hours in heels, which is a long shift for service industry.
Did decent at the bar I worked at. The bartenders make bank, but I was a cocktail waitress and there wasn't a good system in place for me to get tips.
To answer the question .. I did okay at Dempseys. Very low tickets combined with the type of people that love that type of food (elderly people, mostly).. combined with no full bar..
Wasn't horrible, but wasn't great either.
Did AMAZING at the casino as a cocktail waitress, but the hours were ungodly. Sure, you go home with a lot, but your shift is also 8.5 hours in heels, which is a long shift for service industry.
Did decent at the bar I worked at. The bartenders make bank, but I was a cocktail waitress and there wasn't a good system in place for me to get tips.
Posted on 7/9/15 at 2:01 pm to LouisianaLady
quote:
The bartenders make bank, but I was a cocktail waitress and there wasn't a good system in place for me to get tips.
Yeah, that always seemed like a shite job to me. Without tipshare from bartenders I feel like you'd barely make minimum wage.
Posted on 7/9/15 at 2:03 pm to texag7
I made a grand a week waiting tables for 5 years at Macaroni Grill when it first opened in our city while I was getting my degrees.
This post was edited on 7/9/15 at 2:04 pm
Posted on 7/9/15 at 2:03 pm to Boudreaux35
quote:
Who the frick tips $3 unless its a round of a few beers?
I low balled it just to support my point. I know the average is higher
Posted on 7/9/15 at 2:08 pm to texag7
I'm at my first "real job" after graduation and my roommate who waits tables makes more than me. He works at a pretty nice restaurant and it's always slammed, and he'll walk out with $400 some nights.
Posted on 7/9/15 at 2:09 pm to IdahoTiger
quote:
I'm at my first "real job" after graduation and my roommate who waits tables makes more than me. He works at a pretty nice restaurant and it's always slammed, and he'll walk out with $400 some nights.
Don't worry, as long as you keep at it in whatever you're doing, you'll surpass that eventually. Waiters have a high floor but a low ceiling.
Posted on 7/9/15 at 2:15 pm to Codythetiger
(no message)
This post was edited on 11/7/22 at 5:15 am
Posted on 7/9/15 at 2:24 pm to HempHead
I am friend with a few former Fred's bartenders, and the main bar guys would usually come home with >$300 on a normal Friday night. On a packed night or after games, they'd hit $1k sometimes, but they each busted their asses big time
Posted on 7/9/15 at 2:29 pm to IdahoTiger
quote:
I'm at my first "real job" after graduation and my roommate who waits tables makes more than me.
I don't know anyone who quit bartending to get a "real job," who didn't take a huge initial pay cut. A few of them still hang onto a shift or so a week years later. But they also have less of a tendency to walk out with $300+ and wake up the next day with nothing.
Posted on 7/9/15 at 2:31 pm to DrinkDrankDrunk
quote:
But they also have less of a tendency to walk out with $300+ and wake up the next day with nothing.
Cocaine is a hell of a drug.
Posted on 7/9/15 at 2:33 pm to texag7
I know a Russian girl who's here for the summer, works for the same company as I do on the weekdays, works at a downtown restaurant that serves king crab on weekends. She works two 6 hour shifts on the weekend and makes $500 including wages and tips.
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