Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers
SOC 35-9011 · 2024-2034
Facilitate food service. Clean tables; remove dirty dishes; replace soiled table linens; set tables; replenish supply of clean linens, silverware, glassware, and dishes; supply service bar with food; and serve items such as water, condiments, and coffee to patrons.
How the U.S. Department of Labor describes this work. Published in English only.
What California expects of this job
- Typical pay in California
- $36,922per year
- Projected openings
- 148,130
- Projected change
- +10.2%
- Usually needs
- No formal educational credential
Bright Outlook — a U.S. Department of Labor designation
Rapid Growth · Numerous Job Openings
The Department's own designation, made from its national projections. It is not this project's assessment and it is not California's: every other figure on this page comes from California's projection, which can point the other way and for some occupations does.
Skills this work uses most
O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, rates how important each of these is to this work, and they are listed in that order, most important first. The ratings themselves are not shown, because the data carries the number without the scale it was measured on. The names are as published, in English.
- Service Orientation
- Coordination
- Active Listening
- Speaking
- Monitoring
- Judgment and Decision Making
Pay by region
| Region | Typical pay in California | Projected openings |
|---|---|---|
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA (San Benito and Santa Clara Counties) | $40,736 | 8,500 |
| San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City MD (San Francisco and San Mateo Counties) | $39,420 | 13,160 |
| Oakland-Fremont-Berkeley MD (Alameda and Contra Costa Counties) | $39,271 | 8,280 |
| San Rafael MD (Marin County) | $39,163 | 1,410 |
| Napa MSA (Napa County) | $37,363 | 1,700 |
| Santa Rosa-Petaluma MSA (Sonoma County) | $37,106 | 2,410 |
| Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine MD (Orange County) | $36,967 | 17,740 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale MD (Los Angeles County) | $36,875 | 44,780 |
| Vallejo MSA (Solano County) | $36,694 | 1,120 |
| Salinas MSA (Monterey County) | $36,365 | 2,160 |
| San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad MSA (San Diego County) | $36,273 | 19,450 |
| Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom MSA (El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, and Yolo Counties) | $36,221 | 8,940 |
| Santa Cruz-Watsonville MSA (Santa Cruz County) | $36,026 | 1,100 |
| Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario MSA (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties) | $35,471 | 16,000 |
| San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles MSA (San Luis Obispo County) | $35,327 | 2,040 |
| Redding MSA (Shasta County) | $35,316 | 430 |
| Merced MSA (Merced County) | $35,296 | 360 |
| Modesto MSA (Stanislaus County) | $35,296 | 1,320 |
| Eastern Sierra-Mother Lode Region (Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, Inyo, Mariposa, Mono, and Tuolumne Counties) | $35,244 | 750 |
| Santa Maria-Santa Barbara MSA (Santa Barbara County) | $35,244 | 3,230 |
| North Coast Region (Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, and Mendocino Counties) | $35,152 | 730 |
| North Valley-Northern Mountains Region (Colusa, Glenn, Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Sierra, Siskiyou, Tehama, and Trinity Counties) | $35,141 | 590 |
| Stockton-Lodi MSA (San Joaquin County) | $35,100 | 1,710 |
| Hanford-Corcoran MSA (Kings County) | $35,049 | 150 |
| Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura MSA (Ventura County) | $34,967 | 3,300 |
| Fresno MSA (Fresno and Madera Counties) | $34,730 | 2,800 |
| Chico MSA (Butte County) | $34,720 | 650 |
| El Centro MSA (Imperial County) | $34,710 | 310 |
| Visalia MSA (Tulare County) | $34,350 | 910 |
| Bakersfield-Delano MSA (Kern County) | $34,320 | 1,960 |
| Yuba City MSA (Sutter and Yuba Counties) | $34,320 | 320 |
What the pay actually ranges across
- The lowest-paid tenth earn under
- $35,189
- A quarter earn under
- $35,702
- Half earn under
- $36,922
- Three quarters earn under
- $40,941
- The highest-paid tenth earn over
- $51,912
A median is one point. These are the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2026 figures for California, and they say how far apart the people doing this job actually are. Read them as the spread across everyone already in the work — not as a starting wage and not as a promise about where anyone lands.
Similar work
O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupation database, names these as occupations involving work similar to this one — its own reading of the job, not a grouping by code. They keep O*NET's order, and only those California publishes a projection for are shown.
| Occupation | Typical pay in California | Projected openings | Projected change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fast Food and Counter Workers | $43,351 | 1,105,280 | +9.9% |
| Food Servers, Nonrestaurant | $39,998 | 59,610 | +11% |
| Waiters and Waitresses | $36,994 | 469,390 | +2.8% |
| Food Preparation Workers | $40,347 | 195,850 | +1% |
| Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop | $37,568 | 106,400 | +1.9% |
| Bartenders | $37,137 | 126,330 | +8.8% |