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As promised, here’s the follow-up to yesterday’s somewhat controversial 10 Best-Paying Jobs in America post. Lots of food workers in the worst-paying jobs list.
The 10 Worst-Paying Jobs in America
1. Combined food preparation and serving workers, including fast food
Mean Annual Wage: $15,930
One-Year Change: 2.4%
No. In Employment: 2461890
2. Cooks, fast food
Mean Annual Wage: $15,960
One-Year Change: 3.0%
No. In Employment: 612020
3. Dishwashers
Mean Annual Wage: $16,190
One-Year Change: 2.7%
No. In Employment: 502770
4. Dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers
Mean Annual Wage: $16,320
One-Year Change: 3.3%
No. In Employment: 401790
5. Hosts and hostesses, restaurant, lounge, and coffee shop
Mean Annual Wage: $16,860
One-Year Change: 2.6%
No. In Employment: 340390
6. Counter attendants, cafeteria, food concession, and coffee shop
Mean Annual Wage: $16,950
One-Year Change: 3.5%
No. In Employment: 524410
7. Gaming dealers
Mean Annual Wage: $17,010
One-Year Change: 6.0%
No. In Employment: 82960
8. Shampooers
Mean Annual Wage: $17,050
One-Year Change: 4.5%
No. In Employment: 15580
9. Waiters and waitresses
Mean Annual Wage: $17,190
One-Year Change: 5.4%
No. In Employment: 2312930
10. Ushers, lobby attendants, and ticket takers
Mean Annual Wage: $17,500
One-Year Change: 4.5%
No. In Employment: 101530
Comments (17)
Comment
- Follow mental_floss
Yup, that’s about right. Does it take tips into account for the restaurant workers?
posted by Shann on 6-11-2008 at 2:12 pm
These are the people preparing your food. Makes you wanna think twice before complaining about the service or the way something is cooked.
posted by Tessa on 6-11-2008 at 2:29 pm
Shouldn’t “student” be on that list somewhere? My income is really more of an out-go, these days.
posted by erm on 6-11-2008 at 2:43 pm
anyone care to extrapolate on the job requirements of a “shampooer” and what exactly are they shampooing.
posted by Florida on 6-11-2008 at 3:30 pm
Man, I work in a independent coffee shop and all the freakin time we get customers who come in complaining that they think that we get paid way too much for what we do. Strabucks skews the figures too, they start at 7.25/hr (it may be higher now, thats when I worked there)
I LOVE MY MINIMUM WAGE JOB, HARR HARR.
Oh and the things I get to look forward to once I graduate! Maybe 8.00 an hour!?!? Who knows!
posted by Rose on 6-11-2008 at 3:43 pm
Yeah…as a server I claimed $17,000 on my taxes, but I only worked 15 hrs. per week. So, I think this is pertaining to like mom&pop diner type servers.
posted by Carla on 6-11-2008 at 3:44 pm
i was a bartender for 8 years in NYC…without tips i think my wages were less than 20k….with tips, i think it was somewhere around 65k–after taxes…
i won’t say how much of it i pissed away however…
posted by brian on 6-11-2008 at 3:48 pm
No wonder why I got out of that field.
posted by Brandy on 6-11-2008 at 4:03 pm
yea the server thing…you figure a lot of people make good money serving, but a lot of people dont. A server working at a 5 star restruant is going to make a lot more than a person working at waffle house…another thing to take into account is how many servers actually claim all of their tips? you cannot have accurate data when inaccurate numbers are punched into the calculator.
posted by molly on 6-11-2008 at 4:44 pm
Florida: a shampooer is the person that washes your hair at a salon before passing you off to the stylist for the actual hair cut.
posted by Sara on 6-11-2008 at 5:12 pm
I wonder where teachers would fall in this list…
posted by Johnny Cat on 6-11-2008 at 6:23 pm
I want to see teaching assistants on that list…I made much less than any of those average amounts doing that job. I had benefits, yes, but made less actual currency than any of these jobs.
@ Johnny Cat – The average teaching salary is about $47,000 a year. Thank goodness I finally got a teaching job and got to drop the aide thing!
posted by Fruppi on 6-11-2008 at 7:17 pm
I suppose those incomes do include tips. The federal minimum wage (which is $5.85 an hour) has an exemption for those who make tips. An employer only has to pay them $2.13 an hour if they make enough in tips to get them UP to minimum wage.
A person working full time all year at minimum wage would make $12,168 a year. An awful lot of people live on that, or slightly more. When you see statistics about the low number of people who make minimum wage, they aren’t counting waitresses and the huge number of folks who make $6 an hour.
posted by Miss Cellania on 6-11-2008 at 8:22 pm
Add retail to the list..Sears pays well below the poverty level with horrible health insurance(that you don’t keep when you retire)
posted by Andy on 6-11-2008 at 8:41 pm
As people mentioned above jobs that include tips really change the total. Some bartenders can make several hundred a night just from them. Still that doesn’t really effect the top 5,so nice list :D
posted by Josiah on 6-11-2008 at 8:58 pm
You forgot retail. Walmart pays m=barely decent and works their employees (oh, wait. I mean ‘associates’) like hell with little training. Truckloads of fun, I tell ya.
posted by heather on 6-12-2008 at 1:27 am
I actually have to assume this list doesn’t include tips, Miss Cellania. That tax credit law is not in effect in all states. I’m not sure which ones, but I know for a fact that the minimum wage in Washington state is 8.07 an hour, and they cannot apply a tax credit to tipped employees.
Also, I happen to know a ton of poker and blackjack dealers, and they make a LOT more than this list claims they do. However, in some states they don’t have to claim their tips, or they only have to claim a portion, so that could be accounting for the number listed here.
posted by Suzanne on 6-15-2008 at 12:49 am