How much does a waitress make on an average night?

Question

How much does a waitress make on an average night?

Answer 1

Depends on what kind of restaurant you work in, how busy it is, and where you live.

If you live in NYC or LA you're going to have a better tip percentage than if you lived in Alabama. Just because 20% is the industry standard for a tip and the more with it the people are, the better tip you'll get. If you work in a place that has low prices, you'll get tipped less. If you work at applebees and places like that, you'll probably make 15%. If you work in a small mom and pop place that is not high volume, you'll have lower sales. If you work at a high end, high volume place, you'll have larger sales. Tip percentage is based on sales. It's impossible to tell you how much you'll make because it  could vary from 40$-300$ depending on where you work.

Answer 2

Being a waitress myself and i live in a small town 10,000 people. on average its 4-5 hours for night time and I could make $60 avg a night but it depends on how busy or what holiday and what night. weekends is always more.  Overall I know a mom that has 2 kids and waitressed her whole life and lives pretty darn well. house, paid for college education for kids :)

Answer 3

That depends upon where she is working.  A waitress in a greasy spoon will not make much in tips.   A waitress at a chain will make more.  Top of the line restaurants will draw clientele that tip much better.   Be more specific.

Answer 4

Well this matters on what night and where...Is it just a regular night during the week or is it on the weekend? Is this a popular restaraunt or is this a bar? In a city or in a town? I personally use to waitress and was d**n good at it. In a small town of about 8000 people at the most I waitressed at the most popular place to eat and it was a steakhouse and on an average night I made around $150-200. I also have worked at a private club where we were giving 15% of the hole bill...even if they tiped more or not and it was still around the same per night. Just depends were u work.

Answer 5

Many factors.  Upscale restaurant?  Higher prices, higher tips.  But, more involved service, and you typically wait on less people in a night, and probably tip out more (busser, bartender,food runner, host, ect.) In a bar or casual restaurant people don't stay as long and you "turn" your tables, so although you make less per person, you wait on more people.  If you want to make money waiting tables it is more important how busy a restaurant is than how expensive it is.  So, try to find an expensive restaurant that is also very busy!  Typically, the higher the cost of living is in a particular area, the higher the tips.  NYC and L.A. servers make loads of money, but pay much more to live than say, someone in Kansas City.