You own the wine list in a restaurant, buy the bottles and sell them at the table. The exams are famously hard and the pay is mostly tips.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
The median pay is about $35,230 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $18,100 at the lower end to about $64,720 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
1 to 5 years, on the usual route, and you are paid while you train from the first day.
$700 to $6,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
It depends where you work. You need a license, certificate or registration in California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Washington. Elsewhere there is none to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Good demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median for the group
$35,230
Bottom tenth
$18,100
Top tenth
$64,720
The federal wage survey has no separate line for sommeliers. It counts them inside Waiters and Waitresses, where the national median is $35,230 a year. The bottom tenth earn $18,100 or less and the top tenth $64,720 or more (2025 federal wage survey). These yearly figures are the hourly rate times 2,080 hours, 40 hours a week all year, and they cover every server, not only sommeliers.
$18,100 to $27,750
What the bottom tenth to bottom quarter of waiters and waitresses earn, 2025
In your first year you are usually bussing, running food or serving while you study for the first exam. Almost nobody is hired as a sommelier straight away. You take a floor job in a restaurant with a serious wine list, taste everything you can, and ask to help with the cellar.
$62,390 a year
The median for waiters and waitresses in Hawaii, the highest of any state
Vermont is next at $59,140 and Washington state at $56,130. The lowest is Louisiana, at $15,080. State medians from the 2025 federal wage survey, for all servers, not only sommeliers.
Roughly, all in
$700 to $6,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is the online introductory course and examination at $649 plus an alcohol server permit, which is usually under $25, taken by someone learning the rest on a restaurant floor. The high end adds the certified level examination, which many people sit more than once, and the Wine and Spirit Education Trust awards at Levels 2 and 3, roughly $800 to $1,500 each. Neither figure includes the wine you buy to taste, which runs for years and is the real ongoing expense. There is no federal student aid for any of it, because none of it is a college degree, but good restaurants often pay part of an exam fee for staff who stay.
There is no federal student aid for any of this, because none of it is a college degree. Good restaurants often pay part of an exam fee for staff who stay, so ask before you pay yourself.
Tips
Most floor sommeliers are in the tip pool. A busy Saturday in a high end room pays far more than a quiet Tuesday.
Salary
Wine directors and beverage directors are usually salaried, which trades the big nights for a steadier number.
No pension
Restaurants rarely offer retirement plans. Health insurance exists in bigger groups and hotels, and almost never in small restaurants.
Nights and weekends
The money is on the nights everyone else is out. Plan your life around that.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
No degree and no sommelier license. You work the floor and pass exams while you do it.
High school diploma
Grade 12
That is the only school requirement. Hospitality classes help but are not needed.
Get into a restaurant with a real wine list
6 to 18 months
Start as a busser, runner or server. You are learning service first and wine second, because a sommelier who cannot run a section is no use.
Introductory Sommelier Course and Examination
A few days
The first of four levels run by the Court of Master Sommeliers Americas. A short course and a written exam. You must be of legal drinking age.
Certified Sommelier Examination
Usually 1 to 2 years later
Three parts: naming four wines blind in 45 minutes, a 45-question theory test, and a service test at the table. This is the badge that gets you hired as a sommelier.
Advanced and Master
5 years and up
The Advanced Sommelier Course and Examination, then the Master Sommelier Diploma Examination. Years of study each, and most candidates never finish.
Geography
Wine is mostly maps. Rivers, hills, latitude and soil decide what grows where.
A second language
French, Italian, Spanish or German. Labels, regions and grapes are all in them.
English and speech
The job is talking to strangers about something they may find intimidating, without making them feel small.
Chemistry and biology
Fermentation, acid and sugar are the mechanics behind everything you taste.
No state licenses the title. California, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont and Washington require everyone who pours alcohol to pass server training or hold a state permit. California, Florida, Illinois, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Washington also require a food handler card of restaurant floor staff. Elsewhere it is up to the county or the employer.
Three organizations run almost all the credentials you will see on a resume.
Court of Master Sommeliers Americas
Four levels, built for people working on a restaurant floor. Heavy on blind tasting and service.
WSET (Wine and Spirit Education Trust)
A British school with approved providers in most large American cities. Levels 1 to 3 and then a Level 4 Diploma. More academic, less service.
Society of Wine Educators
Runs the Certified Specialist of Wine and the Certified Specialist of Spirits, which you can study for at home.
Community college hospitality programs
Some run wine courses inside a culinary or hotel degree. Useful if you also want the management side.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Certified Specialist of Wine
From the Society of Wine Educators. A written exam you can study for on your own, respected in retail and distribution.
WSET (Wine and Spirit Education Trust) Level 3 Award in Wines
The point where importers and distributors start taking your resume seriously.
Spirits and sake certifications
Beverage director jobs cover the whole list, not just wine. Knowing spirits makes you harder to replace.
Advanced Sommelier
The third Court level. Rare enough to stand out on any resume.
A tasting group
Blind tasting alone is close to useless. Everyone who passes trains in a group, splitting the cost of bottles.
A harvest
A few weeks picking and working a crush at a winery teaches you more than a term of classes.
Inventory and ordering software
Wine directors are buyers. Being the person who can actually run the cellar count gets you promoted.
A second language
Especially Spanish in an American kitchen, and French or Italian for the wine itself.
Every bottle in every restaurant was sold by a distributor representative. Those jobs pay a base salary plus commission, run on normal daytime hours, come with a car allowance and hire people who have done time on a restaurant floor. Plenty of sommeliers move over in their thirties when the nights stop being fun. The wine knowledge transfers completely, and the income is steadier than tips.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
You arrive mid afternoon, before the cooks are ready. Check what sold last night, place orders, carry cases up from the cellar, polish glassware. Taste whatever a distributor representative has brought in. Line up by five and run the pre shift meeting on the two wines you want sold tonight. From six until close you are on the floor, opening bottles, decanting, and reading tables to work out who wants a $60 bottle and who wants a $600 one. You leave after midnight and do it again tomorrow.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
The Court of Master Sommeliers Americas lists fewer than 200 people in its Master Sommelier directory, across North and South America. It is the fourth and last level, after the Introductory, Certified and Advanced exams.
In the Certified Sommelier Examination you describe and identify two whites and two reds by taste alone, using a set method, in 45 minutes. Then come a theory test and a service test at the table.
The Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) is a charity based in London and its wine qualifications are regulated in the United Kingdom. Its courses are taught by approved providers in cities all over the USA (United States of America) and its Level 3 award is a standard line on American wine resumes.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Front of house first, then the rest of the field. See every career in food and hospitality.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in United States dollars, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data and published pay scales. They vary by state, employer and experience. Tuition is for in-state students at public schools unless the card says otherwise. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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