Waiters and Waitresses
Take orders and serve food and beverages to patrons at tables in dining establishment.
Most important skills
- Service Orientation
- Active Listening
- Speaking
- Social Perceptiveness
- Coordination
- Monitoring
- Critical Thinking
- Reading Comprehension
Key knowledge
- Customer and Personal Service
- English Language
- Sales and Marketing
- Food Production
- Mathematics
- Administration and Management
- Psychology
- Education and Training
What the work involves
- Check patrons' identification to ensure that they meet minimum age requirements for consumption of alcoholic beverages.
- Collect payments from customers.
- Write patrons' food orders on order slips, memorize orders, or enter orders into computers for transmittal to kitchen staff.
- Take orders from patrons for food or beverages.
- Check with customers to ensure that they are enjoying their meals, and take action to correct any problems.
- Serve food or beverages to patrons, and prepare or serve specialty dishes at tables as required.
- Prepare checks that itemize and total meal costs and sales taxes.
- Present menus to patrons and answer questions about menu items, making recommendations upon request.
Strongest interest areas (O*NET): Conventional, Social, Realistic.
Qualifications and licensing
- Most common education
- High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) (57.6% of respondents)
- Related experience
- None (55.6%)
- On-the-job training
- Anything beyond short demonstration, up to and including 1 month (55%)
- Preparation level
- O*NET job zone 2: Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed
- Licensing
- Not yet verified. Check your state licensing board.
Check before planning
- Licensing for Waiters and Waitresses is not yet verified for any state: check the state licensing board before planning.
Limits
- Distributions show what current workers or occupational experts report, not legal minimums.
- Requirements vary by employer and state; time to qualify is not estimated.
Source: O*NET 31.0 Database (USDOL/ETA, CC BY 4.0); BLS Employment Projections · dataset 2026.10.8 · method e3-qualification-1.0.0
Work environment
How the typical conditions of this occupation compare with 911 occupations in O*NET (very low = the lowest fifth).
Levels are relative. Most occupations involve a lot of contact with people, for example, so “very low” can still mean regular contact; the last column shows what workers actually reported.
| Condition | Level | Compared with other occupations | Most common answer (O*NET survey) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact with others | Very high | Higher on contact with others than 86% of occupations compared | 95% of surveyed respondents chose “Constant contact with others” |
| Dealing with the public | Moderate | Higher on dealing with the public than 52% of occupations compared | 53% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Teamwork | High | Higher on teamwork than 67% of occupations compared | 70% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Freedom to make decisions | Very low | Lower on freedom to make decisions than 91% of occupations compared | 42% of surveyed respondents chose “Some freedom” |
| Time pressure | Very low | Lower on time pressure than 97% of occupations compared | 30% of surveyed respondents chose “Never” |
| Conflict situations | Low | Lower on conflict situations than 63% of occupations compared | 49% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a month or more but not every week” |
| Dealing with unpleasant or angry people | High | Higher on dealing with unpleasant or angry people than 67% of occupations compared | 48% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a month or more but not every week” |
| Consequence of error | Very low | Lower on consequence of error than 97% of occupations compared | 47% of surveyed respondents chose “Not serious at all” |
Work-pressure profile
- Time pressure: very low
- Conflict situations: low
- Dealing with unpleasant or angry people: high
- Consequence of error: very low
Each part is shown on its own. There is no combined stress score, and conditions vary by employer and role.
Full answer distributions
Contact with others
- No contact with others: 4.13%
- Occasional contact with others: 0%
- Contact with others about half the time: 0%
- Contact with others most of the time: 1.13%
- Constant contact with others: 94.74%
n = 40, Incumbent 08/2025
Dealing with the public
- Not important at all: 23.7%
- Fairly important: 15.65%
- Important: 4.68%
- Very important: 3.24%
- Extremely important: 52.72%
n = 39, Incumbent 08/2025
Teamwork
- Not important at all: 0%
- Fairly important: 0%
- Important: 23.41%
- Very important: 6.96%
- Extremely important: 69.63%
n = 40, Incumbent 08/2025
Freedom to make decisions
- No freedom: 0%
- Very little freedom: 25.28%
- Limited freedom: 21%
- Some freedom: 42.49%
- A lot of freedom: 11.24%
n = 40, Incumbent 08/2025
Time pressure
- Never: 29.81%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 22.19%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 11.68%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 11.99%
- Every day: 24.33%
n = 40, Incumbent 08/2025
Conflict situations
- Never: 24.11%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 9.15%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 48.77%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 14%
- Every day: 3.98%
n = 40, Incumbent 08/2025
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people
- Never: 1.21%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 21.95%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 47.64%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 22.36%
- Every day: 6.85%
n = 39, Incumbent 08/2025
Consequence of error
- Not serious at all: 47.49%
- Fairly serious: 39.71%
- Serious: 8.43%
- Very serious: 2.01%
- Extremely serious: 2.36%
n = 40, Incumbent 08/2025
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O*NET-SOC 35-3031.00 · SOC 35-3031 (exact, high confidence) · dataset 2026.10.8