---
title: "Cook, Institution and Cafeteria"
description: "Prepare and cook large quantities of food for institutions, such as schools, hospitals, or cafeterias."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/cook-institution-and-cafeteria"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Cook, Institution and Cafeteria

**Category:** Food Preparation and Serving Related · **SOC code:** 35-2012 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 35-2012.00

Prepare and cook large quantities of food for institutions, such as schools, hospitals, or cafeterias.

Also advertised as: Cafeteria Cook; Cook; Dietary Cook; Dinner Cook; Food Service Specialist; Food Service Worker; Prep Cook (Preparatory Cook); School Cook.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $37,450 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $18.01/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $28,480 to $49,670, with the middle half between $32,440 and $44,800
- **Total US employment:** 441,050
- **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:** +2.0% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 69,700 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 53/100 — 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 441,050 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $28,480 |
| 25th | $32,440 |
| 50th (median) | $37,450 |
| 75th | $44,800 |
| 90th | $49,670 |
| Mean (average) | $38,810 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| WA | $49,670 | $46,415 | 9,780 |
| AK | $48,580 | $47,460 | 1,430 |
| MA | $47,790 | $45,188 | 7,430 |
| HI | $47,770 | $43,447 | 1,570 |
| RI | $46,570 | $45,532 | 1,190 |
| CA | $46,390 | $41,898 | 31,660 |
| VT | $46,370 | $47,337 | 1,330 |
| CT | $46,120 | $44,513 | 4,500 |
| NY | $45,880 | $42,513 | 17,670 |
| DC | $45,450 | $41,355 | 1,500 |
| NH | $45,370 | $43,556 | 1,720 |
| NJ | $44,520 | $40,917 | 7,490 |
| OR | $44,520 | $43,072 | 7,150 |
| DE | $44,080 | $44,165 | 2,680 |
| ME | $43,490 | $44,812 | 1,790 |

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

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 466,100 in the 2024–2034 base year to 475,400 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 9,300 jobs, or +2.0%. Slower than average: 2.0% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 69,700 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:** Short-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 | 71.1% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 14.2% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 6.8% |
| Some College Courses | 5.9% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 1.9% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 0.1% |

## What the work involves

- Monitor and record food temperatures to ensure food safety.
- Clean and inspect galley equipment, kitchen appliances, and work areas to ensure cleanliness and functional operation.
- Cook foodstuffs according to menus, special dietary or nutritional restrictions, or numbers of portions to be served.
- Clean, cut, and cook meat, fish, or poultry.
- Rotate and store food supplies.
- Train new employees.
- Wash pots, pans, dishes, utensils, or other cooking equipment.
- Apportion and serve food to facility residents, employees, or patrons.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Speaking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.8 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.

- Service Orientation — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Management of Personnel Resources — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- English Language — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Food Production — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Expression — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Information Ordering — 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), Social (S).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 5.90 |
| C — Conventional | 4.35 |
| S — Social | 3.17 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.16 |
| A — Artistic | 2.01 |
| I — Investigative | 1.83 |

### 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 | 81.0 |
| ESTJ | 79.1 |
| ISFJ | 78.1 |
| ESFJ | 69.4 |
| ESTP | 61.0 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ, ESTJ, ISFJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Cook, Restaurant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cook-restaurant) — median $37,390
- [Food Preparation Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/food-preparation-worker) — median $35,320
- [Cook, Private Household](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cook-private-household) — median $47,940
- [Cook, Short Order](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cook-short-order) — median $35,880
- [Chef](https://nuecareer.com/careers/chef) — median $62,470
- [Cook, Fast Food](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cook-fast-food) — median $30,890
- [Baker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/baker) — median $37,160
- [Food Service Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/food-service-manager) — median $69,390
- [Fast Food and Counter Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fast-food-and-counter-worker) — median $31,200
- [First-Line Supervisor of Food Preparation and Serving Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-food-preparation-and-serving-workers) — median $44,080

## 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/cook-institution-and-cafeteria