Bartender
Also called barman, bar woman, bar staff
Bartenders serve alcoholic or non-alcoholic drinks as requested by clients in a hospitality service bar outlet.
What you'd do
Bartenders · ILO- Taking beverage orders from serving staff or directly from patrons
- Preparing and serving alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks at a bar
- Washing used glassware, cleaning and maintaining bar service areas, tea and coffee-making areas and equipment such as espresso machines
- Collecting payment for sales, operating cash registers and balancing cash receipts
- Tapping kegs and attaching supply lines
- Assisting in keeping bar properly stocked and arranging bottles and glasses
- Checking identification of customers to verify age requirements for purchase of alcohol
- Taking steps to limit problems related to excessive drinking such, as persuading customers to stop drinking, declining further service and ordering transportation
- Mixing ingredients to prepare cocktails and other drinks
- Serving snacks or other food items to customers at the bar
- Indoors
- On your feet most of the day
- Constant contact with people, including the public
- Good freedom to decide
- Usually under 40 hours a week
- Few deadlines
- Some repetitive tasks
Will there be jobs?
Yes, good prospects12 EU countries are short of bartenders now, and a typical number of jobs will need filling by 2035.
Solid: measured. Dashed: forecast.
What does it pay?
Below averagePay depends a lot on the country: from about €900 a month (Bulgaria) to €3,900 (Denmark), before tax.
Pick a country at the top of the page to see typical pay there, for people under 30, and compared with all jobs.
Among service and sales workers in the EU, women earn 3% less per hour than men. Service and sales workers · Eurostat
What do I need to study?
Upper secondary or vocationalUpper secondary or vocational training is the usual route.
Pick a country at the top of the page to see where to study and the official course finders.
Will AI change it?
Very littleAI could help with only small parts of the tasks.
Average task score 0.26 on a scale from 0 (AI can't do it) to 1 (AI could do it fully).
See the score for each of the 10 tasks
Based on what AI could technically do when assessed in 2025. It is not a forecast for a future year, and not a forecast of job losses. Scores for bartenders. Source: ILO (2025), adapted (credits).