---
title: "Host and Hostess, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop"
description: "Welcome patrons, seat them at tables or in lounge, and help ensure quality of facilities and service."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/host-and-hostess-restaurant-lounge-and-coffee-shop"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Host and Hostess, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop

**Category:** Food Preparation and Serving Related · **SOC code:** 35-9031 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 35-9031.00

Welcome patrons, seat them at tables or in lounge, and help ensure quality of facilities and service.

Also advertised as: Buffet Hostess; Dining Coordinator; General Teller; Greeter; Hospitality Coordinator; Host; Host Coordinator; Hostess.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $31,200 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $15.00/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $22,340 to $43,990, with the middle half between $27,570 and $36,250
- **Total US employment:** 432,690
- **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:** -1.5% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 107,700 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 58/100 — 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 432,690 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $22,340 |
| 25th | $27,570 |
| 50th (median) | $31,200 |
| 75th | $36,250 |
| 90th | $43,990 |
| Mean (average) | $32,690 |

### 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 | $47,070 | $42,810 | 2,650 |
| OR | $40,720 | $39,396 | 5,740 |
| DC | $37,570 | $34,185 | 2,450 |
| WA | $37,270 | $34,828 | 9,530 |
| ME | $36,800 | $37,919 | 1,460 |
| CA | $36,640 | $33,092 | 41,100 |
| NY | $36,490 | $33,812 | 18,640 |
| CO | $36,340 | $35,264 | 9,490 |
| MA | $34,960 | $33,057 | 13,540 |
| MD | $34,860 | $33,213 | 7,390 |
| AZ | $34,740 | $34,506 | 10,710 |
| CT | $34,210 | $33,018 | 3,670 |
| NJ | $34,050 | $31,295 | 9,420 |
| NH | $33,920 | $32,564 | 2,130 |
| VI | $33,540 | No BEA price parity | 90 |

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

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 429,900 in the 2024–2034 base year to 423,500 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 6,400 jobs, or -1.5%. Declining: -1.5% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 107,700 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 |
| --- | --- |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 42.0% |
| High School Diploma | 29.2% |
| Some College Courses | 15.7% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 13.1% |

## What the work involves

- Provide guests with menus.
- Greet guests and seat them at tables or in waiting areas.
- Maintain contact with kitchen staff, management, serving staff, and customers to ensure that dining details are handled properly and customers' concerns are addressed.
- Assign patrons to tables suitable for their needs and according to rotation so that servers receive an appropriate number of seatings.
- Speak with patrons to ensure satisfaction with food and service, to respond to complaints, or to make conversation.
- Inspect dining and serving areas to ensure cleanliness and proper setup.
- Assist other restaurant workers by serving food and beverages, or by bussing tables.
- Answer telephone calls and respond to inquiries or transfer calls.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.0 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 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Food Production — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Psychology — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Personnel and Human Resources — importance 2.4 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
- Speech Recognition — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.0 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 Social (S), Enterprising (E), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| S — Social | 5.24 |
| E — Enterprising | 4.44 |
| C — Conventional | 4.09 |
| R — Realistic | 3.19 |
| A — Artistic | 1.73 |
| I — Investigative | 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 | 91.4 |
| ESFP | 75.9 |
| ESTJ | 72.3 |
| ENFJ | 71.0 |
| ISFJ | 70.8 |

Best-fitting types: ESFJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Server](https://nuecareer.com/careers/server) — median $35,230
- [Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendant and Bartender Helper](https://nuecareer.com/careers/dining-room-and-cafeteria-attendant-and-bartender-helper) — median $33,980
- [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
- [Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/hotel-motel-and-resort-desk-clerk) — median $35,070
- [Bartender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/bartender) — median $34,340
- [Locker Room, Coatroom, and Dressing Room Attendant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/locker-room-coatroom-and-dressing-room-attendant) — median $36,300
- [Passenger Attendant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/passenger-attendant) — median $37,720
- [Barista](https://nuecareer.com/careers/barista) — median $31,200
- [Demonstrator and Product Promoter](https://nuecareer.com/careers/demonstrator-and-product-promoter) — median $39,320

## 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/host-and-hostess-restaurant-lounge-and-coffee-shop