The Datum Report

Occupation 5436 · Skilled trades occupations

Catering and bar managers

Half of full-time catering and bar managers in the UK earn more than £29,789 a year, and half earn less.

Catering and bar managers plan, direct and co-ordinate the catering and bar facilities and services of licensed premises, factories, shops, theatres, educational premises and other establishments. They also manage outside catering businesses and shops selling food cooked on the premises.

How people enter it

Entry is possible with a variety of academic qualifications and/or relevant experience. Larger catering and licensed premises chains offer managerial trainee schemes. Candidates for these usually require a BTEC/SQA award, a degree or equivalent qualification, or a professional qualification. Off and on-the-job training is provided. NVQs/SVQs in relevant areas are available at levels 2 to 4.

What the work involves

• plans catering or bar services and supervises staff
• decides on range and quality of meals and beverages to be provided or discusses customer’s requirements for special occasions
• purchases or directs the purchasing of supplies and arranges for preparation of accounts
• verifies that quality of food, beverages and waiting service are as required and that kitchen and dining areas are kept clean in compliance with statutory requirements
• checks that supplies are properly used and accounted for to prevent wastage and loss and to keep within budget limit

Also called

Bar manager · Catering manager · Floor manager (restaurant) · Kitchen manager · Steward (club)

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for catering and bar managers, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 11 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Bakers and flour confectioners · Butchers · Chefs · Cooks · Fishmongers and poultry dressers