Show me the money...

What are typical bartender salaries? Do some companies pay a lot more for this position than others? What does a top earner make in this field?

What skills should you learn to increase your salary?

You can't even really use the word "salary" when it comes to bartending. It all depends on those people on the other side of the bar as to what you're gonna' make. It usually doesn't matter much what the company pays unless, maybe, you're at a union casino that pays 16 dollars an hour or something. Paychecks are merely icing on the cake and nothing more. It all depends where your working. There's a common misconception with people who don't know the idustry at all that all bartenders are going to make roughly the same. These same people usually have no idea how much money can be made in the field. At a dead, hole in the wall bar you could be making 300 dollars a week. Or, you could be a restaurant service bartender making 30 dollars a shift. On the other hand, if you're in a high volume bar in one of the countries major markets(Vegas, L.A., N.Y., etc) you could be making 2,000 a week, or better. All depends where you're at. You could work at a busy bar with gambling, the right person hits a royal flush, and you just made 100 dollars for serving a beer.
Making more money is just common sense. Either work in a busier place, or improve your following, and improve it with tippers. Two people who also work in the industry can be worth ten people who don't to your tip jar. Building your clientele should come naturally.

Yo!
im just curiuos about the tips in new york.
It was said in the previous reply that example a ny bartenders could make 2000 dollars a week or better , but for myself thats a extreme amonut of money to be " counting " so to give a more realistic number , what would that be ?
im a bartender myself so of course i know that it all has to do with how service minded, knowledgable ,how good you are with guests and once and a while how lucky one are to meet just that right person who is a really good tipper.
My point is though that i hate to rely on a high number, cause ther are no garanties to make so and so much money
And i dont want to have an expectation on how much to make and it turns out that thats a 1 in a million tip per week soo
But somewhere one might be able to estimate a number based on experience and hear-say...... so there it is

or maybe 2000 dollars/week is not at all an exageration ..

i just want to know if there "big" money in New York