Occupation · SOC 35-2021
Food Preparation Workers Salary
Food Preparation Workers earn a median of $35,320 a year in the United States, which is $16.98 an hour. The mean is $35,290, and 893,600 people are employed in the occupation.
The full pay range
A single average hides most of what a reader wants to know. BLS publishes the whole distribution, so here it is: each row is the annual salary at that point in the pay range for food preparation workers.
Annual salary by percentile May 2025
| Percentile | Annual salary | Typically |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $25,810 | entry level, or a lower-paying region |
| 25th percentile | $29,950 | early career |
| Median (50th) | $35,320 | half earn more, half earn less |
| 75th percentile | $38,550 | experienced |
| 90th percentile | $45,340 | top of the field |
Food Preparation Workers salary by state
These are the 12 states that employ enough food preparation workers for BLS to report a reliable figure, ordered by median pay. A state missing here either employs too few to publish or falls below the threshold this site uses.
Median pay by state May 2025
| State | Median | Hourly | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Washington | $40,910 | $19.67 | 19,510 |
| California | $39,350 | $18.92 | 112,750 |
| Florida | $35,920 | $17.27 | 73,100 |
| New York | $35,610 | $17.12 | 62,380 |
| New Jersey | $35,540 | $17.09 | 24,730 |
| Georgia | $35,250 | $16.95 | 26,450 |
| Illinois | $34,850 | $16.75 | 34,820 |
| Minnesota | $34,850 | $16.76 | 24,620 |
| Texas | $30,650 | $14.74 | 81,280 |
| North Carolina | $30,260 | $14.55 | 24,960 |
| Tennessee | $28,700 | $13.80 | 19,780 |
| Louisiana | $23,620 | $11.36 | 30,920 |
Common questions
How much do food preparation workers make?
The median salary for food preparation workers in the United States is $35,320 a year, which is $16.98 an hour. The mean is $35,290. Median and mean differ because a small number of very high earners pull the mean upward, so the median is the better answer to what the job typically pays.
What is the highest salary for a food preparation worker?
The highest-paid 10 percent of food preparation workers earn $45,340 or more. That is the highest figure the survey publishes for this occupation; there is no reported maximum, and individual earnings above it are not broken out.
How many people work as food preparation workers in the US?
893,600, as of the May 2025 release. That covers wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments and excludes the self-employed, who are not surveyed.
How much do food preparation workers make a month?
About $2,943 a month before tax, which is the published annual median of $35,320 divided by twelve. BLS publishes annual and hourly wages rather than monthly, so treat this as arithmetic on the annual figure, not a separate measurement.
Do food preparation workers make $100,000 a year?
Rarely, on the published data. Even the best-paid 10 percent earn $45,340 or more against a median of $35,320, so a $100,000 figure usually involves overtime, self-employment (which this survey does not cover), or a move into a different role.
Which state pays food preparation workers the most?
Of the 12 states with enough food preparation worker employment to report reliably, Washington has the highest median at $40,910, against a national median of $35,320. A higher median is not automatically more money in hand, because cost of living varies at least as much as pay does.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure above is published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 release, for SOC code 35-2021. Nothing here is interpolated or averaged by this site. The survey covers wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments and excludes the self-employed. See how to read these figures for what that means in practice.