November 29, 2005 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Food preparation and serving occupations, November 2004

The food preparation and serving occupational group—which includes chefs, cooks, and waiters and waitresses—was the lowest paid occupational group in November 2004.

Distribution of workers in food preparation and serving related occupations by wage range, November 2004
[Chart data—TXT]

Nearly 65 percent of the 10 million workers in this group earned less than $8.50 per hour.

Among all occupations, the five lowest-paying were related to food preparation and serving. The lowest-paying occupation was fast food cooks, who earned $7.32 per hour, on average. 

These data are from the Occupational Employment Statistics program. To learn more about occupational earnings and employment, see Occupational Employment and Wages, November 2004 (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 05-2145. 

 

Related TED article:

Happy 10th Birthday, TED!

The very first issue of The Editor's Desk (TED) was posted on September 28, 1998. TED was the first online-only publication of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For 10 years, BLS has been committed to posting a new TED article each business day, for a total of over 2,400 articles so far.

Find out more about the story of TED