Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between lead servers and fine dining servers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a fine dining server has an average salary of $32,140, which is higher than the $28,677 average annual salary of a lead server.
The top three skills for a lead server include customer service, new servers and fine dining. The most important skills for a fine dining server are wine, fine dining, and cleanliness.
| Lead Server | Fine Dining Server | |
| Yearly salary | $28,677 | $32,140 |
| Hourly rate | $13.79 | $15.45 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 123,215 | 77,549 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 49% | Bachelor's Degree, 53% |
| Average age | 28 | 28 |
| Years of experience | - | - |
A lead server is responsible for assisting the guests' needs, responding to their inquiries, and immediately addressing their dining concerns. Lead servers ensure the timely and accurate serving of orders, offering promotional menus and other additional services. Lead servers must have excellent communication skills to interact with the guests, as well as time-management and multitasking skills to perform duties in the fast-paced environment. They also help in developing strategic procedures and food menu recommendations by researching on the latest food trends in the industry to generate revenues and attract more customers.
Fine dining servers the people who make your stay at a restaurant enjoyable. They deliver well-written orders for the kitchen to prepare and bring your food and beverage. Being a fine dining server is no easy task, as certain skill sets need to be met in order to become an effective dining server. An efficient server is detail-oriented, observant to the needs of the diners, and intuitive. An extensive knowledge of wines and other specific food categories may be required depending on the restaurant.
Lead servers and fine dining servers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Lead Server | Fine Dining Server | |
| Average salary | $28,677 | $32,140 |
| Salary range | Between $11,000 And $70,000 | Between $21,000 And $47,000 |
| Highest paying City | New York, NY | - |
| Highest paying state | Hawaii | - |
| Best paying company | Microsoft | - |
| Best paying industry | Hospitality | - |
There are a few differences between a lead server and a fine dining server in terms of educational background:
| Lead Server | Fine Dining Server | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 49% | Bachelor's Degree, 53% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between lead servers' and fine dining servers' demographics:
| Lead Server | Fine Dining Server | |
| Average age | 28 | 28 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 37.5% Female, 62.5% | Male, 39.6% Female, 60.4% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 11.3% Unknown, 5.7% Hispanic or Latino, 19.7% Asian, 8.7% White, 53.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8% | Black or African American, 11.4% Unknown, 5.8% Hispanic or Latino, 19.6% Asian, 8.2% White, 54.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 6% |