Server Job Description: Template, Duties, Requirements & Pay (2026)
A server takes and delivers orders, reads a table, upsells without being asked to, and carries the whole guest experience for four hours at a stretch. Below is a copy-paste server job description template, the requirements worth keeping, what federal law says about tipped pay before you write a wage line, and what it costs to reach restaurant staff on social, from Boostpoint's campaign data.
What a server does
Servers greet guests, explain the menu, take orders and relay them to the kitchen, deliver food and drinks, check back, clear tables, process payments and reset the section. Many also make simple items — salads, coffee — and verify age for alcohol. The BLS describes the environment as hectic and fast-paced, with pressure to serve quickly during peaks; about 85% of servers work in food services, with a further 6% in hotels and 4% in entertainment venues.
What the duty list leaves out is the part that decides whether a server stays: the section, the shift and the money. An experienced server reads a posting looking for how many tables they will carry, whether the shifts are lunches or dinners, whether tips are pooled, and what a good night actually pays. A posting that answers those four things outperforms one that lists fourteen duties, every time.
Before you write the pay line: what federal law requires
Server pay is the one part of this posting with legal exposure, so get it right before anything else. Under the federal rules published by the U.S. Department of Labor, a tipped employee is someone who "customarily and regularly receives more than $30 per month in tips," and an employer of a tipped employee "is only required to pay $2.13 per hour in direct wages if that amount combined with the tips received at least equals the federal minimum wage." If tips plus that direct wage fall short, the employer must make up the difference. DOL also notes that many states require higher direct wages for tipped employees than the federal floor.
On tips themselves, DOL states that "an employer cannot keep employees' tips under any circumstances; managers and supervisors also may not keep tips received by employees, including through tip pools," and that an employer running a mandatory tip pool "generally must fully redistribute the tips within the pay period." Where an employer pays the full minimum wage and takes no tip credit, non-tipped staff such as cooks and dishwashers may be included in the pool.
Server job description template
Copy this into your ATS or job board, replace the bracketed fields, and cut anything that does not apply. It is ordered the way servers read: money, shift, section, then the rest.
Job title
Server — [Lunch / Dinner / Weekend] Shifts, [Full-time / Part-time], [Restaurant name]
Summary
[Restaurant name] in [city, state] is hiring servers for [dinner] service. Base pay is $[XX.XX]/hour plus tips; our servers average $[XX]–$[XX]/hour all in on a [Friday] night. Sections run [4–5] tables. Tips are [kept individually / pooled and split by hours worked]. Shifts are [Wed–Sun, 4pm–close], and we schedule [two] weeks ahead.
Responsibilities
- Greet tables, explain the menu and specials, and take food and drink orders accurately
- Enter orders in [POS name] and communicate modifications and allergies clearly to the kitchen
- Run food and drinks, check back within [two] minutes of delivery, and pre-bus continuously
- Verify age for alcohol service and follow [state] responsible-service rules
- Process payments and close checks accurately
- Reset tables and complete opening, running and closing side work
- Support teammates in adjoining sections during peaks
Requirements
- Able to stand, walk and carry trays for a full [6–8] hour shift
- Available [Wed–Sun evenings], including [Friday and Saturday]
- [State] alcohol-service permit, or willingness to complete it within [30] days — we pay for it
- Reliable way to get to [neighborhood] for a [4pm] start
Preferred
- Previous serving experience in [casual / fine dining / high-volume] service
- Familiarity with [POS name]
- Wine or cocktail knowledge
- Conversational [language]
Schedule and pay
- $[XX.XX]/hour base plus tips; historical average $[XX]–$[XX]/hour combined
- Tips [pooled and distributed by hours worked / kept individually]
- [3–5] shifts a week, [schedule posted two weeks ahead]
- [Shift meal provided]
Benefits
- [Health coverage at 30 hours a week]
- [Paid time off after X months]
- [Employee discount] and [free shift meal]
- [Alcohol-service certification paid]
- [Promotion path to bartender, trainer or shift lead]
Requirements: what to keep, what to drop
Server postings fail in a predictable way. They list availability requirements that rule out the people most likely to take the job, and they omit the numbers everyone is looking for.
| Requirement | What to know |
|---|---|
| Actual shift and days | Keep, and be specific. "Flexible availability required" is the most expensive phrase in restaurant hiring — servers choose jobs by schedule. Name the shifts you need covered and let people self-select. |
| Alcohol-service permit | Keep, but make it trainable. Requiring a current permit removes candidates who would happily get one in a week. "Or willing to complete within 30 days — we pay" keeps the pipeline open. |
| Prior experience | Usually preferred, not required, unless your service is genuinely technical. Entry-level education for this role is none, and there are roughly 456,700 openings a year — an experience gate in a market that size is a choice to hire slower. |
| Physical requirements | Include them. Standing, walking and carrying trays for a full shift is honest, useful and does not deter people who already do this work. |
| Tip structure | Add it. Pooled versus individual changes the job and the money, and experienced servers will ask in the first phone call anyway. Saying it up front removes a category of wasted interviews. |
| Résumé upload | Drop it. Almost nobody applying for a serving job on a phone at 11pm has a résumé to hand. Take name, phone, availability and permit status; ask the rest at the interview. |
The single highest-value line you can add is a realistic combined hourly figure with the basis stated — "$26–$32/hour all in on weekend dinners, based on the last three months." It is checkable, it is what the candidate wants to know, and it is the reason people leave one restaurant for another.
How to customize it for your setting
Casual and family dining
Volume and consistency are your case: a steady section, predictable covers, and a schedule posted in advance. Lead with the shift pattern and whether weekends rotate.
Fine dining
Here experience genuinely matters, so say what "experience" means — courses, wine service, table-side preparation. Name the training you provide and the standard you hold, and expect a smaller, better-qualified applicant pool.
High-volume bar and grill
Speed and money are the pitch. State the covers, the section size and the honest all-in hourly on a busy night. Candidates who want this work want the pace.
Hotel and banquet service
About 6% of servers work in hotels, and the job is different enough to say so: set menus, event timing, gratuity often included, and shifts driven by a function sheet rather than by walk-ins. Mention whether banquet shifts supplement or replace restaurant shifts.
What it costs to reach servers on social
We do not publish a restaurant-specific cost per applicant — there is no server or restaurant family in our dataset, and we would rather say that than borrow a number from a neighbouring one. What we do publish is the shape of the whole picture. Across 891 campaigns and 1,334 campaign-months in our 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, the median campaign cost $13.88 per applicant and the volume-weighted average was $8.02. The nearest published family is customer service and administrative roles, at a $2.71 median with a 25% apply rate — adjacent to restaurant hiring, not a substitute for it.
The mechanic that matters transfers cleanly. Post-click conversion explains about 70% of the variation in cost per applicant across that dataset; what the auction charges explains about 18%. For a serving job that means the short form wins: name the shift and the money in the ad, ask two or three knockout questions, and do not ask for a résumé. The restaurant-specific view is in our cost per hire for restaurants breakdown.
If you are hiring servers rather than describing the job, the recruiting side — where restaurant staff actually are, what the ad has to say, and what an applicant costs to reach — is on our how to hire servers page.
Writing the ad version
The template above is for your ATS and careers page. The advertisement that runs on Facebook or Instagram is far shorter and answers three questions in the first two lines: how much, what shift, where. Something like: "Servers — $8/hr base plus tips, our team averages $27–$31/hr on weekend dinners. Wed–Sun, 4pm–close. [Restaurant], [Neighborhood]. Apply in 60 seconds, no résumé."
Then two or three knockout questions on the form — evening availability, permit status, distance — and nothing else. Every extra field costs completions, and each screening question buys precision with volume. The mechanics are in our candidate conversion rate guide, and the writing method is in job ad copywriting.
Frequently asked questions
What are the main duties of a server?
Greeting guests, explaining the menu, taking orders and relaying them to the kitchen, delivering food and drinks, checking on satisfaction, clearing tables, processing payments and setting up the dining area. Many servers also prepare simple items such as salads or coffee and verify age for alcohol purchases. Side work before and after service is part of the job in nearly every restaurant.
How much do servers make?
The BLS reported a median of $16.23 an hour, or $33,760 a year, for waiters and waitresses in 2024, a figure that includes tips. Actual earnings swing widely by restaurant type, shift and section size, which is why a posting that states a realistic combined hourly range with its basis outperforms one that quotes only the base wage.
What is the minimum wage for a tipped server?
Under federal rules, an employer is only required to pay $2.13 an hour in direct wages if that amount plus tips at least equals the federal minimum wage, and must make up any shortfall. A tipped employee is defined as someone who customarily and regularly receives more than $30 a month in tips. Many states require a higher direct wage, so check your state. This is not legal advice.
Can cooks and dishwashers share in a tip pool?
Only in specific circumstances. The Department of Labor states that where an employer pays the full minimum wage and takes no tip credit, employees who are not tipped employees — cooks and dishwashers are its own examples — may participate in a tip pool. Employers cannot keep tips under any circumstances, and managers and supervisors may not keep tips received by employees, including through pools.
Other job description templates
See all job description templates — free, editable templates for frontline, trades, healthcare and warehouse roles.
Hiring servers?
The job description is the document; the ad is the thing that gets read. We write it, run it where restaurant staff are actually scrolling, and report what each applicant cost — cost per applicant, not cost per hire.
Pay, employment, outlook and work-environment figures: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, Waiters and Waitresses (last modified August 28, 2025; 2024 wage and employment data), read August 28, 2026. Tipped-wage and tip-ownership statements: U.S. Department of Labor, Tips (dol.gov/general/topic/wages/wagestips) and Tip Regulations under the FLSA (dol.gov/agencies/whd/flsa/tips), both read August 28, 2026 — summarized here, not legal advice. Cost-per-applicant figures: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark — 891 campaigns, 1,334 campaign-months, advertising costs only. Cost per applicant is not cost per hire. Last updated August 2026.