A restaurant server looks after a section of tables from greeting to payment. They explain the menu, enter orders, flag allergies and pace each course with the kitchen. In a full-service restaurant, servers also sell and pour wine, check IDs at the table, and end each shift with side work and a checkout.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, full-service restaurants · BLS, May 2025
We're hiring Servers for one of our full-service restaurants. You'll guide guests through the menu and drinks, enter orders accurately, flag allergies to the kitchen, serve alcohol responsibly, and pace your section so tables turn on time. Shifts include side work and a checkout at the end of the night.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Greet each table quickly, explain the menu and specials, and suggest food and drink pairings.
Enter orders in [your POS] with seat numbers, course timing and every modifier.
Ask every table about allergies, ring allergy orders with the house allergy flag, and tell the manager or chef.
Check IDs and follow house rules for alcohol service, including when to slow or stop service and when to get a manager.
Check back after the first bites, pre-bus as you go, and keep drinks filled.
Present checks, take payment, and send any comp or void through a manager.
Finish your checkout before you leave: cash, card tips and any tip-out the house tip policy calls for.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Attend pre-shift for specials, 86'd items, wine features and notable reservations.
Set up your section: polished glassware, silverware, condiments and clean menus.
Work a section of [four to six] tables, timing courses with the kitchen.
Run food and help other servers when your own tables are set.
Do assigned side work: restock the server station, roll silverware, wipe menus.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Check average: [your target].
Guest feedback by server: [your target].
Order entry errors and remakes: [your target].
Wine and dessert sales per guest: [your target].
Checkouts completed without correction: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
Meet [minimum age your state sets for serving alcohol].
Responsible alcohol service training, such as TIPS or your state's required program, before serving alcohol.
Food handler card within [30] days of hire, where your state or county requires one.
[1+] year serving in a full-service restaurant, or completion of our server training.
Can learn the full menu, ingredients and allergens, and keep track of several tables at once.
6. Preferred Experience
Wine knowledge or experience selling wine by the bottle.
Experience with [your POS] or another touchscreen POS.
Experience with coursed dinners or large parties.
7. Physical Requirements
Walk and stand for full shifts, often between tight tables and up and down stairs.
Carry trays of plates and drinks up to [25] pounds.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Evening, weekend and holiday shifts, with some lunch shifts available.
Shifts run [five to eight] hours, with early cuts on slow nights.
Noisy dining room with hot plates and constant trips between kitchen and floor.
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 server 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.
Need help filling this role? HireBus posts the ad, Iris interviews every applicant by phone before you do, and you decide who to hire. Start hiring now
Counter and casual jobs move food fast. A full-service server runs a coursed meal for each table, sells the wine, carries allergy details between the guest and the kitchen, and follows the group's steps of service.
Guests tell the server about allergies
Guests usually mention allergies to the server and no one else. Massachusetts puts that into law. Restaurants there print a notice on every menu telling guests to inform their server of any food allergy, and hang an allergy awareness poster in the staff area. Wherever you are, the server asks, rings the order with the house allergy flag and tells the manager or chef. Source: Massachusetts General Laws, chapter 140, section 6B: Food allergy awareness.
Courses run on the kitchen's clock
A full-service server fires each course when the table is ready, not when the order goes in. Fire the mains too early and plates sit in the window; too late and the table waits. Servers watch each table's pace, talk with the expeditor, and keep the reservation book in mind, since the next party may be booked into that table.
Wine is part of the job
The template tracks wine and dessert sales per guest for a reason: here, the wine list is part of the meal. Servers describe the wine features from pre-shift, suggest a pairing, present and open a bottle at the table, and keep glasses topped up without rushing the table. Servers who can't open a bottle smoothly need practice before their first Friday.
Private rooms run on a set plan
Private rooms and large parties come through the Catering and Events Manager, with set menus and timelines. Servers work from the event order the catering team writes. Event service has its own rhythm: every guest gets the course at the same time, servers clear together, and the host usually settles one bill. A server who has only worked a regular section needs a walkthrough first.
Card tips and the checkout
When the last table pays, the server checks out cash, card tips and any tip-out the house policy sets. Federal rules let a restaurant take the card company's fee out of card tips, but no more than that fee, and the tips must still be paid by the regular payday. If you take a tip credit, you must also explain it to servers before you take it. Put the card fee and tip-out rules in writing too. Source: U.S. Department of Labor: Fact Sheet #15, tipped employees under the FLSA.
How much restaurant servers make
The closest BLS group for restaurant servers is waiters and waitresses. Waiters and waitresses who work for full-service restaurants earned a median of $16.97 an hour ($35,300 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s about the same as the $35,230 median for waiters and waitresses in all industries. About 1,719,730 of the 2,270,910 waiters and waitresses in that survey work for full-service restaurants.
A cash wage plus tips, often with a tip-out to bussers, runners or the bar. The federal tip credit lets tips cover part of the minimum wage. Many states set a higher cash wage, and some allow no tip credit at all, so look up your state on DOL's tipped wage table.
Full-service restaurants
$35,300$35,300 median Middle half $27,380–$47,580 10th–90th $17,880–$66,570
All industries
$35,230$35,230 median Middle half $27,750–$47,110 10th–90th $18,100–$64,720
$10k$20k$30k$40k$50k$60k$70k$80k
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
$17,880
$27,380
$35,300
$47,580
$66,570
All industries
$18,100
$27,750
$35,230
$47,110
$64,720
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Keeps orders, seat numbers and modifiers straight across several tables
Explains dishes and wines in plain words and suggests pairings without pushing
Asks every table about allergies and follows the procedure every time
Reads a table: who wants to talk, who wants quiet, who is short on time
Handles cash and card payments accurately and closes out clean
Teach these on the job
Your menu, ingredients and allergens, dish by dish
Your POS, seat numbering and how to fire courses
Your steps of service and pre-shift routine
The wine list, bottle service and this week's features
Your house alcohol rules and when to get a manager
Servers enter orders in the POS, at a station terminal or on a handheld at the table, and see guest notes from the reservation book (OpenTable, Resy and the like). Tell candidates which POS you use and whether servers carry handhelds; someone who has only used one setup will need a shift or two to adjust.
Restaurant server 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.
Compare servers who work the same sections and shifts. A Friday patio section and a Tuesday lunch section shouldn't share a check average target.
Check average
Net food and drink sales divided by the number of guests each server served, from the POS. Compare servers on the same nights and sections, and watch the trend after menu changes.
Guest feedback by server
Ratings and comments tied to the server's name, from your post-visit survey and review sites. Guests' own words tell you more than a rating does; read the good ones out at pre-shift.
Order entry errors and remakes
Dishes remade because the order was rung wrong or missed a modifier, logged by the expeditor or kitchen on the waste sheet. Count them by server each week.
Wine and dessert sales per guest
Wine and dessert sales divided by guests served, per server, from the POS product mix report. Track bottles and glasses apart.
Checkouts completed without correction
How many of a server's checkouts the manager accepts without fixing cash, card tips or tip-out math. Note what was corrected and coach on repeat mistakes.
Career path
Host or busserLearns the floor, menu basics and the pace of a dinner rush.
ServerRuns a section of tables through full dinners.
Floor managerLeads the dining room on a shift and settles checkouts.
What's the minimum age to be a server where alcohol is served?
Each state sets its own rule. New York's liquor authority lists waiter, waitress and hostess among the jobs no one under 18 may hold at a licensed restaurant. Pennsylvania's liquor board allows 16- and 17-year-old servers to bring food and clear tables, as long as they never serve alcohol. Check your state liquor agency before you hire anyone under 18 for the floor.
How much does a restaurant server make?
Waiters and waitresses who work for full-service restaurants earned a median of $16.97 an hour ($35,300 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $27,380 and $47,580 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and overtime.
Do servers need alcohol training?
In some states, yes. California, for one, counts anyone who checks IDs, takes drink orders, pours or delivers drinks as an alcohol server, so any server who takes a drink order needs the training. New hires there get 60 days to certify. The certificate belongs to the server, not the restaurant, so a hire from another California restaurant may already have one.
What does server side work include?
The jobs that keep the floor ready: restocking the server station, rolling silverware, polishing glasses, wiping menus, and the opening and closing tasks the house assigns. Post the list by shift so the work is split fairly and nobody leaves early on a skipped task. Under DOL's dual jobs rule, side work tied to serving, like setting tables, counts as part of the tipped job. Its 2021 time limits on side work were struck down in 2024. If you pay a tipped cash wage, check your state's rule too.
Is a server the same as a waiter?
Yes. Many restaurants now say server instead of waiter or waitress, and the job is the same. BLS and O*NET still name the occupation waiters and waitresses, which is why the pay figures on this page use that title. Use server in your ad, and add waiter in the text if you want the ad to show up in more searches.
How many tables should a server have?
The template starts at four to six, but the right number depends on the menu and the help. A server running a coursed menu with wine handles fewer tables than one at a simpler concept, and runners and bussers stretch the number. Watch ticket times, check-back timing and guest comments when you change section sizes.
