Occupations · Food Preparation and Serving
Fast Food and Counter Workers
Perform duties such as taking orders and serving food and beverages. Serve customers at counter or from a steam table. May take payment. May prepare food and beverages.
O*NET 30.3 Database (USDOL/ETA) · occupation code 35-3023.00
What it pays
A single “average salary” hides the spread. This is the whole distribution — the gap between the bottom and top bar is usually the number that matters.
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024 · national, cross-industry · annual wage
These are national figures, identical for every reader. The report recuts them for your metro area and ranks it among all of them.
Get yours →Pay over time
Median up 34% between 2019 and 2024, before inflation. The band shows the 10th to 90th percentile.
BLS OEWS, one release per year. Before May 2011 only national estimates were published, so geography detail starts there.
Where the jobs are
| Metro area | Median wage | Employed |
|---|---|---|
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA | $35,420 | 175,790 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | $36,480 | 153,840 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | $27,610 | 121,610 |
| Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI | $33,020 | 104,270 |
| Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX | $26,960 | 89,540 |
BLS OEWS May 2024, metropolitan estimates · the 5 areas with the most people in this occupation
Your metro area, and where it ranks
LockedAll metropolitan areas BLS publishes for this occupation, with your own city's median and its rank among them.
Open in your report →Typical education to enter: No formal educational credential · BLS Employment Projections 2024–34
What people in this job actually do
Ordered by how important the work is rated.
- Serve customers in eating places that specialize in fast service and inexpensive carry-out food.
- Accept payment from customers, and make change as necessary.
- Perform personnel activities, such as supervising and training employees.
- Request and record customer orders, and compute bills, using cash registers, multi-counting machines, or pencil and paper.
- Balance receipts and payments in cash registers.
- Add relishes and garnishes to food orders, according to instructions.
- Communicate with customers regarding orders, comments, and complaints.
- Serve food, beverages, or desserts to customers in such settings as take-out counters of restaurants or lunchrooms, business or industrial establishments, hotel rooms, and cars.
- Monitor and order supplies or food items, and restock as necessary to maintain inventory.
- Perform cleaning duties, such as sweeping, mopping, and washing dishes, to keep equipment and facilities sanitary.
- Distribute food to servers.
- Select food items from serving or storage areas and place them in dishes, on serving trays, or in take-out bags.
O*NET 30.3 task ratings, importance scale
Skills that matter most
Importance, rated 1 to 5.
O*NET 30.3 skills, importance scale
Software and tools
A dot marks what O*NET flags as in demand.
O*NET 30.3 software skills · hot-technology flag
What this work is actually like
Conditions rated against the average across all occupations — only what makes this job different is listed.
O*NET 30.3 Job Zones
Working conditions that stand out
O*NET 30.3 work context, frequency scale · observed 2025-08
How people actually get in
Share of workers by the education they hold.
O*NET 30.2 education, training and experience · observed 2025-08
What kind of person the work suits
Occupational interest profile, rated 1 to 7.
O*NET 30.2 occupational interests (RIASEC)
Tasks O*NET flags as emerging
- Check and monitor food temperatures while cooking.
O*NET 30.3 emerging tasks
What you take with you
Skills rated for how well they transfer into other occupations.
O*NET 30.3 transferable skills, importance scale
Knowledge the work draws on
Abilities it leans on
O*NET 30.3 abilities and knowledge, importance scale
How this job is advertised
The same work is posted under many titles — this is what to search for.
O*NET 30.3 job titles reported for this occupation
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What changed since 2020
Comparing O*NET release 25.1 (2020-11-01) with 30.3 (2026-05-01). Signs, not colour alone, carry the meaning. 1 entries that were only relabelled between releases are left out.
Now listed 1
No longer listed 2
Diff across the O*NET releases held here in full since October 2015, following occupations through merges and retirements. O*NET re-surveys occupations on a rolling cycle, so “no change” can also mean “not re-surveyed”.
Related jobs
O*NET 30.3 related occupations
Also called
O*NET 30.3 alternative titles
The same work in Europe
| ESCO occupation | ISCO | Match |
|---|---|---|
| quick service restaurant crew member | 9411.2 | exact |
| waiter/waitress | 5131.2 | close |
| street food vendor | 5212.1 | broader |
| airline food service worker | 5246.1 | broader |
Official ESCO ↔ O*NET crosswalk (ESCO Secretariat with USDOL/ETA)
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