The Datum Report

Occupation 9264 · Elementary occupations

Waiters and waitresses

Half of full-time waiters and waitresses in the UK earn more than £22,936 a year, and half earn less.

Waiters and waitresses serve food and beverages in hotels, clubs, restaurants public houses and other establishments.

How people enter it

There are no formal academic entry requirements, though some employers may require GCSEs/S grades. Training is typically provided on-the-job. NVQs/SVQs in relevant areas are available at levels 1 and 2.

What the work involves

• sets tables with clean linen, cutlery, crockery and glassware
• presents menus and wine lists to patrons and may describe dishes and advise on selection of food or wines
• takes down orders for food and/or drinks and passes order to kitchen and/or bar
• serves food and drinks
• presents bill and accepts payment at end of the meal

Also called

Food and beverage assistant · Silver service waiter · Steward (catering) · Waiter · Waitress

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for waiters and waitresses, 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. 9 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

Bar and catering supervisors · Bar staff · Coffee shop workers · Hospital porters · Kitchen and catering assistants · Leisure and theme park attendants · Other elementary services occupations n.e.c.