If you're the kind of people-person who can manage a customer service job and are willing to go above and beyond for customers, you might consider yourself for the role of lead server. Whether you're new or a veteran of the game, a career as a lead server brings you new ways to hone in on your serving skills. Moreover, a role as a lead server may offer you strong wages, flexible hours, the ability to move around, a chance to earn fine tips, and appreciation for your services.
As a lead server, you may act as an integral member of the restaurant team, creating distinctively different and authentic experiences for your guests. Typically, your day consists of greeting guests, taking orders, checking on guest satisfaction, coordinating the service staff activities, and ensuring a better service flow. Another great advantage of becoming a lead server is that you can pretty much work anywhere as a server. You may work in hotels, cruises, fast food restaurants, banquet facilities, casinos, and other food and beverage service establishments.
There are no formal education requirements to become a lead server. You may be able to get this role with only a high school diploma or GED. However, earning an associate degree in hospitality management and previous experience working in a fast-paced food and beverage service establishment may help you become an ideal candidate for the role of lead server. Being the head of restaurant service, you may earn an average annual salary of 108,000 along with perks of free food or drinks. Not only that, but the employment outlook for restaurant servers expect to increase 6 percent by 2026, which means more jobs are foreseeable for you as a lead server.
What is a Lead Server?
What Does a Lead Server Do
There are certain skills that many lead servers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed detail oriented, physical strength and communication skills.
How To Become a Lead Server
If you're interested in becoming a lead server, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 49.3% of lead servers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 2.9% of lead servers have master's degrees. Even though most lead servers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Lead Server Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of assistant manager you might progress to a role such as general manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title general manager.
Average Salary for a Lead Server
What Am I Worth?
States With The Most Lead Server Jobs
Mouse over a state to see the number of active lead server jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where lead servers earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.
Number Of Lead Server Jobs By State
| Rank | State | Number of Jobs | Average Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Florida | 2,939 | $23,174 |
| 2 | Pennsylvania | 2,643 | $37,116 |
| 3 | California | 2,621 | $43,637 |
| 4 | Texas | 2,511 | $24,471 |
| 5 | Ohio | 2,419 | $27,871 |
| 6 | Illinois | 1,264 | $28,650 |
| 7 | Georgia | 1,240 | $25,930 |
| 8 | Michigan | 1,044 | $29,152 |
| 9 | North Carolina | 986 | $26,860 |
| 10 | New York | 966 | $50,966 |
| 11 | Indiana | 964 | $22,699 |
| 12 | Virginia | 950 | $34,831 |
| 13 | Colorado | 884 | $27,241 |
| 14 | Tennessee | 803 | $20,174 |
| 15 | Arizona | 783 | $30,196 |
| 16 | New Jersey | 767 | $46,566 |
| 17 | Utah | 764 | $23,372 |
| 18 | Missouri | 682 | $25,937 |
| 19 | Maryland | 670 | $42,236 |
| 20 | Kansas | 667 | $25,833 |
| 21 | Kentucky | 645 | $25,716 |
| 22 | Oklahoma | 627 | $19,958 |
| 23 | Massachusetts | 607 | $50,420 |
| 24 | Nevada | 560 | $26,345 |
| 25 | South Carolina | 540 | $26,039 |
| 26 | Arkansas | 506 | $23,019 |
| 27 | Wisconsin | 505 | $25,085 |
| 28 | Alabama | 486 | $21,983 |
| 29 | Minnesota | 457 | $29,360 |
| 30 | Washington | 442 | $43,072 |
| 31 | Louisiana | 418 | $21,644 |
| 32 | New Hampshire | 412 | $37,715 |
| 33 | Idaho | 383 | $27,559 |
| 34 | Iowa | 339 | $23,652 |
| 35 | New Mexico | 333 | $24,715 |
| 36 | Nebraska | 328 | $22,712 |
| 37 | Connecticut | 310 | $48,583 |
| 38 | Oregon | 273 | $39,327 |
| 39 | Montana | 246 | $22,446 |
| 40 | Rhode Island | 232 | $43,151 |
| 41 | West Virginia | 216 | $27,965 |
| 42 | Mississippi | 215 | $21,155 |
| 43 | Hawaii | 158 | $61,013 |
| 44 | Alaska | 140 | $57,898 |
| 45 | South Dakota | 133 | $23,471 |
| 46 | Delaware | 123 | $39,546 |
| 47 | Maine | 94 | $38,812 |
| 48 | Wyoming | 89 | $24,385 |
| 49 | Vermont | 39 | $43,670 |
| 50 | North Dakota | 37 | $25,670 |
Top Skills For a Lead Server
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 21.5% of lead servers listed customer service on their resume, but soft skills such as detail oriented and physical strength are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Lead Server Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Lead Server templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Lead Server resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Lead Server Demographics
Lead Server Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among lead servers, 62.5% of them are women, while 37.5% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among lead servers is White, which makes up 53.7% of all lead servers.
- The most common foreign language among lead servers is Spanish at 65.3%.
Online Courses For Lead Server That You May Like
1. Leading Healthcare Quality and Safety
Ensuring patient safety and healthcare quality is critical and should be a key focus of everyone in healthcare practice. This course provides healthcare practitioners and others with an introduction to the knowledge and skills needed to lead patient safety and quality improvement initiatives at the micro and macro levels. Participants will explore the foundations of health care quality and the science underlying patient safety and quality improvement, design and select effective health care...
See More on Coursera2. Setting the Stage for Success: An Eye on Safety Culture and Teamwork (Patient Safety II)
Safety culture is a facet of organizational culture that captures attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, and values about safety. A culture of safety is essential in high reliability organizations and is a critical mechanism for the delivery of safe and high-quality care. It requires a strong commitment from leadership and staff. In this course, a safe culture is promoted through the use of identifying and reporting patient safety hazards, accountability and transparency, involvement with patients...
See More on Coursera3. Patient Safety and Quality Improvement: Developing a Systems View (Patient Safety I)
In this course, you will be able develop a systems view for patient safety and quality improvement in healthcare. By then end of this course, you will be able to: 1) Describe a minimum of four key events in the history of patient safety and quality improvement, 2) define the key characteristics of high reliability organizations, and 3) explain the benefits of having strategies for both proactive and reactive systems thinking...
See More on CourseraBest States For a Lead Server
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a lead server. The best states for people in this position are Hawaii, Alaska, New York, and Massachusetts. Lead servers make the most in Hawaii with an average salary of $61,013. Whereas in Alaska and New York, they would average $57,898 and $50,966, respectively. While lead servers would only make an average of $50,420 in Massachusetts, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Alaska
$57,898
Avg. Salary
2. Hawaii
$61,013
Avg. Salary
3. Rhode Island
$43,151
Avg. Salary
How Do Lead Server Rate Their Jobs?
Top Lead Server Employers
Most Common Employers For Lead Server
| Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Darden Restaurants | $83,028 | $39.92 | 165 |
| 2 | Texas Roadhouse | $73,920 | $35.54 | 52 |
| 3 | Chili's Grill & Bar | $61,554 | $29.59 | 63 |
| 4 | Logan's Roadhouse | $58,284 | $28.02 | 54 |
| 5 | The Cheesecake Factory | $47,538 | $22.85 | 85 |
| 6 | Cracker Barrel | $38,982 | $18.74 | 64 |
| 7 | Pizza Hut | $29,669 | $14.26 | 59 |
| 8 | Buffalo Wild Wings | $29,283 | $14.08 | 77 |
| 9 | Applebee's Canada | $28,930 | $13.91 | 174 |
| 10 | Outback Steakhouse | $28,887 | $13.89 | 94 |