Sommelier vs waitress

The differences between sommeliers and waitresses can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a sommelier has an average salary of $40,584, which is higher than the $24,770 average annual salary of a waitress.

The top three skills for a sommelier include wine, fine dining and POS. The most important skills for a waitress are food orders, food preparation, and customer orders.

Sommelier vs waitress overview

	Sommelier	Waitress
Yearly salary	$40,584	$24,770
Hourly rate	$19.51	$11.91
Growth rate	10%	10%
Number of jobs	1,802	87,315
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 64%	High School Diploma, 36%
Average age	28	28
Years of experience	-	-

Sommelier vs waitress salary

Sommeliers and waitresses have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Sommelier	Waitress
Average salary	$40,584	$24,770
Salary range	Between $24,000 And $68,000	Between $17,000 And $35,000
Highest paying City	New York, NY	Washington, DC
Highest paying state	New York	New York
Best paying company	Del Frisco's Restaurant Group	New York Institute of Technology
Best paying industry	Hospitality	Hospitality

Differences between sommelier and waitress education

There are a few differences between a sommelier and a waitress in terms of educational background:

	Sommelier	Waitress
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 64%	High School Diploma, 36%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	-	-

Sommelier vs waitress demographics

Here are the differences between sommeliers' and waitresses' demographics:

	Sommelier	Waitress
Average age	28	28
Gender ratio	Male, 68.3% Female, 31.7%	Male, 19.9% Female, 80.1%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 11.3% Unknown, 6.0% Hispanic or Latino, 21.5% Asian, 9.0% White, 51.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.9%	Black or African American, 11.9% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 20.2% Asian, 8.6% White, 53.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage	6%	6%

Differences between sommelier and waitress duties and responsibilities

Sommelier example responsibilities.

Manage sales and inventory for premier wine destination restaurant.
Wine, spirits and fine products sale.
Direct guest interaction and up-sell of wine and spirits.
Inventory, purchasing and cost control monitoring, transaction reconciliation, POS programming, payroll, sommelier work.
Purchase wines for one of the largest menu varieties in NYC.
Market wine selections with sales team through upselling or pouring wine product samples for testing.

Waitress example responsibilities.

Manage a recurring book of business of top VIP clients secure through networking.
Relay orders to bar and kitchen by quickly and accurately recording guest selections and keying them into the POS computer system.
wait tables, handle money, exceed guest expectations, serve food and drinks, micros, clean, side work.
Increase store sales by upselling merchandise.
Enter order/payment information into micros system, deliver receipt and change to the customer.
Bring wine selections to tables with appropriate glasses, and pour the wines for customers.

Sommelier vs waitress skills

Common sommelier skills

Wine, 44%
Fine Dining, 13%
POS, 5%
Culinary, 5%
Spirits, 4%
Sommeliers, 3%

Common waitress skills

Food Orders, 13%
Food Preparation, 9%
Customer Orders, 8%
POS, 7%
Drink Orders, 5%
Customer Service, 5%

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Sommelier
Sommelier vs Waitress

Updated January 8, 2025

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