A restaurant bartender makes drinks for guests at the bar and for servers' tables through the service bar. Many bar guests eat a full meal, so the bartender also takes food orders. They pour to the house specs, check IDs, cut off guests who have had enough, and ring every drink before it leaves.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, full-service restaurants · BLS, May 2025
We're hiring Bartenders for one of our full-service restaurants. You'll make drinks for bar guests and the service bar, follow our recipes and pour specs, serve food at the bar, check IDs, and refuse service when the law or our policy says to. You'll also set up, stock and close the bar.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Make cocktails and pour wine and draft beer to recipe and pour spec, using jiggers or the house pour system.
Fill service-bar tickets for servers in the order they come in.
Check ID for every guest who looks under [the age set by your ID policy], and refuse service to minors and visibly intoxicated guests.
Take food orders at the bar and follow the same allergy procedure as servers.
Ring every drink in [your POS] before it's served, comps included, so nothing leaves the bar unrung.
Log comped drinks, spills and breakage on the waste sheet.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Set up the well: cut fruit, batch syrups and juices, stock ice, glassware and beer.
Check the bar par sheet and request restocks from the liquor room.
Keep the bar top clean and every open tab accurate.
Track how much each guest has had and tell the manager when you cut someone off.
Close: clean and sanitize the bar, run your checkout and finish the closing checklist.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Bar sales per shift: [your target].
Service-bar ticket time: [your target].
Pour accuracy on spot checks: [your target].
Unrung or comped drinks: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
Meet [minimum age your state sets for serving alcohol]; some states set a separate age for tending bar.
Current responsible alcohol service certification (TIPS, ServSafe Alcohol, or your state's program) where your state requires it.
Food handler card where your state or county requires one for bar staff.
[1+] year behind the bar in a restaurant or busy bar.
Knows classic cocktails and can learn the house recipes quickly.
6. Preferred Experience
Barback or server experience in a full-service restaurant.
Wine and craft beer knowledge.
Experience running tabs and pre-authorizations in [your POS].
7. Physical Requirements
Stand and move behind the bar for an entire shift.
Lift cases of beer and buckets of ice up to [50] pounds.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Evening, weekend and holiday shifts, including late closes.
Loud bar, wet floors, and a tight workspace shared with other bartenders.
Shifts start with setup [time] before the bar opens.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Pay: [range and hourly or salary basis].
Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when they start].
10. Company Culture and Overview
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, the area you serve, and the support a new bartender gets in the first 90 days.]
11. How to Apply
[Apply link or email]. Our process: [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
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A nightclub bartender mostly serves the crowd at the bar. At a full-service restaurant, the bartender also makes every drink the dining room orders, serves dinner at the bar, and pours to written specs set by the group.
Tickets from the floor never stop
Every table's drink order prints at the service bar. Those guests are waiting on a server, who is waiting on you. Good restaurant bartenders fill service-bar tickets in the order they arrive, even with a full bar top. A late cocktail holds up the appetizer and throws off the table's whole meal, which is why ticket time is one of the bartender's numbers.
Bar seats are dinner tables
Plenty of guests eat a full meal at the bar. The bartender takes the food order, keeps the courses in step with the kitchen, and handles allergies by the same procedure the servers use. A bartender who can't run a dinner check while making drinks will lose the bar's best regulars.
Every drink has a written spec
Each cocktail on the list has a written spec: the pours, the glass and the garnish. Bartenders measure with jiggers or the house pour system, and the bar manager spot-checks pours. Where two of the group's restaurants share a drink list, a bartender can cover a night at the other bar and make every drink the same way. A guest who orders the same drink twice should get the same drink twice.
Bartending can have its own minimum age
Serving drinks and making them don't always share an age limit. In California, 18- to 20-year-olds may serve alcohol in a restaurant's dining area as an incidental part of their job, but they can't act as bartenders. A strong 19-year-old server there waits until 21 to move behind the bar. Plan promotions around your own state's rule. Source: California ABC: Enforcement FAQs.
Every drink gets rung first
A free round for a regular, or a drink made before it's rung, turns into a hole in the weekly count. The bartender rings every drink, comps included, and logs spills and breakage on the waste sheet. Open tabs and card pre-authorizations need watching too, so a guest who walks out doesn't leave the bar short.
How much restaurant bartenders make
Bartenders who work for full-service restaurants earned a median of $17.07 an hour ($35,500 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s above the $34,340 median for bartenders in all industries. About 310,850 of the 756,390 bartenders in that survey work for full-service restaurants.
Hourly plus tips, often pooled among the bartenders or shared with barbacks through a tip-out. Whether the hourly rate can sit below minimum wage, with tips making up the gap, depends on your state: some allow a tip credit and some don't, and DOL's tipped wage page lists each one.
Full-service restaurants
$35,500$35,500 median Middle half $28,400–$54,540 10th–90th $19,290–$77,210
All industries
$34,340$34,340 median Middle half $27,400–$47,570 10th–90th $20,110–$73,770
$10k$20k$30k$40k$50k$60k$70k$80k$90k
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
Full-service restaurants
$19,290
$28,400
$35,500
$54,540
$77,210
All industries
$20,110
$27,400
$34,340
$47,570
$73,770
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Makes classic cocktails quickly and to spec with a jigger
Keeps service-bar tickets moving while talking with guests at the bar
Checks IDs every time and stops serving a guest politely but firmly
Keeps every tab accurate and closes out to the penny
Takes food orders and handles allergy questions the way a server would
Teach these on the job
Your house recipes, specs and garnishes
Your POS tabs and pre-authorization steps
The wine list, the draft lineup and what pairs with the menu
Your setup, par sheet and closing checklist
Your house alcohol policy and incident log
Restaurant bartenders work the POS for tabs, pre-authorizations and service-bar tickets, plus shakers, jiggers, a draft tower and the house pour system if you have one. Tell candidates your POS and whether your bar measures every pour; someone who has always free poured will need practice with a jigger.
Restaurant bartender interview questions
They have their own page: 6 questions that test this job, what strong and weak answers sound like, and a work exercise to run with your finalists.
Set targets from this bar's own shifts. A Tuesday lunch bar and a Saturday night bar shouldn't share a sales goal, so compare bartenders working similar shifts.
Bar sales per shift
Net sales rung by each bartender per shift, compared with others working the same day and time. Count food sold at the bar too, since many bar guests eat dinner.
Service-bar ticket time
Minutes from when a server's drink ticket prints to when the drinks are up, from POS or bar display time stamps. Look at the busiest hour on its own.
Pour accuracy on spot checks
The bar manager measures a few pours each week against the spec, with a jigger or by weight, and notes how many were on spec. Retrain on the drinks that miss.
Unrung or comped drinks
Comps and voids by bartender from the POS, plus drinks found unrung in spot checks or on camera. Compare them with the waste sheet and the weekly inventory variance.
Career path
BarbackStocks the bar and learns the specs and the pace of service.
BartenderRuns the bar top and the service bar.
Head bartenderRuns the bar team on Fridays and Saturdays and trains new hires.
Bar managerOrders, counts, schedules and owns pour cost.
In many places, yes. BLS says many states and localities require bartenders to complete a responsible-server course, which typically covers alcohol laws, serving responsibly and handling conflict. The template asks for TIPS, ServSafe Alcohol or your state's own program where your state requires one. Ask which course a candidate has taken and when the card runs out.
How much does a restaurant bartender make?
Bartenders who work for full-service restaurants earned a median of $17.07 an hour ($35,500 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $28,400 and $54,540 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and overtime.
Who can share in a bartender tip pool?
Bartenders often share with barbacks, and sometimes with runners who carry drinks. Federal rules set the outer limits. Managers and supervisors can never take part. If you count tips toward the bartenders' minimum wage, you can require a pool only among jobs where workers usually get tips, which leaves out cooks and dishwashers. Write the split down and check it against your state's rules.
Can a bartender drink on shift?
Many restaurants say no, and state law can say no too. Pennsylvania's liquor board lists drinking while tending bar or serving alcohol as an unlawful activity, and its list counts a licensee's employees as the licensee. Put your own rule in the handbook, including whether staff may have a drink after they clock out.
What's the difference between a bartender and a barback?
The bartender takes orders, makes drinks, runs the tab and decides when a guest is done. The barback keeps the bartender stocked with ice, glassware, kegs and product, and cleans as the night goes. Many restaurants train bartenders from their barbacks, so hire barbacks you'd want behind the bar in a year.
How many bartenders does a full-service restaurant need?
Count by shift, not by bar seats. A small bar may need one bartender on weeknights and two on weekends, plus a barback when the service bar gets heavy. Watch service-bar ticket times on your busiest nights. If they keep climbing, add a bartender or a barback before you add seats.
