---
title: "Dishwasher"
description: "Clean dishes, kitchen, food preparation equipment, or utensils."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/dishwasher"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Dishwasher

**Category:** Food Preparation and Serving Related · **SOC code:** 35-9021 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 35-9021.00

Clean dishes, kitchen, food preparation equipment, or utensils.

Also advertised as: Busser; Dish Machine Operator (DMO); Dish Room Worker; Dish Runner; Dish Technician (Dish Tech); Dishwasher; Kitchen Helper; Kitchen Steward.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $34,810 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $16.73/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $26,200 to $42,860, with the middle half between $29,690 and $37,440
- **Total US employment:** 477,450
- **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:** -1.0% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 68,900 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 56/100 — 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 477,450 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $26,200 |
| 25th | $29,690 |
| 50th (median) | $34,810 |
| 75th | $37,440 |
| 90th | $42,860 |
| Mean (average) | $34,310 |

### 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 | $40,080 | $37,453 | 12,630 |
| DC | $38,670 | $35,186 | 3,580 |
| CA | $37,870 | $34,203 | 74,160 |
| CO | $37,840 | $36,719 | 8,500 |
| HI | $37,740 | $34,324 | 4,520 |
| MA | $37,190 | $35,166 | 14,100 |
| IL | $36,180 | $36,195 | 16,250 |
| OR | $36,040 | $34,868 | 6,680 |
| VT | $36,010 | $36,761 | 1,280 |
| NJ | $35,900 | $32,995 | 7,450 |
| DE | $35,780 | $35,849 | 1,520 |
| ME | $35,620 | $36,703 | 2,940 |
| CT | $35,550 | $34,311 | 7,340 |
| NY | $35,450 | $32,848 | 30,680 |
| AZ | $35,130 | $34,894 | 10,120 |

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

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 480,400 in the 2025–2035 base year to 475,600 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 4,800 jobs, or -1.0%. Declining: -1.0% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 68,900 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## 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 or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 55.9% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 43.4% |
| Some College Courses | 0.7% |

## What the work involves

- Sweep or scrub floors.
- Place clean dishes, utensils, or cooking equipment in storage areas.
- Maintain kitchen work areas, equipment, or utensils in clean and orderly condition.
- Wash dishes, glassware, flatware, pots, or pans, using dishwashers or by hand.
- Sort and remove trash, placing it in designated pickup areas.
- Clean garbage cans with water or steam.
- Stock supplies, such as food or utensils, in serving stations, cupboards, refrigerators, or salad bars.
- Clean or prepare various foods for cooking or serving.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 1.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 1.8 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.

- Operation and Control — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- English Language — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Food Production — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 1.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Manual Dexterity — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Trunk Strength — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Extent Flexibility — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 2.9 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 | 7.00 |
| C — Conventional | 4.45 |
| S — Social | 1.83 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.44 |
| I — Investigative | 1.00 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |

### 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 | 85.1 |
| ISFJ | 77.7 |
| ESTJ | 75.1 |
| ISTP | 68.8 |
| ESFJ | 61.3 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ. The bank also flags this occupation as introvert-friendly, meaning O\*NET work-context ratings put it low on public contact and performing for the public.

## Related occupations

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

- [Cleaner of Vehicles and Equipment](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cleaner-of-vehicles-and-equipment) — median $35,830
- [Laundry and Dry-Cleaning Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/laundry-and-dry-cleaning-worker) — median $34,890
- [Food Preparation Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/food-preparation-worker) — median $35,320
- [Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendant and Bartender Helper](https://nuecareer.com/careers/dining-room-and-cafeteria-attendant-and-bartender-helper) — median $33,980
- [Maid and Housekeeping Cleaner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/maid-and-housekeeping-cleaner) — median $35,510
- [Food Server, Nonrestaurant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/food-server-nonrestaurant) — median $35,360
- [Fast Food and Counter Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fast-food-and-counter-worker) — median $31,200
- [Cleaning, Washing, and Metal Pickling Equipment Operator and Tender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cleaning-washing-and-metal-pickling-equipment-operator-and-tender) — median $43,530
- [Janitor and Cleaner, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners](https://nuecareer.com/careers/janitor-and-cleaner) — median $36,840
- [Cook, Short Order](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cook-short-order) — median $35,880

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 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, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **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 31.0 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/dishwasher