What % should the host, busser and bartender get from a waitress when they all get tiped out in a night?

Question

For Instance, If a waitress makes $100 in a night, does the busser, host and bartender (all who make more per hour) still get 10%? Do they still get their percentage if they did a poor job, or just were not needed? If the restaurant gets busy, should the bartender take tables or help the wait staff?

Answer 1

It depends on the restaurant.  At the ones I know of, the bussers and food runners get a percentage of total sales, in the ballpark of 2-5% respectively.  Bartenders get a higher percentage, but only of the server's liquor sales, since the bartender does nothing for a server except fill their drink orders.  Usually they get about 8-10%.  Hosts/hostesses don't get tipped out.  Once again, each place is different.

If someone does a poor job, they're usually dealt with accordingly and replaced with someone who does a good job.   If a person isn't needed, the management may scale back on the amount of staff in the future.  Meanwhile, everyone should get the % they were promised.

Bartenders taking tables?  If the restaurant gets busy, the bartender is usually busy.  Not only is the bartender making drinks for all those people sitting at tables, but when there's a long wait for a table, many people wait at the bar which further increases the bartender's workload.  If the bar is dead for some reason, many nice bartenders will go help bus a table for a swamped server.  In the future, the server who was helped may lend the bartender a hand by running his dirty plates to the kitchen or something.  What goes around...

Answer 2

At my restaurant, the servers tip out 3% of their total sales for the night.  Then that is divided up among the host, busser, and bartender.  Everyone in the front of house makes the same wage at my restaurant(2.65 per hour).

If the restaurant is busy, the bartender should be busy also, so I wouldn't expect them to help out the waitstaff.

Answer 3

You should post this on the blog over at http://www.mindthebar.com - they have a section where people can post questions and correspond with other bartenders about this kind of stuff.

Answer 4

it's usually between 2-3% of sales