A Career as a Bartender: What to Expect from Wages to Advancement Opportunities

Interested in a career, or a part-time endeavor, as a bartender? You should know more than just how to mix drinks. Bartenders can earn wages that surpass what typical jobs pay. A good bartender, with a stockpile of knowledge, could advance in the business beyond just working behind the bar.

Bartenders earn a small hourly wage plus tips. Hourly wages are about half of the standard minimum wage. The lower earnings are made up for by gratuities, tips. It is the bartender's responsibility to report tip earnings and pay taxes on them. Employers will report wage earnings.

Gratuities come from your customers, through your service and performance. A tip usually starts at about 20% of the bill, but can be more or less depending on your service. To give you an idea of the possibilities, modestly, if you serve 20 drinks an hour, and get a buck each drink, then you are pulling in $20 an hour just from your tips. To learn more about customer service and ways to increase your tip earnings, see "Beyond Mixing Drinks-A Guide to Bartending Success".

Opportunities for advancement in the bar business come through experience and performance. Many find they have to work their way up the ranks. Some larger clubs require bartenders to work as a dishwasher, bar back, or waitress before they put you behind the bar. These stepping-stones are your apprenticeship and gear you up for dealing with a high volume output.

Speaking of stepping-stones, larger clubs and high-end restaurant bars will not even look at a bartender for hire unless they have gotten their feet wet in a neighborhood bar. They expect at least 6 months experience there. Working a neighborhood bar makes bartenders humble, is a great learning experience, and helps bartenders develop a following.

Once you become a full-fledged bartender, you should work to gain respect, experience, and prove you are dependable and valuable. With these attributes, you can become a lead, or head, bartender. Leads earn more base pay per hour. They work the best shifts behind the bar, handle scheduling, act as a go between with the other bartenders, and fill in when bartenders call in sick. In a lot of cases, leads pull management duties like application reviews, sitting in on interviews, or hiring and firing. The responsibilities given to the lead bartender are up to the bar manager or owner.

There are two types of bar managers: the standard manager and the working manager. Managers handle the bar for the owner. They open and close the bar, set up the till, keep inventory, order stock, work with distributors, investigate theft, manage employees, and perform accounting duties. Your standard manager just attends to managerial duties. A working manager does it all plus pulls a shift or two behind the bar.

Typically, bar managers earn a salary. Good bar owners will throw in a commission, or bonuses, for top performers that work to make the bar profitable. Depending on the type of bar (a neighborhood bar, sports bar, topless bar, nightclub, or a restaurant bar), a career in bar management can earn you wages starting at $20,000 to $30,000 per year. Hence the reason for working bar managers.

Neighborhood bar managers usually do not earn a salary. The revenue from a neighborhood bar does not allow for top salaries. These managers are paid hourly wages at or above minimum wage. They are usually working bar managers. Do not rule out managing a neighborhood bar, it is a great bridge for advancement to bigger and better things.

A large number of bartenders start this career as a means to earn extra cash. The possibilities are really endless when it comes to income. A little bit of creative saving, learning the ins and outs of the business, and financing could move a bartender along the ranks to the pinnacle: bar owner. In my experience, the best bar owners did time behind the bar. I ran the gamut from bartender to bar manager. Where you take your career as a bartender is up to you.