---
title: "Bartender"
description: "Mix and serve drinks to patrons, directly or through waitstaff."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/bartender"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Bartender

**Category:** Food Preparation and Serving Related · **SOC code:** 35-3011 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 35-3011.00

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

Also advertised as: Banquet Bartender; Bar Captain; Bartender; Mixologist.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $34,340 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $16.51/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $20,110 to $73,770, with the middle half between $27,400 and $47,570
- **Total US employment:** 756,390
- **Typical entry education:** No formal credential
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +5.9% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 129,600 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 60/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 756,390 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $20,110 |
| 25th | $27,400 |
| 50th (median) | $34,340 |
| 75th | $47,570 |
| 90th | $73,770 |
| Mean (average) | $40,790 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| HI | $76,490 | $69,567 | 3,540 |
| VI | $61,380 | No BEA price parity | 490 |
| NY | $61,210 | $56,717 | 43,130 |
| WA | $55,830 | $52,171 | 16,800 |
| DC | $53,920 | $49,062 | 5,760 |
| ME | $48,920 | $50,407 | 3,230 |
| VA | $47,070 | $46,556 | 13,370 |
| VT | $45,450 | $46,397 | 2,080 |
| AZ | $45,070 | $44,767 | 14,840 |
| NJ | $44,020 | $40,458 | 16,260 |
| OR | $38,900 | $37,635 | 11,950 |
| CT | $38,780 | $37,429 | 7,680 |
| CO | $38,170 | $37,040 | 17,000 |
| MD | $37,580 | $35,804 | 13,020 |
| MA | $37,440 | $35,402 | 19,850 |

39 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 54 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/bartender/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/bartender.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 756,700 in the 2024–2034 base year to 801,500 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 44,800 jobs, or +5.9%. Faster than average: 5.9% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 129,600 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** No formal educational credential (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Short-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma | 43.0% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 37.0% |
| Some College Courses | 16.4% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 2.6% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 1.1% |

## What the work involves

- 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.
- Clean glasses, utensils, and bar equipment.
- Slice and pit fruit for garnishing drinks.
- Stock bar with beer, wine, liquor, and related supplies such as ice, glassware, napkins, or straws.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Service Orientation — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sales and Marketing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Expression — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Information Ordering — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Conventional (C), Enterprising (E).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 4.65 |
| C — Conventional | 4.53 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.85 |
| S — Social | 3.74 |
| A — Artistic | 2.30 |
| I — Investigative | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESFJ | 81.8 |
| ESTJ | 79.0 |
| ISFJ | 75.1 |
| ISTJ | 65.2 |
| ESFP | 62.6 |

Best-fitting types: ESFJ, ESTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Server](https://nuecareer.com/careers/server) — median $35,230
- [Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendant and Bartender Helper](https://nuecareer.com/careers/dining-room-and-cafeteria-attendant-and-bartender-helper) — median $33,980
- [Fast Food and Counter Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fast-food-and-counter-worker) — median $31,200
- [Barista](https://nuecareer.com/careers/barista) — median $31,200
- [Food Preparation Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/food-preparation-worker) — median $35,320
- [Chef](https://nuecareer.com/careers/chef) — median $62,470
- [Food Service Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/food-service-manager) — median $69,390
- [First-Line Supervisor of Food Preparation and Serving Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-food-preparation-and-serving-workers) — median $44,080
- [Cook, Restaurant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cook-restaurant) — median $37,390
- [Cook, Short Order](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cook-short-order) — median $35,880

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/bartender