---
title: "First-Line Supervisor of Food Preparation and Serving Workers"
description: "Directly supervise and coordinate activities of workers engaged in preparing and serving food."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-food-preparation-and-serving-workers"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# First-Line Supervisor of Food Preparation and Serving Workers

**Category:** Food Preparation and Serving Related · **SOC code:** 35-1012 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 35-1012.00

Directly supervise and coordinate activities of workers engaged in preparing and serving food.

Also advertised as: Cafeteria Manager; Dietary Supervisor; Dining Services Director; Food and Beverage Director; Food and Nutrition Services Supervisor; Food Production Supervisor; Food Service Supervisor; Kitchen Manager.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $44,080 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $21.19/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $29,940 to $65,570, with the middle half between $35,980 and $54,570
- **Total US employment:** 1,223,240
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +5.4% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 171,500 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 1,223,240 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $29,940 |
| 25th | $35,980 |
| 50th (median) | $44,080 |
| 75th | $54,570 |
| 90th | $65,570 |
| Mean (average) | $46,180 |

### 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 | $59,400 | $55,507 | 20,700 |
| DC | $57,170 | $52,020 | 2,830 |
| CT | $52,940 | $51,095 | 10,770 |
| CO | $50,550 | $49,053 | 25,510 |
| VT | $49,820 | $50,859 | 1,970 |
| NH | $49,710 | $47,722 | 3,840 |
| HI | $48,880 | $44,456 | 7,330 |
| NJ | $48,420 | $44,502 | 27,750 |
| RI | $48,400 | $47,321 | 3,320 |
| DE | $48,120 | $48,213 | 4,030 |
| ME | $47,990 | $49,449 | 3,740 |
| NY | $47,190 | $43,726 | 65,580 |
| CA | $46,980 | $42,431 | 130,190 |
| OR | $46,950 | $45,423 | 16,880 |
| MA | $46,600 | $44,063 | 23,220 |

39 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 54 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-food-preparation-and-serving-workers/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-food-preparation-and-serving-workers.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 1,236,400 in the 2025–2035 base year to 1,303,500 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 67,100 jobs, or +5.4%. Faster than average: 5.4% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 171,500 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:** High school diploma or equivalent (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:** Less than 5 years.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### 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) | 69.6% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 27.2% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 1.9% |
| Some College Courses | 1.4% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 0.1% |

## What the work involves

- Control inventories of food, equipment, smallware, and liquor, and report shortages to designated personnel.
- Supervise and participate in kitchen and dining area cleaning activities.
- Inspect supplies, equipment, and work areas to ensure efficient service and conformance to standards.
- Resolve customer complaints regarding food service.
- Train workers in food preparation, and in service, sanitation, and safety procedures.
- Specify food portions and courses, production and time sequences, and workstation and equipment arrangements.
- Perform various financial activities, such as cash handling, deposit preparation, and payroll.
- Present bills and accept payments.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Speaking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.0 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.

- Management of Personnel Resources — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Food Production — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sales and Marketing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 3.5 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 Enterprising (E), Conventional (C), Realistic (R).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| E — Enterprising | 6.36 |
| C — Conventional | 4.72 |
| R — Realistic | 4.60 |
| S — Social | 3.37 |
| I — Investigative | 1.38 |
| A — Artistic | 1.25 |

### 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) |
| --- | --- |
| ESTJ | 84.1 |
| ESFJ | 82.0 |
| ESTP | 66.5 |
| ISFJ | 65.6 |
| ISTJ | 63.5 |

Best-fitting types: ESTJ, ESFJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [First-Line Supervisor of Entertainment and Recreation Workers, Except Gambling Services](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-entertainment-and-recreation-workers) — median $48,560
- [First-Line Supervisor of Housekeeping and Janitorial Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-housekeeping-and-janitorial-workers) — median $49,100
- [First-Line Supervisor of Farming, Fishing, and Forestry Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-farming-fishing-and-forestry-workers) — median $59,320
- [First-Line Supervisor of Non-Retail Sales Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-non-retail-sales-workers) — median $87,520
- [First-Line Supervisor of Production and Operating Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-production-and-operating-workers) — median $74,450
- [First-Line Supervisor of Office and Administrative Support Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-office-and-administrative-support-workers) — median $69,500
- [First-Line Supervisor of Retail Sales Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-retail-sales-workers) — median $48,520
- [First-Line Supervisor of Mechanics, Installers, and Repairers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-mechanics-installers-and-repairers) — median $79,860
- [First-Line Supervisor of Passenger Attendants](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-passenger-attendants) — median $62,840
- [First-Line Supervisor of Helpers, Laborers, and Material Movers, Hand](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-helpers-laborers-and-material-movers-hand) — median $62,840

## 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

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