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A Night in the Life of a Waitress at Marquee

Discussion in 'Vegas Nightlife' started by Kickin, Sep 28, 2013.

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  1. Kickin

    Kickin Flea

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  2. lasvegas_limo_driver

    lasvegas_limo_driver MIA

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    $1000 a night is a low ball number.
     
  3. shifter

    shifter Degenerate Gambler

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    now that dude has it down.
     
  4. Travel Fanatic

    Travel Fanatic The Arbiter of Taste Caviar Kid

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    Yeah, stay classy
     
    The plans have changed
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  5. brandi.boots

    brandi.boots Low-Roller

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    I need to think about starting a new gig! If you worked 3 nights a week, for 4 weeks, that's $12,000 a month. And they didn't have to spend the years or money on a college education like I did. Go figure..
     
  6. lasvegas_limo_driver

    lasvegas_limo_driver MIA

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    When I bartended Mon-thurs was 800-1200 a night, Fri and sat 1500-2000 and Sunday's varied from 600-2000 depending on what was going on
     
  7. hammie

    hammie VIP Whale

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    Time will take their youth, but not your education.
     
  8. Someone

    Someone High-Roller

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    as we all wade back into reality ask yourself this....@ $3,000 per week X 50 weeks per year with 2 weeks off that is $150,000 per year

    making $150,000 per year starting in your early 20s should get you set up nicely for the future if you have any type of financial or common sense at all

    yet how many times have you ever run into an attractive (or formerly attractive or still semi-attractive) 45yo female that was clearly financially successful and ask her what she did and her answer was "I used to be a cocktail waitress in Vegas and now I am retired or now I have my own business or now I have some great career that came from the ability to have money saved and get an education and switch careers then the looks faded"

    the answer to that is pretty much never and probably only more rare than that is the former stripper that is retired at 45 or even 50 with any money to their name

    if you put them into the 28% tax bracket, ignore a large part of their income is cash and do the basic math

    $150,000 per year X .28 = $42,000 so you are left with $108,000 per year......if you live on $75,000 per year you have
    $33,000 per year to invest and if you can do that for 10 years you would have $330,000 in the bank not including the growth of your investments

    if you could live in $60,000 per year you would be investing $48,000 per year and would have $480,000 at the end of those 10 years not counting growth of your investments

    and while a half a million is not enough to retire on comfortably for most if you started at 21....went for 10 years to 31.....invested well......kept reinvesting most of your returns VS living on them even after you turned 31 and went to another career in another 14 years when you are 45 you should have around $1,500,000+ in the bank if your $500,000 you had when you 31 doubled every 7 years as conservative financial investors say you should be able to do......now there will be down times, but the reality is $500,000 doubling in 7 years from 31yo to 38yo would be $1,000,000 and doubling again from 38 to 45 would be $2,000,000

    so making $150,000 per year from 21-31......living on $60,000 per year......ignoring a large cash income that is probably unreported......making no efforts to reduce taxes.......investing very conservatively.....not touching those investments until 45 a cocktail waitress should be able to retire at 45 making about $90,000 to $100,000 off of her investments

    but the reality is most of them do not come close to making that much money, if they do they live on $149,750 per year and bank $250........they have no plan for when they hit the big 30......the buy BMWs and crappy built "high end" condos in developments that are going to decline in value no matter what property values do and then there is the other "habits" like shopping and others that are more addictive

    the best 98% can hope for is to not wear themselves out or trash themselves out at their "ink guy" and their "other guy" and they can meet someone that has money and get sugar daddies from 30-35 while they get an education or perhaps find a husband

    and most of these articles are written by clowns that want you to feel as though you have to spend and tip like that while in these places as part of the promotion of these places......do you really think any of these rags are going to report about the waitress that actually brings home $75,000 per year + after taxes, but still has huge credit card debt, no savings or investments, rents a decent apartment, struggles to make her car payment, has no education and is not going to school and is starting to feel aged at 27.......that is not very glamorous
     
  9. dfalk

    dfalk VIP Whale

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    "500 Number of bouncers, security staff, bartenders, cocktail waitresses"

    That number seems really high. Does it really take that many people to run a club?
     
  10. lasvegas_limo_driver

    lasvegas_limo_driver MIA

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    Most clubs will have 160-200 , the big ones 240-260
     
  11. Dean Martin

    Dean Martin VIP Whale

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    I don't know... I mean, I get it but youth is such a short period in your life and this stuff is all so phony. Works if you die at 30 I guess but if you don't....what then?
     
  12. lasvegas_limo_driver

    lasvegas_limo_driver MIA

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    There is a few bottle poppers and bartenders in clubs that are their 40's.
     
  13. RockyBalboa

    RockyBalboa Front Line Winner

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    collar poppers...I guess they don't realize how clownish that looks...
     
  14. xmarksx

    xmarksx VIP Whale

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    Adding to the comments by Someone.

    • That's $500 - $1000 when the club is consistently busy. Wonder what the life expectancy of a club is? Cannot be that long.
    • They are suffering through a cesspool of smoke and loud music
    • Customer base contains a percentage of insanely drunk and high individuals who may feel entitled to rude and abusive behavior based upon the obscene amounts of money they are spending.

    I worked the door for a fairly popular dance club in the early 90's - certainly nothing like the clubs in Vegas so perhaps my opinion that follows is not correct. My opinion, there is absolutely nothing glamorous about working the door, working the floor of the club or being a cocktail waitress. I was in my 30's and went home every night with sore feet, knees and ankles. I stunk of cigarette smoke and could not wait to hit the shower.

    Another thing, it was a huge relief when the lights came on and the DJ turned down the music to a nice quiet level as we cleaned up.
     
  15. Kickin

    Kickin Flea

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    I know this is just a "soft" piece but my major gripe with it is that nothing is properly sourced. Total fail in terms of journalism, especially coming from an editor at Conde Nast. We have no idea where they got any of those numbers, it could just be random crap they heard from some bartender, bouncer, or some other random front line employee who doesn't know shit. Unless they're sourced from the club management I wouldn't put much stock in them.

    I completely agree with Someone that you can probably count the number of people who worked as cocktail waitresses or bouncers as a springboard to better things on one hand. If you believe it you're probably the guy who also believes every stripper really is doing it to pay for graduate school. :evillaugh
     
  16. RiddickBull

    RiddickBull VIP Whale

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    $1000 per day in tips, 3 days a week. That is more than some dentist I know make. It is more than all engineers I know make. The highest paid engineer I know makes about $130k with a PhD, who has been in the business for over 20 years.

    If I was a hot girl, I would do it too. You are lucky to make $50k + with a 4 year degree as an entry level job.

    Imagine how much the strippers make....
     
  17. Someone

    Someone High-Roller

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    I would like to be sure to make one thing clear.....I do not look down on cocktail waitresses at all I like cute girls and it is very hard work as XMarkSX said and often putting up with a lot of idiots and jerks and fools that think touching you inappropriately or saying inappropriate things to you is part of your job to accept when I personally feel nothing is further from the truth.......if you want that get a whore or go to a strip club

    also I think many of them do make good money for being very young and probably with only a high school degree or some college hours towards a degree

    what I do not believe is the amount of money that it is stated they make especially in Vegas or LA or New York or similar places at the high end clubs......if they do make that kind of cash I wish they or their boss would find a way to get some better financial sense into them so they can make use of the short period in their life when they will make that kind of cash (again I doubt they make that kind of cash) to set themselves up for their long term future

    now strippers I really have no use for and little respect for especially since so many of them have such a hard time coming to grips with the fact they are strippers.....the stories about graduate school, the inflated money they make, the "I don't really belong here" attitude of some of them (even though you are right there on the pole sweetie) and again the inability to make anything of any of the money they MIGHT (doubtfully) make

    strip clubs especially is like when I sold cars for a short period of time (feel free to hold that against me as I hold it against myself).....the managers loved nothing more than to hear one of the salesman was looking at a new car or a boat or had just gone to the suit store.......they loved you spending money because the more you spent the more desperate you were to make money and you would put up with 12 hour days 6 days a week

    strip clubs are the same way the management loves a girl buying new "costumes" or shoes or other worthless crap to "perform" in (uh sweetie the guys want to see you nude your stupid outfit is in the way) and fancy makeup and nails done and on and on......spend spend spend baby

    if you have even driven by a major strip club in a big city in the day and seen where the employees all park the cars you will see are not the cars of people making $150,000 per year what you see is junk that is torn to hell and dented up and running on the donut tire and filled with $2,000 in old stripper cloths and spandex and probably has already had 3 engines and a transmission in 5 years of ownership....exterior lights burned out or busted out....just crap.....hell management probably puts tacks under their tires and sugar in their tanks at some of the clubs

    sadly I would imagine that some higher end regular clubs are not much better as far as pushing spend spend spend don't save a dime.....schedule to make it impossible for any of them to go to school (all the worse since there are plenty of pretty young candidates to take the job if one leaves for better things or future opportunity)

    I have serious doubts about the earnings and worse I am positive that management does everything in their power to make sure the earnings, no matter the amount, are spent and gone as fast as they come in and sadly at regular clubs I think it is because some of them can't stand the idea of their former waitstaff having a better retirement than they might if they did make that much money and invest a large portion of it properly
     
  18. worldtraveler661

    worldtraveler661 VIP Whale

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    ok like many posts on VMB, alot of our comments are assumptions. This is one thread I can say I have some direct information that can shed some light on this issue. LOL.

    I personally have 7 friends that work at Marquee. 4 are promoters/management and 3 are waitresses. Of the 3 Waitresses, they were previously models in the auto industry. Your typical car show, magazines, auto trade show, calendar type models. They have also done other print ads for other industries as well. All of them have some type of education after HS but I dont know if any have finished a 4yr college. These 3 were well known and successful models currently.

    I also know of several other previous and current models that do work at Hakkassan, XS and a couple other local bars in the Vegas area.

    First of all the ones that work at Marquee, I know of 2 that are currently active in modeling so they still have additional income other than their night job at the club. I dont know what they make, but I do know they are well off. Driving nice cars such as BMW and MBZ.

    In general I know most live in your typical apartments and houses. I know of one Waitress that does live in one of the Condo bldgs at City Center, so seems like she does well for herself.

    Most of the girls are mid 20s to late 20s. Most are not married and couple do have kids.

    Anyway, my point is... These girls do make decent money. And they know that there is a lifespan to how long they can do this. So in their eyes, they will last as long as they can since these jobs are done by audition type every year. Others can easily take their place when a new young face comes along. But I know of previous waitresses that have quit on their own since the scene does take a toll on your body and not everyone can last years doing this.

    Like with any profession, each person has their choice on what they spend on their salary and if they want to invest it. Someone said that management does everything in their power for the girls to fail in investing, ets. I honestly believe that this doesnt happen. At least not in a Vegas club. A Vegas club is not a sleazy strip club from a movie where you think the manager/owner is some dirty ******bag that takes advantage of his employees. LOL.
    You really can't target these girls specifically in saying that they should invest their earnings, since that should apply to every dang person in this whole world who has an income that can seem like they could have "excess".

    From the lifestyle that these girls live, they do make up in that range, if not more. I cant say exact of course, but the numbers on the article is average. You have to think that these girls can be handling a section of tables totaling 15-20K or one $20-30K+ table on one night. Even after splitting the tips with busboys and security, they are making decent money per night.

    At the end of the night, its a job like many of us have. It may not be hardwork for some of you and some may think of it as a joke of a profession, but there are many jobs that could be thought of the same. Take the article as a fun insight to what happens behind the scenes. Dont think too deep into it trying to figure out if they all are doing it just to put themselves thru school... lol. or looking for that sugar daddy. haha.
     
  19. Drc517

    Drc517 Low-Roller

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    Just my thoughts..

    Lets say one cocktail waitress and one security takes care of two tables. Conservatively speaking, the average minimum per table is $2500. If there's 30 tables, and there's mandatory 20% tip, total tip divided by thirty (cocktail waitress + bouncers), you're still at $500. This is a conservative estimate, table prices can go up the roof so as the 20% tip.

    When I went inside Tao two years ago, I noticed there are only two or three cute bartenders on the center bar and orders are non stop, they could probably rack up conservatively $3000-4000 a night in tips just from that bar alone.

    So with this, I believe the numbers are legit at least $500 a night on a slow day. I wonder if these places provide benefits (health insurace, disability, etc)...
     
  20. Kickin

    Kickin Flea

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    Oh I think the numbers on their tips are totally realistic estimates. When we used to do bottle service here in NY all the time we would assume they were making over $1k/night just from our experiences and those were much smaller venues. But if a reporter is going to write an article any numbers should be sourced and at least provide some context. The same goes for the rest of the numbers, they pass the sniff test but the point of an "inside" article like this should be to provide some actual information. I doubt they get benefits by the way, they aren't full time employees and they're exceptionally transitory.

    Over the years I probably couldn't count the number of times colleagues have dated these waitress/model/actress type girls (or cheated on their wives with them). Some of them were basically sugar daddies paying for the girl's apartment, etc. It's not like the girls were really well off. Granted a couple hundred thousand doesn't go as far in NY as it would in Vegas but it should still be enough for them not to worry about paying the rent. But that wasn't the case. Point being, if they're making $1000+/night, extrapolating it out to a yearly income probably doesn't work. There's a sea of pretty young girls out there replacing one another in these opportunities all the time.
     
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