Oh okay, I see what the problem is. I was assuming you were either in the industry or at least were familiar with it. Or maybe its different where you are. I apologize for that. I should have explained everything so the average person would understand. So, private bartending is a cash, and now more frequently an app payment, based business. The employers, at least when I was working, know not to mark the app payments as wages. No one I know in that business actually reports income to the government, and the apps don't report non-wage transfers which is where the BLS gets its averages from. That website sources its information from the BLS. Also, the job I mentioned is a mainly Friday to Sunday. It's typically not a weekday one. Again, I thought you were in the industry and I didn't need to explain this. I know people who work full time in the restaurant/bar industry and was never interested in making that my full time profession. I can't give you any real personal insight into someone who worked their way up from washing dishes as an immigrant to running their own place. But I had a tenant who rented a house from me and then eventually a restaurant space from me who did end up doing this and he is a illiterate illegal immigrant who's formal education ended when he was about ten years old. So it is technically possible for a Chinese person to do the same.
So to be clear, I think you are also confused about core discussing being had. I entered the conversation giving the typical hourly wages as an average for certain industries, as much as I was aware. You seem to have latched onto the high end of the industry and at the same time seem to have conflated that with your conception that I am claiming these averages is what every Chinese person will make. I've claimed neither of these things. I don't understand where this misconception is from, sorry if you are disappointed with that.
When comes to the other numbers, I'm not an attractive woman who is willing to pretend every insecure man is deeply charming and interesting person to get them to overspend on alcohol (which the women get a percentage of) or in direct tips. They were either my friends or in some cases, I watched the cash tips being transferred and was making the drinks on the tab so this is how I know what they were making. I assume those wages were not reported either, I don't do their taxes so I can't really say. If these numbers seem high, I don't know what to tell you other than men become really foolish with money if an attractive women gives them attention.
That being said in my experience, I could see a few of them earning a $35-40 hourly wage if they had good english skills, basic construction knowledge, their clientele was wealthier people, and most importantly they have good social skills. I did unlicensed contracting for a few years at that rate. If they are willing to work 50-60+ hours a week, they can make a decent living. Its not what degree or if they have the legal right to be working if they are self employed. People generally don't ask basic labor what their immigration status is for unlicensed work. If you need examples, I can recount stories about the various random labor I was paid to do for about $150-250 for one to three hours of work but its really boring. Or the slightly more technical housing repair jobs at around $300-750 for the same amount of time. You will probably scoff at what wealthy people were more than willing to pay for if it concerned their home, but again the jobs were really uninteresting.
Trust me, that guy is completely wrong. He is either making up the numbers completely out of thin air or he happened to have been like the literal handful of bartenders who made that kind of money.
Allow me to elaborate further because this is actually a moderately complex subject and requires explaining.
OK so that kind of money is only possible at maybe a few places in the major cities or 'party places'. Think Las Vegas or Scottsdale, Arizona (if you're not American that last one is a surprise but believe me it's a lot of partying there) and a tiny few other places. Why? Because the only 'establishments' (they do not prefer the word "bar") that you can make this good money just as a bartender are those super exclusive night clubs or other places where the door guys are, quite frankly, douchebags (there's no way of saying it nicer honestly), it's the "models and bottles" crowd (sometimes affectionately known as "skanks"), and you have to know someone to get in, be a super rich person (at least 8 figures networth bare minimum), be a celebrity or something like a household name NBA player, etc. Look you get the point.
It's that super materialistic, ultra douchebag, waste money like it's nothing kind of 'clientele'.
Ya there's only a handful of places in even cities like NY, LA, Vegas, Miami, etc. that are like that.
Ok but now realize something else. That it's only certain special occasions like New Year's, Halloween, Black Wednesday (it's an informal Thanksgiving celebration for those of you not American), etc. that you can make that kind of money. In fact, on New Year's especially you might be able to make more than what he listed even!
But guess what?
You abso-fucking-goddamn-lutely do not, at all, whatsoever, make that kind of money ON AVERAGE!
You do not make that kind of money just every night or even most nights. In fact, once you actually look at the kind of bartenders that make this kind of money but for their whole year's income or the last couple of years they've been doing this? Ya it starts looking very much not so good...like you won't be even close to what an average doctor, investment banker, SF tech bro, or biglaw lawyer makes. Not even close. In fact, the type of bartender that this guy allegedly is...his annual income will not be that much higher than $100k. After taxes too if I'm being generous. Maybe a little more.
Also, this type of bartender absolutely cannot do this as a career. Why? You want to know the real truth? Because 9 out of 10 of them are just hot blonde chicks, LOL! No seriously.
Ya when you're 21 years old and just barely legally allowed to serve alcohol the creepy old rich guys are going to be tossing money at you like pornstars at a stripclub. more even.
When you are 41 years old and those same creepy old rich guys see another 21 year old ya who do you think they're going to prefer? Who do you think the bar owners are going to prefer to hire to make him the most money? Who do you think the social and cultural market demand of american partyism is going to prefer?
So ya I don't know why that guy is trying to make it seem like his story (if it's true even) is anything at all like the norm in America. It's not. Not even close. Making that kind of money is like the equivalent of becoming a Hollywood super-star for aspiring actors and actresses everywhere (Hint: take a look at the numbers of SAG-AFTRA members...you think all those background people in movies are just random people?)
Oh and just FYI...I had a boss who made can consistently make $30k a NIGHT...on New Year's Eve...as a doorman. But ya nobody here actually thinks that's realistic for a doorman in America right? Nobody here doesn't realize that maybe this boss of mine was like maybe one of 3 - 4 people in our entire city (a MAJOR city in America that all of you know of) who got to this point after working in the indusry for more than 10 years and even then has to give up his own New Year's Eve?
