Mean Salaries: Is Foodservice’s Low Pay Balanced by Growth Opportunity?

Forbes.com ranks foodservice jobs as the worst paying in America. But industry representatives counter that career growth and ‘gateway’ employment offset modest starting salaries.

By Derek Gale, Associate Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, 6/19/2007

Foodservice jobs of all types—from dishwasher, to prep cook, server and bartender—are heavily represented on Forbes.com’s recently published list of the 25 best- and worst-paying jobs in America.

The lowest paying jobs across all professions, according to the list, are held by the 2.5 million people who cook, prepare and serve in quick-service restaurants (with a mean annual salary of $15,230), followed by dishwashers ($16,190), busboys ($16,320) and hosts/hostesses in coffee shops or diners ($16,860).

Even positions that are generally more highly regarded, and in which many people believe there is more money to be made, such as server and bartender, rank among the 25 worst-paying jobs (with mean annual salaries of $17,190 and $18,540 respectively).

But every story has two sides, and the survey takes only a surface-level look at an industry that offers millions of job (foodservice is the largest private employer in the country) and growth opportunities. It also serves as a cornerstone of the nation’s economy, offering one out of every seven new jobs, counters the National Restaurant Association.

“The industry’s need for employees will [continue] for the next decade,” says Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of research for the Washington, D.C.-based NRA, noting that an additional 2 million jobs are likely to be created over the next 10 years.

In May alone, two out of five jobs created in the private sector were in restaurants, Riehle notes. And foodservice will offer some 426,000 summer jobs this year, second only to the construction industry.

Some of these are entry-level positions, and perhaps even first jobs. “Obviously, when individuals are younger, and just entering the employment market, wage levels will be lower compared to those with higher tenure,” Riehle says, referring to the generally low salaries that counter help in QSRs, bussers and dishwashers can expect.

Further, as stated in the NRA’s online response to the Forbes.com article, some of the restaurant positions mentioned “ may not rank highest in terms of hourly wages because [they] are often a gateway for new employees to enter the industry and work their way up the ladder to management positions—in many instances working one’s way from the dish room to the board room.”

Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald’s has begun a nationwide campaign promoting such career opportunities, with spokeswoman Karen King, who started as a crew member in a McDonald’s store and currently serves as east division president of McDonald’s USA, overseeing some 5,000 restaurants.

With the current shallow labor pool and the demographic forecasts for the next decade showing a considerable labor shortage (the 16- to 24-year-old age group, which comprises nearly half of all foodservice employees, shows essentially no growth), “the industry has been diligently working to develop career paths not only within specific organizations but within the industry overall,” Riehle says. “Operators have laid the foundation to deal with this demographic challenge.”

Riehle notes that part of the planning by operators includes investing in developing and training the current work force and helping those individuals to acquire new and more advanced skill sets, which in turn translates to higher earnings capacities.

“If a restaurant employer works with staff to enhance their educational foundation, it ends up being a win/win for both,” he says.

Did you know? Nine out of 10 salaried employees at table-service restaurants started as hourly employees.
--National Restaurant Association