# Can careerist bartenders pull in six figure incomes? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 12, 2011, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-careerist-bartenders-pull-in-six-figure-incomes/599466 "2011-10-12T22:00:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-careerist-bartenders-pull-in-six-figure-incomes/599466/21 "2011-10-13T20:52:25Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > I’ve often wondered why bartenders don’t learn card tricks, jokes, and funny stories. I’d have a card that I quietly slip a customer that says “Card trick $1; Joke 50c; Story $2”. Don’t want to participate? Just stick to the drinks. Want to be entertained? Pay up. If a bartender left me a card that said something like that, it might well decrease the tip I was planning on leaving them. If I was a bar owner or manager, they would be fired. If you want to make money doing card tricks or telling jokes, do it on your own time. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-careerist-bartenders-pull-in-six-figure-incomes/599466/22 "2011-10-13T21:55:11Z")
> [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](#): > > If a bartender left me a card that said something like that, it might well decrease the tip I was planning on leaving them. If I was a bar owner or manager, they would be fired. If you want to make money doing card tricks or telling jokes, do it on your own time. Actually there are signs similar to that on the wall in some bars. But they’re just a joke. If a bartender did that, the owner wouldn’t mind if he was getting a cut. The main feature bartenders are hired for is to keep the customers in the bar drinking. If card tricks do it, the owner won’t mind. It’s often easier to just hire young women in skimpy outfits though. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2011, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-careerist-bartenders-pull-in-six-figure-incomes/599466/23 "2011-10-14T03:23:23Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I didn’t see that thread, but I have known bartenders back stateside – my old roommate was one – who laughed at the notion of bartender school. Said two weeks as a barback (bartender’s assistant) teaches you everything you need to know. > [@bump](#): > > Maybe at a Chili’s or TGI Fridays, but I’d suspect that being a _real_ bartender would take quite a lot of on the job experience, and even a certain level of creativity. > > I’ll admit that most people don’t order sidecars, or Zombies, but a real bartender ought to be able to do something other than sling beers and make the occasional rum & coke. Well, he did have a recipe book. And he and his cohorts ended up inventing a Pangalactic Gargleblaster, in honor of the drink in _The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy_. It was quite deadly. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2011, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-careerist-bartenders-pull-in-six-figure-incomes/599466/24 "2011-10-14T08:09:12Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > I’ve often wondered why bartenders don’t learn card tricks, jokes, and funny stories. I’d have a card that I quietly slip a customer that says “Card trick $1; Joke 50c; Story $2”. Don’t want to participate? Just stick to the drinks. Want to be entertained? Pay up. Because it’s stupid? ---
**Author:** ![carlb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carlb/32/5930_2.png) [@carlb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlb)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-careerist-bartenders-pull-in-six-figure-incomes/599466/25 "2011-10-15T14:31:01Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > My youngest sister has been tending bar in Fells Point (Baltimore) for over 25 years. She’s had other jobs also - waitress, office work (very briefly) - but she’s been at one bar all that time. She works 3 days a week, and occasionally on really busy weekends, plus she does extras for the owner as required. (Get your minds out of the gutter - she and her boss have been friends for most of those years, and she’ll fill in when the boss goes on vacation, do banking, stuff like that.) > > Anyway, I’ve watched from a stool in the corner behind the bar as my sister worked. She’s pretty amazing. Not only does she have all the technical stuff down pat, she’s also really good at reading people. She know who she can joke around with, who she can insult, who she needs to serve a beer and back off. When they have a band, she’s been known to jump up on stage and sing with them, or hop up on the bar and dance. She knows her usuals, she keeps track of who may need a refill, and she just looks like she’s having a good time, which she usually is. > > She gets pretty good tips for a neighborhood joint, and it’s all about her personality and knowing her stuff. But the days when she rakes in $400 or more in tips are few and far between - those are usually when something is going on in the area. Still, she makes enough that she’s got a house, a car, 2 dogs, and 2 cats, and she can occasionally afford to go on a cruise. She’ll never be rich, but I don’t think she’ll ever be hungry, so there that… We have a friend who fits this model pretty well. He’s not a bartender anymore, and he doesn’t sing, but he was masterful at managing a crowd. He knew who the regulars were, and which ones he liked, he could recognize an out-of-towner and draw him into a conversation and help him have a good time, and he knew the people who were just there for a quick beer before a movie and wouldn’t be money-makers (either for him or the restaurant), and could get them moving on their way (making more room for regulars) without seeming rude. When we first met him he was finishing up his MBA, and my wife had her own consulting practice. She needed a warm body for a short-term job, so hired him on. He did a great job, and when she eventually went back into the world of Big 4 Public Accounting, got him a job at her firm. He told me he was actually taking a pay cut to work there as opposed to the bar, although the benefits made it more like a wash. This was a chain restaurant in a Chicago suburb. Based on what I can estimate he was making, I could see someone making just into six figures at a high-end place in the city, working steady hours, but I think they’d be on the far right end of the bell curve. My wife says it was watching him as a bartender that caused her to hire him. She could teach him the technical aspects of her job, but his innate skills at managing customers was far and away more valuable to her, and harder to find. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-careerist-bartenders-pull-in-six-figure-incomes/599466/26 "2011-10-15T15:18:43Z")
Sure it’s possible to make 6 figures – as long as you count the two after the decimal point… 😃 Brian ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-careerist-bartenders-pull-in-six-figure-incomes/599466/27 "2011-10-15T16:53:53Z")
This reminds me: My dad’s 30 year old girlfriend (yeah, I know) was a cocktail waitress at a Vegas Hilton. She made enough to have a house, a Lexus, dozens of pairs of designer shoes and bags, and several vacations a year. She had to work her way up - sales clerk, barista, crappy shift bartender, prime shift bartender, but when she met my dad, she made around 80k. She also had a shopping habit, but yeah. Location. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-careerist-bartenders-pull-in-six-figure-incomes/599466/28 "2011-10-15T17:08:13Z")
I’ve known bartenders working some of the more popular gay bars in San Francisco who can do it. These bars get ridiculously overcrowded and a bartender with a hot pornstar body willing to haul ass all day slinging drinks half naked can make some serious bucks. As said though, at that point the bartender is also half the bar’s entertainment. No way is bartending that lucrative for 99.999% of bartenders. ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-careerist-bartenders-pull-in-six-figure-incomes/599466/29 "2011-10-15T21:18:37Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > They get laid all the time, though, right? Pretty much – end of the night, some woman is “frustrated,” and they know where the guy works, what his basic personality is like. It’s a “safe” way to get fucked, basically, depending on the type of joint. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-careerist-bartenders-pull-in-six-figure-incomes/599466/30 "2011-10-15T22:18:03Z")
Around here the only prerequisite for being bar staff is if you’re male being able to talk about sports all day, every day, and to mumble about the government, and if you’re female, to look pretty. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-careerist-bartenders-pull-in-six-figure-incomes/599466/31 "2011-10-15T22:22:58Z")
> [@N9IWP](#): > > Sure it’s possible to make 6 figures – as long as you count the two after the decimal point… 😃 Or if you work in a Japanese or Icelandic bar… ---
**Author:** ![Minnie\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Minnie\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Minnie_Luna)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2011, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-careerist-bartenders-pull-in-six-figure-incomes/599466/32 "2011-10-15T23:19:12Z")
I was a bartender in college. The dive I worked at had 3 different bars. One large center bar shared with 2 bartenders and two smaller side bars each with one bartender. We shared 3 bar-backs. Our busy nights were Thursday, Friday and Saturday. During Football season, Monday night was always good as well for the game crowd. It was mainly a college bar with a few daytime regulars. We had bands on the weekends. On a good night, I would easily go home with $200+ for a 9-close shift. The trade-off was that you had to work at least one or two slower shifts to get a good shift and if the manager really liked you, you got the “better” side bar that served nothing but beer and had no bar stools (quick turnover without having to deal with making drinks). A weekend shift for that bar was close to $300 before giving the bar backs their cut. A slow shift wasn’t bad, either, I never went home without making at least $10/hr (which was great for a college student in the 90’s). I guess if you worked all the good shifts and had a busy enough place, you could average $50/hr, for 40 hrs a week, that would work out to $104,000/yr. ---
**Author:** ![Jake\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Jake\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake_Jones)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2011, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-careerist-bartenders-pull-in-six-figure-incomes/599466/33 "2011-10-16T00:48:16Z")
[QUOTE=levdrakon] No way is bartending that lucrative for 99.999% of bartenders. [/QUOTE] Depends on your definition of luctrative, I guess. Not many bartenders earn six figures, but not many of the general population do, either. Overall median personal income in the US is about $30k per year. Any worthwhile bartender in a halfway decent establishment will make considerably more. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-careerist-bartenders-pull-in-six-figure-incomes/599466.md?page=1)