How a server shift is spent| Task | Share of the shift | What it needs |
|---|
| Table service | About half | Memory and good manner |
| Side station or bar | About a quarter | Speed and accuracy |
| Section setup and reset | About a quarter | Early starts and late finishes |
How much can a server earn?
Twenty-five hours a week at $16.94 an hour produces about $423 gross, before tips.
The tips are the second number, and they vary more than the wage. A Friday and Saturday service in a full dining room produces a very different tip total from a Tuesday lunch shift.
Over a year, 25 hours a week at the median wage produces about $22,022 before tax.
The published openings figure is the reason the work is easy to find: there are about 423,100 server openings a year through 2035, which is 18.5 percent of the 2,284,400 jobs in the occupation.
Gross earnings for a part-time server| Hours a week | At $11.43 an hour | At $16.94 an hour | At $24.51 an hour |
|---|
| 15 hours | $171 | $254 | $368 |
| 25 hours | $286 | $423 | $613 |
| 40 hours | $457 | $678 | $980 |
| 25 hours a week over 52 weeks | $14,859 | $22,022 | $31,867 |
How do you get the good shifts?
Availability is the lever, and the weekend services are where the money is.
Three things decide which shifts a server is given. Reliability, because a no-show at dinner service costs the whole section a cover. Knowledge of the menu, because the answer at the table is what the manager is watching.
The third is the station, because a server on the bar or the server station runs a higher ticket. A colleague who asks for the side station and learns it gets it, and it is worth more per table than the floor.
Two details are worth checking in the first week. How the tips are shared when a table is split between two servers, and whether there is a service charge on large tables.
Our guide to part time restaurant busser food runner covers the route into the role.
How do you find server work?
Restaurants hire servers constantly, because the turnover in the role is the highest in the building.
Three routes work. The walk-in, which is still the standard for independent restaurants and usually means a conversation with a manager rather than an application form. Chain career sites, which post the role with the wage band and the tips policy.
And a referral, which is worth the most in this role because a good server leaves a manager with a problem to solve.
Two questions to ask in the interview. What is the tip policy, including whether a service charge is used. And what are the expected closing and section setup hours, because those are the unpaid ones.
Our guide to part time retail jobs hiring near you covers the comparable entry-level route outside a restaurant.
What changes about server work next?
Expect the section to get smaller and the job to include more of the work that a screen cannot do.
Three forces shape the next two years. Ordering by phone and on apps has moved a large slice of the ticket to the kitchen, which removes the front of house order but adds a delivery driver on the roof.
Waiter and waitress employment grows 2 percent to 2035, which is slower than the sector as a whole, so the growth is in counter service.
The third is the tip credit. The federal tip rules have been tightening, and the direction is towards employers making up the difference faster, which is why the base wage at better restaurants keeps moving.
For a candidate the conclusion is that the work is plentiful and the money is in the tips, and that the restaurants paying a real wage plus tips are the ones to work for.
Next steps
Ask for the tip policy and the side station, because those two decide the money.
- Compare the rate with the $16.94 median and the $24.51 top of the range
- Ask how tips are shared and whether a service charge applies
- Ask for the side station, because the ticket value is higher there
- Confirm the closing and setup hours, because they are often unpaid
- Ask which nights and services are busiest, and take those
- Check the state minimum wage, because the tip credit follows it
One final thought. The pay figures here are occupation medians and published employer rates, which is the best guide available before an interview.
htm">Bureau of Labor Statistics occupation profile gives the entry requirements and the training picture for serving work, which is the quickest way to confirm that no experience is needed before you apply.
Photo: neshom, Pixabay Content License, via Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/photos/restaurant-table-setting-table-449952/)
Fazlur Rahman
