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Bartenders: Career Overview

Mix and serve drinks to patrons, directly or through waitstaff.

What Tasks Do Bartenders Take On?

Typical responsibilities of bartenders include:

• Clean glasses, utensils, and bar equipment.
• Collect money for drinks served.
• Balance cash receipts.
• Check identification of customers to verify age requirements for purchase of alcohol.
• Clean bars, work areas, and tables.
• Attempt to limit problems and liability related to customers' excessive drinking by taking steps such as persuading customers to stop drinking, or ordering taxis or other transportation for intoxicated patrons.
• Take beverage orders from serving staff or directly from patrons.
• Serve wine, and bottled or draft beer.

What Bartenders Need to Know

Effective bartenders rely on a mix of skills and domain knowledge.

Top Skills

The abilities most central to this role, rated on an importance scale of 0 to 5:

Top Knowledge Areas

Other Bartenders Job Titles

People in this occupation may also be known by titles such as:

• Banquet Bartender
• Bar Attendant
• Bar Captain
• Bar Tender
• Barkeep
• Barkeeper
• Barmaid
• Barman

How Many Bartenders Are There?

There are roughly 523,148 bartenders working in the United States today. Employment is projected to grow by +12.2% over the projection horizon.

Salary for Bartenders

Statistic	Value
Annual median	$28,151
Hourly median	$13.53
10th percentile	$20,000
25th percentile	$23,893
75th percentile	$32,408
90th percentile	$36,666

Compensation varies based on experience, location, and industry.

Bartenders Salary by State

State	Annual median salary
Hawaii	$68,820
New York	$60,750
District of Columbia	$54,930
Vermont	$54,310
Washington	$48,320
Maine	$47,630
Virginia	$46,860
New Jersey	$45,660
Virgin Islands	$42,630
Arizona	$40,860
Michigan	$39,500
Delaware	$36,420
Massachusetts	$36,000
California	$35,900
Maryland	$35,750
Connecticut	$34,420
Utah	$34,120
Oregon	$33,970
Colorado	$33,780
Rhode Island	$33,700
North Carolina	$32,410
New Mexico	$31,370
Florida	$30,850
Alaska	$29,860
Ohio	$29,850
Nebraska	$29,400
Illinois	$29,120
West Virginia	$29,030
Kentucky	$28,590
South Dakota	$28,530
North Dakota	$28,440
New Hampshire	$28,100
Kansas	$27,760
Texas	$27,750
Pennsylvania	$27,090
Missouri	$27,060
Minnesota	$26,840
Arkansas	$26,030
Nevada	$25,790
Mississippi	$24,700
Georgia	$23,500
Idaho	$22,880
Montana	$22,840
Indiana	$22,790
Alabama	$22,670
Tennessee	$22,660
Wisconsin	$22,520
Iowa	$22,500
Wyoming	$22,010
Oklahoma	$21,620
Puerto Rico	$21,160
Guam	$20,370
Louisiana	$19,620
South Carolina	$18,390

Pay by U.S. Region

Earnings for bartenders differ across the country. Top regions by median wage:

Region	Median annual wage	Share of U.S. jobs	Location quotient
Middle Atlantic	$44,657	15.5%	1.03
Far Western US	$37,106	16.5%	1.12
New England	$36,583	5.6%	1.19
Rocky Mountains	$29,800	4.4%	1.33
Southwest	$29,659	10.7%	0.85
Southeast	$29,241	20.9%	0.91
Great Lakes	$28,718	17.3%	1.34
Plains States	$26,830	8.6%	1.31

Top Metro Areas

Metro area	State	Median annual wage	Employment
Kahului-Wailuku, HI	HI	$80,040	780
Urban Honolulu, HI	HI	$70,300	2,210
Burlington-South Burlington, VT	VT	$65,480	850
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ	NY	$59,030	37,530
Kingston, NY	NY	$56,070	480
Kiryas Joel-Poughkeepsie-Newburgh, NY	NY	$51,390	1,290
Portland-South Portland, ME	ME	$51,180	1,760
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV	DC	$50,070	15,110

Top Industries Employing Bartenders

The largest employers of bartenders are found across these industries:

Industry	Employment	Median annual wage
Accommodation and Food Services	588,740	$34,020
Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation	55,000	$31,950
Other Services (except Public Administration)	42,310	$27,580
Manufacturing	38,190	$35,030
Retail Trade	5,600	$34,080
Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services	4,530	$39,970
Real Estate and Rental and Leasing	3,290	$31,760
Information	2,750	$32,160

The table below shows some of the most common industries where those employed in this career field work.

Software Bartenders Use

• Web page creation and editing software: Facebook (hot technology)
• Electronic mail software: Microsoft Outlook (hot technology)

The Day-to-Day Environment

Daily working conditions for bartenders reflects the following characteristics:

• Contact With Others
• Spend Time Standing
• Deal With External Customers or the Public in General
• Face-to-Face Discussions with Individuals and Within Teams
• Physical Proximity

Getting Started in This Career

Most bartenders positions require a high school diploma or equivalent as the typical entry-level education. The role falls in Some Preparation Needed (Job Zone 2), signaling the level of preparation typically expected.

Similar Occupations

Similar Occupations

• Food Service Managers (Primary-Long)
• Chefs and Head Cooks (Primary-Long)
• First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers (Primary-Long)
• Cooks, Fast Food (Supplemental)
• Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria (Supplemental)
• Cooks, Private Household (Supplemental)
• Cooks, Restaurant (Primary-Long)
• Cooks, Short Order (Primary-Long)

Where to Study

Future bartenders commonly pursue programs in:

Personal and Culinary Services

1 programs across 1 majors

• Culinary Arts

About the Data

Data on this page comes from the following authoritative sources:

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) for employment and wage data by state and industry.
• BLS Employment Projections for total employment and growth forecasts.
• O*NET (Occupational Information Network) for skills, knowledge, tasks, work activities, work context, technology, and education-zone data.

SOC code: 35-3011.00 (Bartenders).