How much do servers actually make?
The short answer
The numbers
BLS median hourly wage estimate (includes employer-reported tips). Waiters and waitresses, all U.S., May 2025 data, released May 15, 2026.
| Per hour | |
|---|---|
| Lower end of the middle half (25th percentile) | $13.34 |
| Median | $16.94 |
| Upper end of the middle half (75th percentile) | $22.65 |
| What it counts | Wages plus tips, as estimated by employers. It may not reflect all the tips servers receive. |
Next to it, the federal floor. Your state may set a higher one.
| Federal rule | Per hour |
|---|---|
| Lowest cash wage your employer can pay | $2.13 |
| Most your employer can count from your tips (tip credit) | $5.12 |
| What your wage plus tips must reach each workweek | $7.25 |
Your own number. Say your log shows a 30-hour week: $63.90 in wages (30 × $2.13) and $540 in tips you kept after tip-outs. That’s $603.90 ÷ 30 = $20.13 an hour. The numbers are made up; yours come from your own shifts.
Not tax or legal advice. BLS figures are estimates for all servers in the country, not a promise of what any one job pays.
Plain English
Where the number comes from
The figure is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey. It’s an employer survey: BLS asks businesses what they pay each job. BLS’s technical notes say tips are included in the wage. The survey form asks employers of tipped workers to “estimate the earnings (base pay plus tips…)”.
The median is the middle: half of servers were estimated to earn more per hour, half less. The 25th and 75th percentiles mark the middle half. OEWS leaves out overtime pay.
Why it may not match your pay
An employer can only estimate tips it sees. Cash tips you take home, and tips nobody reported, may not show up. In at least one state, BLS’s median for servers is exactly the $7.25 federal minimum wage. That’s hard to square with every tip being counted. This is our reading of the numbers, not a BLS statement.
The median also mixes every kind of serving job: fine dining and diners, full-time and part-time, busy cities and small towns. Your restaurant, section, and shifts can put you far from the middle in either direction.
By state, and servers vs bartenders
For each state’s cash wage and tip credit next to its BLS estimate, see Server minimum wage by state. To compare the two jobs, see Server vs bartender pay.
Why your own log is the only real number
No public source measures what you make. BLS publishes employer estimates for a whole occupation. Your pay stub shows your wage and the tips you reported, not the cash you took home. The only full record of your pay is the one you keep: date, hours, wage, cash tips, card tips, and tip-outs for each shift.
The IRS already asks you to keep that daily tip record (see How do I keep track of my tips?). Add your hours and you can work out your real hourly rate for any week, month, or restaurant: wages plus the tips you kept, divided by hours worked.
The floor under the estimate
Under federal law, your employer can pay $2.13 an hour and count up to $5.12 of your tips toward the $7.25 minimum wage. If your wage plus tips falls short in a workweek, your employer must make up the difference. See What is a tip credit? When state law is more protective, your employer has to follow it. DOL keeps a list of state labor offices.
Common mistakes
- Treating the median as what a server “should” make at your restaurant.
- Comparing your pay stub with the BLS figure. The stub leaves out cash tips you kept.
- Figuring your hourly rate from your best nights only.
- Reading the BLS estimate as an average. It’s a median, and the middle half is a wide range.
Official sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025: Waiters and Waitresses (35-3031)bls.gov
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Technical Notes for May 2025 OEWS Estimates (tips are included in wages)bls.gov
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS survey form (employers estimate base pay plus tips)bls.gov
- U.S. Department of Labor, Fact Sheet #15: Tipped Employees Under the FLSA ($2.13 cash wage, $5.12 tip credit, $7.25)dol.gov
- IRS Publication 531, Reporting Tip Income (daily tip record)irs.gov
Last verified:
Checked BLS OEWS May 2025 national estimates for waiters and waitresses (median $16.94, 25th percentile $13.34, 75th percentile $22.65, pulled from the BLS API), the May 2025 OEWS technical notes and survey form on tips, and DOL Fact Sheet #15 for the federal cash wage and tip credit.
Still open: BLS doesn’t say how much of servers’ tips its employer estimates capture. BLS updates OEWS once a year; this page uses May 2025 data.
All Money for tipped workers questions
What servers make
Taxes on your tips
- Do I have to pay taxes on my cash tips?
- What happens if I don’t report my cash tips?
- Is it better to get tips on a card or in cash?
- I’m a server. Why do I owe taxes every year when I file?
- My W-2 is missing my tips (nothing in box 7). What do I do?
- A guest tipped me on Venmo (or Cash App). Does that count as a tip I have to report?
- My restaurant pays me on a 1099 instead of a W-2. Is that legal?