Servers Salaries vs. Kitchen Staff Salaries (2024)

FAQs

Do servers make more than kitchen staff? ›

It takes several types of workers to make a full-service restaurant kitchen successful. Some, such as dishwashers, earn less on average than the servers who wait on patrons and survive largely on tips. Others, such as prep cooks, earn comparable wages. Cooks and head cooks make significantly more than servers.

The differences between cook and waitresses/waiter and prep cooks can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a prep cook has an average salary of $32,292, which is higher than the $27,271 average annual salary of a cook and waitress/waiter.

Generally, servers earn hourly wages above the federal minimum wage thanks to tips from customers. However, if servers do not earn sufficient tips to bring their wages to $7.25 an hour (or the state-mandated minimum wage), the employer must make up the difference.

Tipped employees earn the full state minimum wage before tips. In these states, you can't count tips toward the minimum wage requirement. In California, restaurants must pay tipped employees $16 per hour; tips are extra.

Line cooks do not get tips unless tipped employees voluntarily share their tips. This is a result of the Fair Labor Standards Act rule that was intended to stop restaurants and managers from skimming from servers' tips.

Generally, tipped employees do not have to be paid the minimum wage by the employer. Many states allow employers to pay tipped employers an hourly wage that is well below the minimum. States allow for a “tip credit” to make up what is necessary to reach the state's regular minimum wage.

A tipped employee engages in an occupation in which he or she customarily and regularly receives more than $30 per month in tips. An employer of a tipped employee is only required to pay $2.13 per hour in direct wages if that amount combined with the tips received at least equals the federal minimum wage.

Why do tipped employees make less? ›

Pros and Cons of Eliminating Tipping for Restaurants

On one hand, tipped minimum wage is the system we currently have in place, where tipped employees (usually servers) are paid a lower minimum wage than non-tipped employees. This is because their income is supposed to come from tips.

It can also be a necessity for them, as most waiters do not get paid a living wage by their employers. Some laws that are in place make it legal to pay less than minimum wage for waiting jobs, sometimes as little as $2 per hour, meaning that waiters are forced to live on the tips provided by customers.

Under this option, supporting service roles like kitchen staff and bussers are tipped out based on an assigned percentage no matter how much cash a server brought in. Server tip out percentage is usually between 20% to 45% of a server's total collected gratuities.

Waiters and bartenders earn more in tips than they do from what employers pay them as an hourly base wage. The median share of hourly earnings that come from tips account for 58.5 percent of wait staff's earnings, and 54 percent of bartenders' earnings. On a monthly basis, these tips add up.

If an employee's tips combined with the employer's direct wages of at least $2.13 an hour do not equal the Federal minimum hourly wage, the employer must make up the difference. Some states have minimum wage laws specific to tipped employees.

Additionally, a server and hostess has an average salary of $28,020, which is higher than the $25,536 average annual salary of a food runner. The top three skills for a server and hostess include POS, food preparation and food orders. The most important skills for a food runner are cleanliness, wine, and culinary.

The national minimum wage for tipped workers is $2.13/hour but, by law, restaurants must pay servers an hourly wage of at least $7.25/hour. That means if you don't earn enough tips to average $7.25/hour during a pay period, the restaurant must increase your hourly wage accordingly.

Percentage of tips

Under this option, supporting service roles like kitchen staff and bussers are tipped out based on an assigned percentage no matter how much cash a server brought in. Server tip out percentage is usually between 20% to 45% of a server's total collected gratuities.