occupation · 35-2021 · detailed
Food Preparation Workers — wages and employment
Food Preparation Workers earned a median annual wage of $34,220 in the United States in May 2024, with 888,770 people employed, according to the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
What stands out
Food Preparation Workers earned a median annual wage of $34,220 in the United States in May 2024, with 888,770 people employed, according to the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. The lowest-paid tenth earned $23,490 or less, the best-paid tenth $44,260 or more. Since May 2023 the median moved from $32,420 to $34,220, +5.6 %. The best-paying state is Washington at $38,950; the lowest Puerto Rico at $20,640. Among metropolitan areas, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA pays the highest median, $44,120. Wages are as published by BLS for May of each year; '≥ $239,200' is BLS's top code. Every value links to its fact record.
United States, year by year
Annual wages at the median, mean and four percentiles; employment is the May estimate.
| Reference | Employment | Median | Mean | 10th | 25th | 75th | 90th | Median hourly | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2024 | 888,770 | $34,220 | $33,940 | $23,490 | $28,740 | $37,540 | $44,260 | $16.45 | evidence → |
| May 2023 | 879,610 | $32,420 | $32,960 | $22,970 | $27,920 | $36,780 | $42,990 | $15.59 | evidence → |
By state
Median annual wage, May 2024, highest first. Each state has its own record with the full series.
| State | Median annual | Employment |
|---|---|---|
| Washington | $38,950 | 21,090 |
| Colorado | $38,670 | 11,290 |
| District of Columbia | $38,440 | 3,320 |
| California | $38,150 | 98,950 |
| Massachusetts | $37,780 | 14,890 |
| Hawaii | $37,240 | 4,780 |
| Vermont | $37,030 | 1,260 |
| Alaska | $36,710 | 2,840 |
| Oregon | $36,390 | 13,890 |
| New York | $36,030 | 51,880 |
| Maine | $35,730 | 5,540 |
| North Dakota | $35,700 | 700 |
| Arizona | $35,480 | 15,500 |
| Rhode Island | $35,460 | 2,250 |
| Connecticut | $35,420 | 11,450 |
| Florida | $35,190 | 67,030 |
| New Hampshire | $35,170 | 3,520 |
| New Jersey | $34,910 | 25,170 |
| Minnesota | $34,820 | 23,720 |
| Wyoming | $34,380 | 1,580 |
| Maryland | $34,310 | 12,160 |
| Illinois | $34,180 | 29,320 |
| Nevada | $33,910 | 11,280 |
| Delaware | $33,280 | 2,480 |
| Georgia | $32,890 | 27,200 |
| Wisconsin | $32,810 | 19,940 |
| Michigan | $32,810 | 14,380 |
| Nebraska | $32,420 | 8,210 |
| Utah | $32,090 | 9,370 |
| Ohio | $31,590 | 19,290 |
| Virginia | $31,500 | 16,170 |
| Idaho | $31,440 | 4,530 |
| Montana | $31,420 | 2,700 |
| Missouri | $30,530 | 15,250 |
| Pennsylvania | $30,150 | 20,540 |
| Indiana | $30,090 | 15,340 |
| South Carolina | $30,050 | 14,500 |
| Iowa | $29,840 | 5,050 |
| South Dakota | $29,820 | 3,320 |
| North Carolina | $29,410 | 24,420 |
| Kansas | $29,410 | 7,520 |
| New Mexico | $29,350 | 8,330 |
| Tennessee | $28,980 | 22,530 |
| Texas | $28,660 | 106,040 |
| Virgin Islands | $28,110 | 470 |
| West Virginia | $27,610 | 2,830 |
| Arkansas | $27,330 | 5,860 |
| Oklahoma | $26,450 | 7,030 |
| Alabama | $25,510 | 14,540 |
| Kentucky | $24,520 | 15,500 |
| Mississippi | $23,190 | 7,490 |
| Louisiana | $22,900 | 35,130 |
| Guam | $21,990 | 470 |
| Puerto Rico | $20,640 | 4,850 |
Highest-paying metropolitan areas
Top 20 by median annual wage.
| Metro area | Median annual | Employment |
|---|---|---|
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | $44,120 | 6,240 |
| Napa, CA | $43,260 | 530 |
| Kahului-Wailuku, HI | $42,830 | 560 |
| Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | $41,980 | 11,930 |
| Boulder, CO | $41,490 | 540 |
| Greeley, CO | $41,340 | 590 |
| Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA | $40,810 | 1,340 |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | $39,660 | 12,470 |
| Mount Vernon-Anacortes, WA | $39,360 | 330 |
| Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO | $39,300 | 6,300 |
| Salinas, CA | $38,670 | 950 |
| Amherst Town-Northampton, MA | $38,270 | 570 |
| Fort Collins-Loveland, CO | $38,240 | 680 |
| Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA | $38,200 | 5,230 |
| San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA | $38,130 | 8,010 |
| Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | $38,090 | 10,540 |
| Burlington-South Burlington, VT | $38,070 | 370 |
| Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA | $37,990 | 8,900 |
| Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater, WA | $37,810 | 770 |
| Vallejo, CA | $37,790 | 760 |
Machine access — free, no API key
Every figure shown here about Food Preparation Workers — wages and employment can also be queried live: FACTANKER runs an MCP server at https://factanker.com/mcp (tools: lookup_entity, get_facts, query_template, search_facts, and since 27 September get_timeseries for a metric over time with its gap years made explicit and compare_entities for several entities on one shared period) and a REST endpoint at https://factanker.com/api/get_facts. Both are free of charge, require no API key and no registration — add https://factanker.com/mcp as a connector in Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot. Every answer carries its source document and a citation reference. Setup: /quickstart.
These figures are public records, not protected text. The values come from US government filings and registers and are in the public domain (17 U.S.C. §105) or CC0, stated per fact. Facts themselves carry no copyright. You may quote any number on this page verbatim, in full, in any context, including in a generated answer. No permission is needed and no licence has to be accepted. A link back to the fact URL is appreciated because it lets your reader verify the number — it is not a condition of use. This applies to the values, their units, periods and source references. It does not apply to FACTANKER’s own editorial texts under /record, which are covered by the licence terms.