As Craft Beer Grows, So Do Craft Beer Incomes. For Some.

Hey all, I’d like to get your opinion on compensation for various staff. This is a throwaway because most employees of my brewery are redditors.

My brewery is about 1.5 years old and growing like crazy. Our tasting room is packed every day we’re open. The servers are all part time and all know our beers well and are personable. On a decent Saturday they’re taking home $400 to $500 in tips (not counting their hourly wage). Other days of the week are just as good for them on an hourly basis ($40 to $50 per hour in tips alone). Tips are averaging 18% to 22% most weeks.

Our brewing staff is also part time but they make anywhere from $8 to $12 per hour. Full time employees make more but that’s not my concern here. All of our brewing staff have a decent amount of knowledge about how we make our beer and why we do all the steps we do. They’re happy to scrub and clean and do everything it takes to make great beer. So if they happened to work the same 10 hour shift as the beer server, they’re making at most $120 busting their ass while the server who’s only job is to pour and talk are making at least 3 times as much.

In my mind, if a server quits we could replace them in a couple of days with anyone with some bartending experience or moderate beer knowledge. But the people in the back of the house have spent quite a bit of time learning our processes, following our checklists, and learning why we do what we do.

So I guess I’m looking to other brewery owners for their opinions.

Here’s various things I’ve been thinking about:

1. Tell me to suck it up, that’s the way the world works. Life ain’t fair, if they want to serve they should go get that job.
2. Pay all of the brewery staff more to encourage them to stay and not go to the front of the house.
3. I’ve thought of hiring more servers to be on staff at once to help split those tips more. Not sure if they’re really needed though.
4. Let the brewing staff quit on a regular basis because there is an unlimited supply of people that want to work at a brewery for $8/hr
5. I thought about a pilot system where the brewing help can make a batch of whatever they feel like and get a profit from each pint sold.

Thoughts?

You can read the original and all 46 comments (so far) here. They are definitely worth a read if this topic is of interest to you. I have some thoughts on various aspects of the subject, which I will try to summarize below.

$400 – $500 Per Shift as a Craft Beer Server?

There are a few key pieces of information missing from the post above that would help clarify the circumstance (i.e. is it a brewpub or just a tap room, and where is the business located), but no matter where or what the business is, $400-$500 in tips per shift as a server is GOOD MONEY.

In the comments to the original post, I half expected others to react to these figures citing that they were likely the exception and not the norm. Most, however, did not react, and the original redditor’s question/issue seemed to strike a chord with other brewery owners.

My background professionally is in the (high cost of living) California wine industry where I originally worked as a tasting room employee and manager. Neither I or anyone I worked with in winery tasting rooms earned the kind of money that Craft Beer servers now seem to earn.

It should be noted that the business model and compensation model of a winery tasting room and a beer tap room are totally different. Winery tasting room staff earn a base wage and then often earn commissions based off of sales and of wine club sign ups. The base wage is usually a few dollars per hour higher than minimum wage, and for seasoned employees, the base wage can be substantially higher than minimum wage. Tips (when I worked) were a welcome rarity.

Tap rooms, on the other hand, operate more like bars, and brewpubs are usually full-service restaurants. The base wage for servers in these circumstances will likely be closer to minimum wage as it is understood that most of their income would come in the form of gratuity. Still, $400 – $500 per shift for any server in any bar/restaurant (from fine dining to high volume) would be considered VERY GOOD MONEY.

Is It Fair?

The anonymous redditor who posted this thread did so primarily to receive feedback on how he/she should handle the income disparity taking place at their brewery. While their part-time serving staff are earning all this cash, their part-time brewing staff are earning a mere $8-12 per hour. That is a huge difference, and the comments in the thread were telling of the various opinions on the matter.

On one hand, the servers are on the front lines communicating the story of the brewery and selling the beer. If it wasn’t for their job well done, the beer would likely not get sold and there would be no work for the brewers and supporting staff. On the other hand, there would be no sales/serving position if there was not a passionate and committed brewer and production team behind the scenes willing to do the work. It’s a classic chicken and egg situation, and I don’t have the answer.

I do concur with several of the reddit commenters that in this specific situation a hybrid position may be the most “fair” for this brewery. Give the part-time brewing staff an opportunity to work in the high paying “front-of-the-house”, and vise-versa. It never hurts to have a well-rounded staff, and many servers may also want the chance to work behind the curtain. A craft beer server can be just as passionate about craft beer as a brewer is about making it.

Is there a Bubble?