---
title: "Baker"
description: "Mix and bake ingredients to produce breads, rolls, cookies, cakes, pies, pastries, or other baked goods."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/baker"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Baker

**Category:** Production · **SOC code:** 51-3011 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 51-3011.00

Mix and bake ingredients to produce breads, rolls, cookies, cakes, pies, pastries, or other baked goods.

Also advertised as: Baker; Cake Decorator; Dough Mixer; Mixer; Pastry Chef; Scaler.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $37,160 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $17.86/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $28,120 to $49,020, with the middle half between $32,660 and $44,360
- **Total US employment:** 236,200
- **Typical entry education:** No formal credential
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +5.6% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 39,900 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 47/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 236,200 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $28,120 |
| 25th | $32,660 |
| 50th (median) | $37,160 |
| 75th | $44,360 |
| 90th | $49,020 |
| Mean (average) | $38,480 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| HI | $46,710 | $42,483 | 1,580 |
| WA | $46,140 | $43,116 | 6,270 |
| DC | $44,040 | $40,072 | 1,270 |
| CA | $43,120 | $38,945 | 30,020 |
| CO | $40,650 | $39,446 | 4,680 |
| MN | $40,210 | $40,772 | 2,660 |
| WY | $40,000 | $43,154 | 240 |
| VT | $39,980 | $40,813 | 580 |
| AK | $39,710 | $38,795 | 430 |
| NV | $39,540 | $39,548 | 2,040 |
| NH | $39,500 | $37,921 | 880 |
| OR | $39,500 | $38,216 | 4,160 |
| NY | $38,660 | $35,822 | 15,130 |
| SD | $38,340 | $43,280 | 330 |
| RI | $38,140 | $37,290 | 560 |

39 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 54 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/baker/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/baker.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 249,100 in the 2024–2034 base year to 263,200 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 14,000 jobs, or +5.6%. Faster than average: 5.6% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 39,900 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** No formal educational credential (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma | 57.5% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 25.0% |
| Some College Courses | 9.5% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 8.1% |

## What the work involves

- Place dough in pans, molds, or on sheets, and bake in production ovens or on grills.
- Set oven temperatures, and place items into hot ovens for baking.
- Check products for quality, and identify damaged or expired goods.
- Observe color of products being baked, and adjust oven temperatures, humidity, or conveyor speeds accordingly.
- Check equipment to ensure that it meets health and safety regulations, and perform maintenance or cleaning, as necessary.
- Set time and speed controls for mixing machines, blending machines, or steam kettles so that ingredients will be mixed or cooked according to instructions.
- Measure or weigh flour or other ingredients to prepare batters, doughs, fillings, or icings, using scales or graduated containers.
- Check the quality of raw materials to ensure that standards and specifications are met.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Monitoring — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Production and Processing — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Food Production — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Near Vision — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Visual Color Discrimination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 6.29 |
| C — Conventional | 4.20 |
| A — Artistic | 2.39 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.10 |
| S — Social | 1.73 |
| I — Investigative | 1.66 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 83.9 |
| ISFJ | 73.1 |
| ESTJ | 71.6 |
| ISTP | 71.5 |
| INTJ | 60.2 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Food Batchmaker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/food-batchmaker) — median $42,290
- [Chef](https://nuecareer.com/careers/chef) — median $62,470
- [Cook, Restaurant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cook-restaurant) — median $37,390
- [Food Cooking Machine Operator and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/food-cooking-machine-operator-and-tender) — median $41,590
- [Food and Tobacco Roasting, Baking, and Drying Machine Operator and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/food-and-tobacco-roasting-baking-and-drying-machine-operator-and-tender) — median $44,810
- [Food Preparation Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/food-preparation-worker) — median $35,320
- [Butcher and Meat Cutter](https://nuecareer.com/careers/butcher-and-meat-cutter) — median $40,140
- [Cook, Fast Food](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cook-fast-food) — median $30,890
- [Cook, Short Order](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cook-short-order) — median $35,880
- [Cook, Institution and Cafeteria](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cook-institution-and-cafeteria) — median $37,450

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/baker