---
title: "First-Line Supervisor of Retail Sales Workers"
description: "Directly supervise and coordinate activities of retail sales workers in an establishment or department. Duties may include management functions, such as…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-retail-sales-workers"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# First-Line Supervisor of Retail Sales Workers

**Category:** Sales and Related · **SOC code:** 41-1011 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 41-1011.00

Directly supervise and coordinate activities of retail sales workers in an establishment or department. Duties may include management functions, such as purchasing, budgeting, accounting, and personnel work, in addition to supervisory duties.

Also advertised as: Bakery Manager; Delicatessen Manager; Department Manager; Department Supervisor; Grocery Manager; Key Carrier; Meat Department Manager; Parts Sales Manager.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $48,520 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $23.33/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $33,120 to $77,080, with the middle half between $38,590 and $62,130
- **Total US employment:** 1,121,800
- **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:** -3.7% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 113,500 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 54/100 — 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 1,121,800 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $33,120 |
| 25th | $38,590 |
| 50th (median) | $48,520 |
| 75th | $62,130 |
| 90th | $77,080 |
| Mean (average) | $53,380 |

### 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 | $60,750 | $56,769 | 27,640 |
| RI | $58,570 | $57,264 | 3,880 |
| DC | $58,470 | $53,202 | 1,470 |
| NY | $58,300 | $54,021 | 50,830 |
| CO | $58,200 | $56,476 | 26,390 |
| MA | $57,490 | $54,360 | 20,240 |
| NJ | $57,320 | $52,681 | 31,160 |
| AK | $57,080 | $55,765 | 3,030 |
| SD | $56,680 | $63,983 | 3,660 |
| CT | $56,510 | $54,541 | 13,910 |
| HI | $55,850 | $50,795 | 6,580 |
| VT | $55,760 | $56,922 | 2,310 |
| DE | $55,710 | $55,817 | 4,200 |
| CA | $54,870 | $49,557 | 109,180 |
| ME | $53,580 | $55,209 | 5,760 |

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-retail-sales-workers/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-retail-sales-workers.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 1,419,800 in the 2025–2035 base year to 1,367,400 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 52,500 jobs, or -3.7%. Declining: -3.7% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 113,500 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) | 51.7% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 18.9% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 14.1% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 8.9% |
| Some College Courses | 6.1% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 0.4% |

## What the work involves

- Provide customer service by greeting and assisting customers and responding to customer inquiries and complaints.
- Monitor sales activities to ensure that customers receive satisfactory service and quality goods.
- Assign employees to specific duties.
- Direct and supervise employees engaged in sales, inventory-taking, reconciling cash receipts, or in performing services for customers.
- Enforce safety, health, and security rules.
- Perform work activities of subordinates, such as cleaning and organizing shelves and displays and selling merchandise.
- Instruct staff on how to handle difficult and complicated sales.
- Inventory stock and reorder when inventory drops to a specified level.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — 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.

- Service Orientation — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Management of Personnel Resources — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sales and Marketing — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Personnel and Human Resources — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — 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 Enterprising (E), Conventional (C), Social (S).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| E — Enterprising | 7.00 |
| C — Conventional | 5.61 |
| S — Social | 3.64 |
| R — Realistic | 2.75 |
| I — Investigative | 1.14 |
| 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) |
| --- | --- |
| ESFJ | 83.5 |
| ESTJ | 82.3 |
| ISFJ | 63.6 |
| ENFJ | 62.9 |
| ENTJ | 62.8 |

Best-fitting types: ESFJ, ESTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [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 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 Food Preparation and Serving Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-food-preparation-and-serving-workers) — median $44,080
- [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
- [Sales Representative of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel](https://nuecareer.com/careers/sales-representative-of-services) — median $69,990
- [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 Material-Moving Machine and Vehicle Operators](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-material-moving-machine-and-vehicle-operators) — median $62,840
- [First-Line Supervisor of Personal Service Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-personal-service-workers) — median $48,590
- [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

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-retail-sales-workers