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7 Of The 10 Lowest Paying Jobs In U.S. Are In Food Industry

Posted by Jason Sheehan on November 9th, 2011

Think your job sucks? Well, if you’re working at the low end of the food industry in this day and age, then you’re probably right.

Yesterday, someone from the Huffington Post was apparently cruising around the Bureau of Labor Statistics website (‘cuz that’s how they roll) and stumbled across a a 6-month-old report on “Occupational Employment and Wages” which found that the fastest route to selling your blood for rent money in the United States of America is to work with food. And we’re not just talking fast food here (though fast food is certainly a big part of the Top 10), but at all kinds of restaurants.

Of the 10 lowest paying jobs in the country, 7 of them were food-related. If you don’t count farming, then 6 of them were specifically restaurant-related. And that just blows–especially in an industry where being at the top of the food chain (figuratively speaking) has a good chance of buying you a nice summer house in Martha’s Vineyard, and maybe a vineyard to go with it.

Here’s how the list of shitty ways to make a buck shook out.

10 Farmworkers–yearly mean wages $20,040
9 Cashiers–yearly mean wages $19,810
8 Amusement and Recreation Attendants (read: Carnies)–yearly mean wages $19,750
7 Hosts and Hostesses–yearly mean wages $19, 600
6 Dining Room Attendants and Bartender helpers (read: Barbacks, busboys, etc.)–yearly mean wages $19,320
5 Counter Attendants (read: The dude who serves up your pizza slices at lunch)–yearly mean wage $19,280
4 Shampooers–yearly mean wage $19,140
3 Dishwashers–yearly mean wage $18,680
2 Combined Food Preparation Workers (read: cooks)–yearly mean wage $18,610
1 Cooks, fast food–yearly mean wage $18,540

So yes, kids, it really is better to be a migrant peach picker than a young line cook, making his bones and learning speed while slinging hash at the Waffle House. People wonder what happened to all the good, hard-working cooks who came up the hard way with no cooking school and no fancy stages on their resume? I’ll give you one guess.


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    • palvar

      Uhh.. I know bartenders (not anywhere fancy) who make more than double what is listed there.

    • Alex

      ^bartenders aren’t on the list, just helpers like barbacks.

    • Ace

      Ironically, you chose a photo of Marco P. White, who is not doing any paupering.

    • Meh

      You don’t go into a kitchen for the money. You usually go in because you’re a stoner who flunked out of college.

      “the world needs ditch diggers too”

    • Andrew

      Message here: Don’t get a job slingin’ hash at the waffle house unless it is the only place that will hire you because you are a mouth breathing dolt.

    • Andrew

      Also, alot of places pay under the table, so the government doesnt have those records.

    • F-you Meh

      Marco Pierre White did it the hard way, Ace, from the ground up. Meh, if you had any idea what it meant to love what you do, you wouldn’t be such a condescending prick. You go into the kitchen for love and passion for a craft. To make beautiful art that is gone shortly after you create it. Part performance and part creation, part mentor and part student, but mostly for yourself, knowing that even at the very top of the craft, your financial rewards are slim to none. My two degrees in advanced science notwithstanding, I know that I can out-work, out-think, and out-love most. Marco Pierre White would consume your soul.

    • Tim

      Lets get some things accurate.

      1. A counter person does not necessarily mean “The dude who serves your pizza slices at lunch”. So that isn’t really just food service.

      2. Barbacks….don’t need to speak English! Most today don’t.

      3. Dishwashers…ditto Barbacks.

      4. Food preperation workers aren’t really cooks…nor are fast food cooks! They are laborers!

      5. Hostess…is there any job that requires less brains?

      The jobs listed require no expertise or education, that is why they pay so poorly, they have for decades.

    • Ace

      @FYM, that’s nice.

      I guess my point was how silly it seems to picture a successful, wealthy chef under a headline highlighting the low pay of cooks. If not for the unkempt appearance of White in his early years, this photo seems like a weird editorial choice.

    • BWS

      @Tim. A hostess can make or break your restaurant. If you don’t hire one with brains, who can manage the book, seat appropriately , and handle reservations you are dead in the water.