Bartender Career: Salary, Tips and Life Behind the Bar

How Much Can I Make? — Real Jobs. Real Stories. Career Insights

Host Mirav Ozeri interviews veteran bartender Tom Ostoich about the realities of a long-term career in the service industry. The discussion

Key takeaways

Tom Ostoich has worked as a bartender since 1997 in locations including New York City, New Orleans, and the Hudson Valley.
The role of a barback serves as a primary entry point, involving heavy lifting, restocking, and cleaning to support the bartender.

Main topics

Career entry and barbacking
Earnings, tips, and wage structures

Notable quotes

That mirror is your eyes.

Conclusion

The episode offers a grounded perspective on the service industry, bal

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:02) I always tell people when you go into a bar and you see a mirror behind the bar, it's not because you're supposed to be checking yourself out. It's that your back is turned for a portion of the evening. That mirror is your eyes. So that's the reason why most places have a giant mirror there. Speaker 2 (0:18) Hi, welcome back to How Much Can I Make, the podcast about jobs and careers. I'm your host, Mirav Ozeri. Today we are with Tom. I can't pronounce his last name, so he's going to introduce himself. And we're going to hear all about the bartending job. Speaker 1 (0:33) Okay. Hi, everyone. My name is Tom Ostoich, and I'm a bartender. How Speaker 2 (0:38) long have you been a bartender? Speaker 1 (0:39) I've been a bartender since 1997. Whoa. Yeah. In New York City. In New York City, in New Orleans, and in the Kingston Woodstock area. How did you get into it? I came into it completely haphazardly. I hung out at a bar in the East Village. Speaker 2 (0:57) Drinking. Speaker 1 (0:58) Yep. And I was in graduate school in a PhD program that was kind of going nowhere for me. And I was sort of scrapping around looking for work. Speaker 2 (1:07) In what area was it? Speaker 1 (1:08) In literature. Speaker 2 (1:09) Oh, wow. Okay. Speaker 1 (1:11) The quickest way to kill something that you love is to study it at a granular level, maybe. At least for me, that was too much. Speaker 2 (1:20) I Speaker 1 (1:21) hung out at a bar that was run by Ukrainians. Speaker 2 (1:25) Where, in the East Village? In the East Village. And Speaker 1 (1:27) it was sort of infamous or famous for being sort of a real kind of old school dive bar. And they had an older gentleman who worked there who was probably anywhere between 70 and 200 years old. who needed help, and so I was hired as a barback and sort of... Speaker 2 (1:45) Barback? What does that mean? And a Speaker 1 (1:47) barback is basically the person who does all the, what you might call grunt work. So that means you restock all the beer and the liquor, you go get the ice, you tap kegs, you move things around, you basically, you're the person Friday for the... for the bartender. You bust tables and you clean up things. You also are the person who probably is, if there's no security, that handles arguments and fights, which is part of the reason I was there at the time. And so the bar back is sort of a good entry point into bartending if you have somebody who's willing to teach you the rudiments of bartending. Speaker 2 (2:26) That's what I was going to ask you. Yeah. You were learning how to mix drinks while you were doing... Yeah, Speaker 1 (2:31) so it was almost like a mentorship. He started teaching me the rudiments. And then he started making me do it on my own. Did Speaker 2 (2:39) you know anything about mixing drinks before? I knew a little bit. Speaker 1 (2:41) I had taken sort of extramural class in college that basically taught you the basics. And bartending was sort of in my family. My grandparents ran a restaurant and bar in Boyceville. Speaker 2 (2:53) Oh. Speaker 1 (2:54) And my cousins. run a place. So I grew up a little bit around it, but I didn't go to any fancy bartending school or anything like that. I learned by doing. Speaker 2 (3:05) Right. So that's one way to get in. But do you know if people today have to take some courses or get some certificate? Speaker 1 (3:12) Yeah, I would say it can be helpful, but most people that are hiring for a place, they're going to want some kind of experience and you're going to sort of have to go through the steps of it. So I know a lot of people do spend money. on sort of fancy bartending schools. And I can't tell you one way or the other if that's very helpful. It's probably a good introduction. It's probably like most people's experiences with school that you start to learn something, but until you're actually on the job, you don't know it. And since bartending is sort of rapid fire, it's a lot of multitasking. It's a lot of thinking on your feet and processing, usually in a place that's kind of noisy. It helps to know something in advance, but it's also probably very beneficial, I would say. to get your foot in the door. And if that means starting as a bar back or starting as a bus person in a restaurant and working your way up, that that's the way to do it. How Speaker 2 (4:04) long were you a bar back? Speaker 1 (4:06) Me, a couple of months. But I was in a unique situation. I was working with somebody that required additional help. I've worked in other places where sometimes bar backs are there for a long time. They don't, either they don't want a bartend or, and that's acceptable. And you know, it's, it's a good. honest labor. You get tipped out by the bartenders. You get an hourly wage. So you're usually probably doing okay. I Speaker 2 (4:30) do want to touch on the money. The program is called How Much Can I Make? Speaker 1 (4:33) Yes. Speaker 2 (4:34) So you mentioned tips. Most of your pay is from tips or from hourly work? Speaker 1 (4:39) It's a little bit different now because... The service industry employees, so restaurants and bars, make an hourly wage that's, I don't think it's New York State minimum wage, but it's much more than you used to make. So for instance, I think 2025, it goes up to $10.40 an hour for bartenders. But with the tips, your money is going to be radically higher than that. And so generally, I would say in Kingston, New York, I work in a neighborhood, it's not a dive bar, but it's not a cocktail bar. And probably in tips, I make about $30 an hour in addition to the hourly wage. Speaker 2 (5:17) Right, but what if you have two bartenders? I've seen places, so you have to split the tips? Then Speaker 1 (5:23) you split the tips. Speaker 2 (5:24) Split the tips. Speaker 1 (5:25) And so generally, it's Speaker 2 (5:26) a Speaker 1 (5:26) system that you work out with the management, and you just try to be consistent. If there's two bartenders, you split the tips evenly. Speaker 2 (5:34) And the barback doesn't get anything. Speaker 1 (5:36) incorrect. Barback generally, and it changes depending on what place you go, is generally most places in New York, I'd say it was about 20 to 25%. So it just depends. We do, it's probably about that in Kingston. So. You're getting something for your time. And if you apply yourself and you're observant and you're hardworking, you'll also be able to, if you want to, transition to bartending. Speaker 2 (6:00) So there is a barbec, bartending. Is there anything above it? Speaker 1 (6:04) Some places have managers.