Salaries / Waiter / Server
Food Service · SOC 35-3031
Waiter / Server salary
Waiters and waitresses take orders and serve food and drinks to guests in restaurants and other dining settings.
Median annual
$32,000
Median hourly
$15.40
Typical range
$22,000 to $54,000
Much of a server's income is tips, so reported wages understate real take-home in many places.
Source: National estimate (to be replaced by live BLS data). Figures are gross pay and vary by location, employer, and experience.
The pay range, visually.
Low end (about the 10th percentile), median, and high end (about the 90th percentile).
By state
State figures are estimates derived from the national median and a state wage index, shown to give a rough sense of local differences.
Your skills are a business
Ideas we have for people in food service.
The same experience that earns a paycheck as a waiter / server can start a business. Here are real ideas from our marketplace that fit this field.
Start a Catering Business
Cook for weddings, corporate events, and parties, where one booked event can be worth more than a week of restaurant covers.
Start a Microgreens Farm
Grow microgreens on racks in a spare room or garage and sell weekly to restaurants, farmers markets, and subscription customers.
Start a Gourmet Mushroom Farm
Grow oyster and lion's mane mushrooms in a small climate-controlled space and sell to restaurants, farmers markets, and groceries.
Start and Host a Recurring Comedy Showcase Night
Run a monthly or weekly comedy night at a bar or restaurant: you book the comics, sell the tickets, and keep the door while the venue keeps the bar, and the show becomes a local institution with your name on it.
You could hire waiter / servers, not just be one.
We have a staffing calculator to price the work and a full course on how to start a staffing agency, so you can turn a field you already know into a business that puts other people to work.