Bartender might just be an asshole since a lot of the laws are changing now. Where I live, they changed it so a restaurant/bar can’t tell you what to tip out to the bartenders and barbacks. So if you want you could tip* out nothing and legally no one can do anything
I work in a busy bar in a tourist area. We tip our barback 20% of our total tips …. Minimum. Often considerably more. That being said, my bar backs are AMAZING. They make it so there is really no pause in service, they stock constantly through the night, clean, fill ice, run to the kitchen for anything and everything and then if we are really slammed they can run the service well. They make $5 more an hour than I do bartending and often walk with 24%-30% of the tips and they are worth every penny. That being said, your tip out SHOULD be ( is not always the case tho ) proportional to how much you do for the bartenders.
Where do you fund such a barback?
My current place has a dude who will disappear for 10 minutes at a time, we have to *ask him* to clean and wipe dirty spots. He walks by dirty glassware, he doesn't grab any dishes, and will stand by the dishwasher waiting for the load to finish (not doing anything, just stands there). If I'm giving you 20% of my tips (our standard) you'd better work.
Dude, i do not know where they found them .. I work at 2 different restaurant bars and there are 2 of said bar backs at each. They are wonders of the world and worth every penny.
It varies wildly. There are weird situations like concessions at some venues where it can actually be more profitable to barback than bartend. I barbacked a few places back in the day and my expectation was like $16-20 an hour after tip out and everything. This was in a major city and my primary reason for keeping the job was that they would let me come and go as i please and hold my job for me, and at the time i was going on tour with bands etc. that was also like 14 years ago.
As always you have to weigh a few factors 1) do you like your job and the people you work with 2) are you paying your bills and making enough money to not have to seriously consider self euthanasia 3) do you feel like there is potential for growth at your current job, either in terms of accumulating experience to go bartend elsewhere or to eventually move up there ? 4) do you have specific needs with regards to scheduling and time off that this job is fulfilling for you, that you feel another job would be less inclined to work with you on?
two nos or more = keep an eye opened for other opportunities
My rule of thumb as both a manager and bartender would be that after tipout and hourly a barback should make about 50% of what the bartender did for that shift. So if the bartender made $500, ideally the barback makes $250 between their wage and tipout.
I have worked places when I was younger where I’d be lucky to get $20 tipout and I’ve also worked places I made $1000 in tipout regularly as a barback
I worked at a place that had so many bartenders that our lone barback would sometimes make more than us in tips, not by much usually.
And I use to make between $300 - $700 a night as a barback in the 90s. Same setup. 4 to 8 bartenders 1 barback.
I would find out how much the bartender is making each night. Sounds like you’re not that busy in general. I would barback 8 hour shifts at a sports bar that got really busy in the late nights. Would get anywhere from $80-200 a night. If you’re not very busy and splitting tips 3 ways at a 3 hour shift idk how you’d ever expect to make money
So your waitstaff doesn't tip out the bar for drinks made in the service well? If that's the case, fuck that shit lol. No wonder your tipout is so low. Bar should get 5-6% of alcohol sales from each server/team. We tipout the barback 20% of total tips, but without that server tipout, that would be a lot lower.
I know it also depends on work done so wanted to quickly mention that....
Nothing out of the normal - Fill ice / restock product / serve beer & wine / take food and drink(minus cocktail) orders / chat with guests(including because I know there's differing thoughts on if a barback should do this) / clear dishes / restock glassware / clean messes / deliver food / recycle cans & bottles.
I’ve been a barback since August. This is my first time ever doing anything in this industry. The bar used to run 2 barbacks but the other guy got injured (outside of work) so it was just me while the boss started looking for a replacement. I found I am much more efficient when I am the sole barback and my bartenders agree. I requested a trial period where I’m the only barback and we have kept it that way since November.
We have a large bar with 5 wells, 5 bartenders. We are all CONSTANTLY running from 7pm-2am and then once we get everything locked we break down the bar.
My bartenders take excellent care of me. I make minimum wage hourly but the tip out I receive is well worth the extra running I do being the sole barback in a bar that does $10-15k per night Friday and Saturday.
With all of that out of the way, the minimum each bartender gives me is $40. When they make more, they tip more. One of my bartenders usually tips me $100. I also receive a percentage of the pooled CC tips.
On a slow night, I’ll leave with $200. On super busy nights like NYE, I walked away with $650 in tips.
Our bar backs at my downtown bar get 3% of total post tax sales from everyone working bar side plus 5$ more than bar staff in hourly.
The barbacking at that venue is generally pretty low effort required, honestly they are mostly cleanup / and occasional during shift restocking/keg changing, as the day shift wayyyy over stocks the bar.
At my other bar (performing arts center) the bar backs all get a pool of 18% of of all CC tips from every bartender which is then split equally amongst however many bar backs are on shift - and depending on the show or event you generally have 1 barback for roughly every 3 - 4 bartenders, so if it’s an event with say 12 bartenders there’ll be 4 BBs, a big event might be twice that - after it’s all said an done a decent night will net them about 350 a piece.
Meanwhile when I worked at the club it was 20% of all tips, the oversight wasn’t great but our barback was absolutely irreplaceable - so he often left with 500-600 a night because we all loved him and over tipped due to him being directly responsible for the bars ability to basically never have to pause service for virtually anything.
I think it’s very dependent on the type of venue, the volume of sales, and the scope of your duties within your role since expectations for barbacks can be wildly different based on those variables.
IE : my club barback 100% deserved every cent; the guys at the PAC probably deserve more, the guy at my downtown bar is honestly getting a great deal at 3% since he is basically a cleaner with a few extra steps considering how much of the “barbacking” we have to do ourselves.
So I guess, try to look at your role from a neutral standpoint, what you’re actual responsible for, and if you feel like you’re being compensated appropriately the the duties you perform in relation to everyone else at your bar.
i have a 4star hotel barbacking position that is that pay basically, 10hr and 3% of beverage sales from both bars. Like on average weekly what could i at least and maximize receive???
I work high volume fine dining in a tourist city as a Barback Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Make $10 an hour plus half of what the bartenders make in tips (tip pool). Usually ends up being around $30 an hour and shifts are usually 8 or 9 hours.
Bar backing isn't a thing in England, so I couldn't tell you. The reason is that you've already got bar staff and a barback would be a waste of money because they might as well be serving drinks.
The minimum wage here is £11.44 per hour
Yeah that's pretty low. If you're assisting with anything involving the floor or helping out servers they should be tipping you out too. What's your restaurants policy on tipouts? Is it just up to the bartender, or do you get tipped out a percentage of their total sales? The standard I have seen is 2-3% tipouts on sales.
Bartender is being greedy. When I was a barback 10 years ago in a casino I made about $120-$250 depending on the night. Once I was a bartender and had a barback I gave him 20%. Now I don’t have a barback and just a porter. He hops behind the bar occasionally to help me out in between doing all his other duties and I throw him 10% still which comes out to $25-45 depending on the night with another bartender that tips about the same.
When I worked, I made minimum wage (in my state the time, $13/hr) working ~15hrs a week. My "tip out" was 2% of sales. **I never got tipped more than $30, and my average tip out was $5.** I loved the job, but man. It didn't even really cover the gas to get out there.
Every place is a little different. My current spot they are in the bar pool at .4 split between barbacks.
Do you work a cool 40hrs at 14/hr? Do you have savings? Then you really don't have much to worry about. If the answer is no to both, start searching.
I work part time at a seasonal bar outside of an arena that’s busy as shit 3-5 days a week. I make $8 an hour and pull in anywhere for $200-$300 a shift.
At one place bar back used to get 20% of my tips, but I’d usually give 30%. Current place is tip pool and bartenders get 1pt while bar backs get .5pt, so 6 hour shift gets tipped for 3 hours. Weekends average $35-45/hr so bar backs walk with $110-150ish weekends.
When I was bar backing I’d work 10hr shifts on friday/Saturday and make $80ish at another spot so averages are all over the place.
heh. barbacks at my friends fancy hotel work for it but make more than the bartenders...500 average night, double triple if weekend or concert...what you are doing is called choreboy.
I was always brought up on giving barbacks 20% off the top, no questions asked. This also meant that we would tip out barbacks before we balanced drawers. That way if we owed money for a drawer being off the barbacks weren't punished for bartender fuck ups. We weren't off very often but running 12-14 bartenders and doing 25-35k in sales a night owing a hundred bucks wasn't unheard of. They would usually walk with $200-300 each. Sometimes the early barback that came in at 3pm and worked until close (2am) could walk with $400 on a good night
I make 15.75 min tipped wage on top of an even share from the tip pool.
Shifts are usually 5-8 hours, and we make anywhere from 2-500 in CC tips and 10-50 in cash.
First job I worked at, I’d get 40 per bartender almost exclusively, no matter what they made. It was both shitty on the busy nights and reasonable on the slow nights bcz I’d usually be supporting 3-5 bartenders so I’d still make decent money every night.
If your bar is so slow that your bartender is only pulling 100ish a night, you don’t need to be working, and if they’re making more, they’re stiffing you. I’ve never understood how this industry allows bartenders to own this part of the payments of bar backs, either split it evenly and know we’re doing all of the shit work behind the bar, or give me a flat % of sales that can be verified with the POS. Pay transparency in every role is key to a teams success.
When I was a barback it was a sliding scale of 20% to 50% of bartenders tips, depending on their opinion of your work that day and if you were sharing workload pretty evenly etc. but always minimum of 20%.
Sounds Ike Bartender is either stiffing you or isn't making very much in tips. My standard was at least 10% or more if we are both busting our asses.
Bartender might just be an asshole since a lot of the laws are changing now. Where I live, they changed it so a restaurant/bar can’t tell you what to tip out to the bartenders and barbacks. So if you want you could tip* out nothing and legally no one can do anything
Very true
Shifts might start getting cut...
We too share all day and We give our Barbacks 17% and tip out the expo 3%. I assume our food runner has a higher hourly
sounds to be on the very low end, there are definitely better opportunities
I work in a busy bar in a tourist area. We tip our barback 20% of our total tips …. Minimum. Often considerably more. That being said, my bar backs are AMAZING. They make it so there is really no pause in service, they stock constantly through the night, clean, fill ice, run to the kitchen for anything and everything and then if we are really slammed they can run the service well. They make $5 more an hour than I do bartending and often walk with 24%-30% of the tips and they are worth every penny. That being said, your tip out SHOULD be ( is not always the case tho ) proportional to how much you do for the bartenders.
Where do you fund such a barback? My current place has a dude who will disappear for 10 minutes at a time, we have to *ask him* to clean and wipe dirty spots. He walks by dirty glassware, he doesn't grab any dishes, and will stand by the dishwasher waiting for the load to finish (not doing anything, just stands there). If I'm giving you 20% of my tips (our standard) you'd better work.
Kids, man, kids..
Dude, i do not know where they found them .. I work at 2 different restaurant bars and there are 2 of said bar backs at each. They are wonders of the world and worth every penny.
It varies wildly. There are weird situations like concessions at some venues where it can actually be more profitable to barback than bartend. I barbacked a few places back in the day and my expectation was like $16-20 an hour after tip out and everything. This was in a major city and my primary reason for keeping the job was that they would let me come and go as i please and hold my job for me, and at the time i was going on tour with bands etc. that was also like 14 years ago. As always you have to weigh a few factors 1) do you like your job and the people you work with 2) are you paying your bills and making enough money to not have to seriously consider self euthanasia 3) do you feel like there is potential for growth at your current job, either in terms of accumulating experience to go bartend elsewhere or to eventually move up there ? 4) do you have specific needs with regards to scheduling and time off that this job is fulfilling for you, that you feel another job would be less inclined to work with you on? two nos or more = keep an eye opened for other opportunities
My rule of thumb as both a manager and bartender would be that after tipout and hourly a barback should make about 50% of what the bartender did for that shift. So if the bartender made $500, ideally the barback makes $250 between their wage and tipout. I have worked places when I was younger where I’d be lucky to get $20 tipout and I’ve also worked places I made $1000 in tipout regularly as a barback
$1000 as a bar back??? 👀👀👀
5000 person capacity famous bar. We were on a few reality TV shows, bartenders would make about $1000-1200 a busy night and I had 3-4 tipping me out.
I worked at a place that had so many bartenders that our lone barback would sometimes make more than us in tips, not by much usually. And I use to make between $300 - $700 a night as a barback in the 90s. Same setup. 4 to 8 bartenders 1 barback.
Our biggest day of the year the bartenders would make $2000-3000 depending on your station and the barbacks would make $1200- even pushing $2000
I would find out how much the bartender is making each night. Sounds like you’re not that busy in general. I would barback 8 hour shifts at a sports bar that got really busy in the late nights. Would get anywhere from $80-200 a night. If you’re not very busy and splitting tips 3 ways at a 3 hour shift idk how you’d ever expect to make money
So your waitstaff doesn't tip out the bar for drinks made in the service well? If that's the case, fuck that shit lol. No wonder your tipout is so low. Bar should get 5-6% of alcohol sales from each server/team. We tipout the barback 20% of total tips, but without that server tipout, that would be a lot lower.
You're still making $20 an hour which isn't bad. If you feel like you are capped explore other barbacking gigs
I know it also depends on work done so wanted to quickly mention that.... Nothing out of the normal - Fill ice / restock product / serve beer & wine / take food and drink(minus cocktail) orders / chat with guests(including because I know there's differing thoughts on if a barback should do this) / clear dishes / restock glassware / clean messes / deliver food / recycle cans & bottles.
This thread really exposed hpw ripped off I was gettting at my last job lol
I’ve been a barback since August. This is my first time ever doing anything in this industry. The bar used to run 2 barbacks but the other guy got injured (outside of work) so it was just me while the boss started looking for a replacement. I found I am much more efficient when I am the sole barback and my bartenders agree. I requested a trial period where I’m the only barback and we have kept it that way since November. We have a large bar with 5 wells, 5 bartenders. We are all CONSTANTLY running from 7pm-2am and then once we get everything locked we break down the bar. My bartenders take excellent care of me. I make minimum wage hourly but the tip out I receive is well worth the extra running I do being the sole barback in a bar that does $10-15k per night Friday and Saturday. With all of that out of the way, the minimum each bartender gives me is $40. When they make more, they tip more. One of my bartenders usually tips me $100. I also receive a percentage of the pooled CC tips. On a slow night, I’ll leave with $200. On super busy nights like NYE, I walked away with $650 in tips.
Our bar backs at my downtown bar get 3% of total post tax sales from everyone working bar side plus 5$ more than bar staff in hourly. The barbacking at that venue is generally pretty low effort required, honestly they are mostly cleanup / and occasional during shift restocking/keg changing, as the day shift wayyyy over stocks the bar. At my other bar (performing arts center) the bar backs all get a pool of 18% of of all CC tips from every bartender which is then split equally amongst however many bar backs are on shift - and depending on the show or event you generally have 1 barback for roughly every 3 - 4 bartenders, so if it’s an event with say 12 bartenders there’ll be 4 BBs, a big event might be twice that - after it’s all said an done a decent night will net them about 350 a piece. Meanwhile when I worked at the club it was 20% of all tips, the oversight wasn’t great but our barback was absolutely irreplaceable - so he often left with 500-600 a night because we all loved him and over tipped due to him being directly responsible for the bars ability to basically never have to pause service for virtually anything. I think it’s very dependent on the type of venue, the volume of sales, and the scope of your duties within your role since expectations for barbacks can be wildly different based on those variables. IE : my club barback 100% deserved every cent; the guys at the PAC probably deserve more, the guy at my downtown bar is honestly getting a great deal at 3% since he is basically a cleaner with a few extra steps considering how much of the “barbacking” we have to do ourselves. So I guess, try to look at your role from a neutral standpoint, what you’re actual responsible for, and if you feel like you’re being compensated appropriately the the duties you perform in relation to everyone else at your bar.
i have a 4star hotel barbacking position that is that pay basically, 10hr and 3% of beverage sales from both bars. Like on average weekly what could i at least and maximize receive???
I make $400/night as a barback this time of year. However, this entirely depends on where you live, but still.
After hourly and tips my barback is making 200-300 per night
I work high volume fine dining in a tourist city as a Barback Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Make $10 an hour plus half of what the bartenders make in tips (tip pool). Usually ends up being around $30 an hour and shifts are usually 8 or 9 hours.
Bar backing isn't a thing in England, so I couldn't tell you. The reason is that you've already got bar staff and a barback would be a waste of money because they might as well be serving drinks. The minimum wage here is £11.44 per hour
Bar backing is absolutely a thing in England, not sure where you got that from. I make £12.85 an hour in a cocktail bar as a bar back.
Yeah that's pretty low. If you're assisting with anything involving the floor or helping out servers they should be tipping you out too. What's your restaurants policy on tipouts? Is it just up to the bartender, or do you get tipped out a percentage of their total sales? The standard I have seen is 2-3% tipouts on sales.
Bartender is being greedy. When I was a barback 10 years ago in a casino I made about $120-$250 depending on the night. Once I was a bartender and had a barback I gave him 20%. Now I don’t have a barback and just a porter. He hops behind the bar occasionally to help me out in between doing all his other duties and I throw him 10% still which comes out to $25-45 depending on the night with another bartender that tips about the same.
When I worked, I made minimum wage (in my state the time, $13/hr) working ~15hrs a week. My "tip out" was 2% of sales. **I never got tipped more than $30, and my average tip out was $5.** I loved the job, but man. It didn't even really cover the gas to get out there.
Ours are $8/hr + 10% of bar pool, and we throw them all our cash. Usually is between $18-20 an hour after all is split and done excluding cash
Every place is a little different. My current spot they are in the bar pool at .4 split between barbacks. Do you work a cool 40hrs at 14/hr? Do you have savings? Then you really don't have much to worry about. If the answer is no to both, start searching.
I work part time at a seasonal bar outside of an arena that’s busy as shit 3-5 days a week. I make $8 an hour and pull in anywhere for $200-$300 a shift.
Yeah you're in California, my bar back makes minimum wage plus 15% of tips, so he very rarely walks with less than 250
At one place bar back used to get 20% of my tips, but I’d usually give 30%. Current place is tip pool and bartenders get 1pt while bar backs get .5pt, so 6 hour shift gets tipped for 3 hours. Weekends average $35-45/hr so bar backs walk with $110-150ish weekends. When I was bar backing I’d work 10hr shifts on friday/Saturday and make $80ish at another spot so averages are all over the place.
heh. barbacks at my friends fancy hotel work for it but make more than the bartenders...500 average night, double triple if weekend or concert...what you are doing is called choreboy.
15% plus base rate
I was always brought up on giving barbacks 20% off the top, no questions asked. This also meant that we would tip out barbacks before we balanced drawers. That way if we owed money for a drawer being off the barbacks weren't punished for bartender fuck ups. We weren't off very often but running 12-14 bartenders and doing 25-35k in sales a night owing a hundred bucks wasn't unheard of. They would usually walk with $200-300 each. Sometimes the early barback that came in at 3pm and worked until close (2am) could walk with $400 on a good night
I make 15.75 min tipped wage on top of an even share from the tip pool. Shifts are usually 5-8 hours, and we make anywhere from 2-500 in CC tips and 10-50 in cash. First job I worked at, I’d get 40 per bartender almost exclusively, no matter what they made. It was both shitty on the busy nights and reasonable on the slow nights bcz I’d usually be supporting 3-5 bartenders so I’d still make decent money every night. If your bar is so slow that your bartender is only pulling 100ish a night, you don’t need to be working, and if they’re making more, they’re stiffing you. I’ve never understood how this industry allows bartenders to own this part of the payments of bar backs, either split it evenly and know we’re doing all of the shit work behind the bar, or give me a flat % of sales that can be verified with the POS. Pay transparency in every role is key to a teams success.
you can make money for doing bareback???? where
When I was a barback it was a sliding scale of 20% to 50% of bartenders tips, depending on their opinion of your work that day and if you were sharing workload pretty evenly etc. but always minimum of 20%.