There are many similarities between bartenders everywhere and the crap we all have to deal with, but unfortunatley here in the UK things are very different from most of you guys in the states and canada. Having briefly lived in New York, I would kill to work as a bartender over there full time.
Here in the London and the uk as a whole, most rookie bartenders earn minimum wage a measly 5.80 pounds an hour, and even some of the guys longer in the tooth earn maybe 7-8 quid an hour, however the kicker is our tips are realitively nothing, maybe a crummy $30-50 on a good night. The problem here is that most bartenders are students looking for a quick buck and bosses are only happy to employ them on the cheap and don't care about the standard of the crap they flog.
This causes major problems for us guys in for the long haul and leaves us with 3 choices, 1 is quit and get "a real job" (not happening: early mornings, offices-no chance!)
Another is to learn quickly and be a bar whore switching jobs every few months gathering more and more experience and hopefully getting into a good cocktail bar, where the pay is much better, as are the tips but with so few around this is extremely difficult and is achieved more by luck than skill.
The final choice is to prove your worth and get into management asap, working up the ranks from supervisor, to head bartender, bar manager and God forbid general manager.
This is the road I have been forced to take, in this capacity I now deal less and less with customers, make less drinks and spend more time at my laptop and dealing with the general managers problems, doing rota's and other disinteresting shit. So what has happened is that london's best bartenders are now forced to give up what they enjoy and are good at (serving quality drinks and dealing with customers) to sustain a living and therefore the industry is left in a shambles with bottomfeeders throwing out slurried drinks without care or passion.
Don't get me wrong i'm more than grateful to have a job with a decent wage but I feel my fervour and love of this industry is being wasted, and I believe this trend has to stop very soon if our industry is going to survive with any of its reputation intact.
During my time working as a bartender in NYC I was amazed at the level of respect the bartenders were shown comparison to london, where we command just a bit more respect the homeless and just a bit less than the trash man. Unfortunatley there is no tipping culture in the uk whatsoever and many of the bottomfeeders don't even bother to try to earn tips by working harder, they see is as a waste of energy as they are guranteed money for their shift anyway.
Overall I hope things change fast otherwise the industry here in the uk is screwed, which would be a terrible thing with olympics fast approaching.
Anyone got a spare green card?
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Wow! I heard tipping was bad out there but I didn't know it was that bad!!! Here most bartenders make more than most, if not all managers... Less headache, more money, no brainer... Unless of course you want to own a bar!!!
ReplyDeleteAre there mostly male bartenders out there?
Most of the mixologists and flairtenders are guys, but i'd say overall its 75% guys, but recently a lot of average bars employ attractive females hoping their looks will compensate for lack of knowledge (or ability in some cases) as happens everywhere.
ReplyDeleteLuckily where I work the female bartenders are very good but they take a lot of shit and get hit on by drunken guys constantly.
But in most places there is little or no tipping and the average bartender might earn $80- 90 for a nine hour shift!
Australia is similar, but we're paid anything from 17-21 AUD per hour, with tips depends where you work. i've made anything from 5 bucks in one night to about 300 in one night.
ReplyDeleteNow looking for another bar manager job, and hoping i get one soon, can't really survive on just casual hours
Ryan, why does it vary so much in Australia?
ReplyDeleteI am from Australia as well, I have bartended as a second job (my full-time job is as a restaurant manager), and started it purely for the extra money I would earn. Over time however (I have been working for the bar for app. 18 months, on and off), I have become a decent, competant bartender, and really enjoy working there, especially when the bar is smashed busy. Myself and one other bartender are considered the 'main' or 'head' bartenders, even though I am employed as casual, only working two nights a week (as my restaurant schedule allows). The reason for this is the bar keeps employing 'new' bartenders under us, who are only 18 and have no knowledge of a bar.
ReplyDeleteThe money is great, I am paid app. $20/hour plus tips, which vary from $20 to $200 a night.
But, as management gets increasingly desperate for good supervisors and duty managers, they are always asking me to 'step up'. Why? So I can sign a contract (no more hourly/overtime pay), less tips, more paperwork, and I have less time in the bar to keep the patrons happy with fast-flowing, smooth, accurate service, which is why most of them are there in the first place?
But with the recession, I am forced to re-think and I maybe will have to take a higher position, which takes all the decent bartenders out of the bar-positions they love. Leaving the 'newbies' to get yelled at, quite rightly, by the regulars who are used to getting looked after.
On another note... yes, most of the good bartenders in my town are male, about 95% I would say. It's hard to find those really excellent bartenders - they're all managers.
That's interesting. Sounds like "tips" really means "To Insure Proper Service" out there! Here they are expected no matter what!
ReplyDeleteIt varies depending on where you work really, some states pay more, some less, depending on staff availability, etc
ReplyDeletelike since i'm in western australia, and a lot of people were unemployed by the mining crash, theres an excess of bar workers looking for jobs. mostly pub style bartenders. so wages go down a lil because the people are desperate and will take any job, low paid or not.
like even as a bar manager i was getting only 3 dollars more an hour, compared to bartending, but was working about 70 hours a week, since the other managers didnt know jack.
Whoa!
ReplyDeleteoh yeah
ReplyDeletewhoa indeed
maybe i should make up a special work uniform with an S on the chest?
:P