---
title: "Server"
description: "Take orders and serve food and beverages to patrons at tables in dining establishment."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/server"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Server

**Category:** Food Preparation and Serving Related · **SOC code:** 35-3031 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 35-3031.00

Take orders and serve food and beverages to patrons at tables in dining establishment.

Also advertised as: Banquet Server; Busser; Cocktail Server; Food Runner; Food Server; Restaurant Server; Room Service Server; Server.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $35,230 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $16.94/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $18,100 to $64,720, with the middle half between $27,750 and $47,110
- **Total US employment:** 2,270,910
- **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:** -0.7% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 456,700 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 59/100 — 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 2,270,910 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $18,100 |
| 25th | $27,750 |
| 50th (median) | $35,230 |
| 75th | $47,110 |
| 90th | $64,720 |
| Mean (average) | $40,060 |

### 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 | $62,390 | $56,743 | 14,090 |
| VT | $59,140 | $60,373 | 4,040 |
| WA | $56,130 | $52,452 | 45,400 |
| OR | $48,410 | $46,836 | 23,040 |
| DC | $47,850 | $43,539 | 11,530 |
| NY | $47,020 | $43,569 | 142,940 |
| NJ | $44,960 | $41,322 | 55,800 |
| CO | $44,860 | $43,531 | 40,680 |
| VA | $44,760 | $44,271 | 59,370 |
| AZ | $43,950 | $43,654 | 55,950 |
| ME | $43,370 | $44,688 | 9,090 |
| MA | $38,460 | $36,366 | 54,670 |
| NH | $38,430 | $36,893 | 10,030 |
| CT | $37,770 | $36,454 | 22,370 |
| MI | $37,760 | $39,245 | 65,090 |

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

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 2,329,700 in the 2024–2034 base year to 2,313,500 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 16,300 jobs, or -0.7%. Declining: -0.7% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 456,700 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 | 57.6% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 32.3% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 8.3% |
| Some College Courses | 1.1% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 0.7% |

## What the work involves

- Remove dishes and glasses from tables or counters, and take them to kitchen for cleaning.
- Check with customers to ensure that they are enjoying their meals, and take action to correct any problems.
- Clean tables or counters after patrons have finished dining.
- Take orders from patrons for food or beverages.
- Stock service areas with supplies such as coffee, food, tableware, and linens.
- Write patrons' food orders on order slips, memorize orders, or enter orders into computers for transmittal to kitchen staff.
- Fill salt, pepper, sugar, cream, condiment, and napkin containers.
- Present menus to patrons and answer questions about menu items, making recommendations upon request.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.1 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 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 2.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sales and Marketing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Food Production — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 2.5 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 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Sharing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Trunk Strength — importance 3.3 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 Conventional (C), Social (S), Realistic (R).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 4.95 |
| S — Social | 4.72 |
| R — Realistic | 4.12 |
| E — Enterprising | 4.06 |
| A — Artistic | 1.84 |
| 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 | 89.3 |
| ISFJ | 78.1 |
| ESTJ | 77.7 |
| ESFP | 68.8 |
| ENFJ | 60.3 |

Best-fitting types: ESFJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [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
- [Bartender](https://nuecareer.com/careers/bartender) — median $34,340
- [Fast Food and Counter Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fast-food-and-counter-worker) — median $31,200
- [Host and Hostess, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop](https://nuecareer.com/careers/host-and-hostess-restaurant-lounge-and-coffee-shop) — median $31,200
- [Barista](https://nuecareer.com/careers/barista) — median $31,200
- [Food Preparation Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/food-preparation-worker) — median $35,320
- [Food Service Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/food-service-manager) — median $69,390
- [Cook, Short Order](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cook-short-order) — median $35,880
- [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/server