Starting Salery

[navenjohnson]

I realize this may vary from place to place, but what is the starting salary a relatively inexperienced (in distilling), new assistant manger/ distiller should expect to receive annually?

Just asking generally here.

[nabtastic]

$10-25/hr depending on what your role really is.  If you're stepping into a larger company and they have strong workers union or something like that, you could be on the upper end.  If you work at a mom n pop type shop and you have little mgr experience and relatively no distilling experience, probably closer to the bottom.  Education? Benefits?  Rural or downtown in a big city?

Bottom line, unless you bringing something extra to the table, consider the next few years as if you are in a low-paid internship.. 

[JoshGreenDoor]

I'm curious too if anyone has feedback on tasting room staff pay scales. Managers vs mixologist(bartender) etc.. 

Cheers

[Ross Topliff]

As Nabtastic stated, the pay scale will vary a lot depending on location, experience, local labor market, and actual duties. The $10/hr on the low end seems a bit low to me, although if the location is very rural and experience minimal, that may be a realistic rate. I am thinking that starting at around $15/hr would be reasonable. I must admit that my experience is based around industrial personnel, rather than craft beverage firms. For tasting room staff, I believe that would be equivalent to restaurant staff. If you want good personnel who will relate well to your customers, hire the best people you can afford and do everything you can to keep them happy.

[Michaelangelo]

I routinely see adds for tasting room/brand ambassadors/general distillery production help on Craig's List for $12 an hour. Mind you, this is part time help. If this will be a full time paid position you will be closer to $16 to $18 an hour to start. I think you should be conscious of the averages in your market which you can obtain from your local municipal Ecomonic Development Department.  You would then need to adjust based on the experience of the candidate. A guy who has five years or better as a brewer who might know a thing or two about grains, mashing, general operations supervision should command a higher price tag as long as you can afford to pay him.