Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop
SOC 35-9031 · 2024-2034
Welcome patrons, seat them at tables or in lounge, and help ensure quality of facilities and service.
How the U.S. Department of Labor describes this work. Published in English only.
What California expects of this job
- Typical pay in California
- $37,568per year
- Projected openings
- 106,400
- Projected change
- +1.9%
- Usually needs
- No formal educational credential
Bright Outlook — a U.S. Department of Labor designation
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.
- Active Listening
- Speaking
- Service Orientation
- Social Perceptiveness
- Reading Comprehension
- Coordination
Pay by region
| Region | Typical pay in California | Projected openings |
|---|---|---|
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara MSA (San Benito and Santa Clara Counties) | $41,137 | 4,900 |
| San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City MD (San Francisco and San Mateo Counties) | $39,581 | 7,810 |
| San Rafael MD (Marin County) | $38,758 | 870 |
| Oakland-Fremont-Berkeley MD (Alameda and Contra Costa Counties) | $38,620 | 5,200 |
| Napa MSA (Napa County) | $38,237 | 1,410 |
| Santa Rosa-Petaluma MSA (Sonoma County) | $37,671 | 1,890 |
| Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine MD (Orange County) | $37,329 | 12,170 |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale MD (Los Angeles County) | $37,152 | 30,490 |
| Vallejo MSA (Solano County) | $36,972 | 790 |
| Redding MSA (Shasta County) | $36,962 | 500 |
| Eastern Sierra-Mother Lode Region (Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, Inyo, Mariposa, Mono, and Tuolumne Counties) | $36,808 | 610 |
| North Valley-Northern Mountains Region (Colusa, Glenn, Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Sierra, Siskiyou, Tehama, and Trinity Counties) | $36,736 | 500 |
| Salinas MSA (Monterey County) | $36,550 | 1,620 |
| Santa Cruz-Watsonville MSA (Santa Cruz County) | $36,345 | 880 |
| San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad MSA (San Diego County) | $36,334 | 14,310 |
| Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario MSA (Riverside and San Bernardino Counties) | $35,933 | 11,420 |
| North Coast Region (Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, and Mendocino Counties) | $35,789 | 650 |
| Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom MSA (El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, and Yolo Counties) | $35,789 | 5,760 |
| Santa Maria-Santa Barbara MSA (Santa Barbara County) | $35,656 | 1,900 |
| San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles MSA (San Luis Obispo County) | $35,615 | 1,400 |
| Yuba City MSA (Sutter and Yuba Counties) | $35,368 | 290 |
| Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura MSA (Ventura County) | $35,275 | 2,400 |
| Chico MSA (Butte County) | $34,936 | 530 |
| Fresno MSA (Fresno and Madera Counties) | $34,936 | 2,170 |
| Stockton-Lodi MSA (San Joaquin County) | $34,854 | 1,290 |
| Bakersfield-Delano MSA (Kern County) | $34,761 | 1,580 |
| Visalia MSA (Tulare County) | $34,432 | 530 |
| Hanford-Corcoran MSA (Kings County) | $34,339 | 100 |
| Merced MSA (Merced County) | $34,320 | 330 |
| Modesto MSA (Stanislaus County) | $34,320 | 1,200 |
What the pay actually ranges across
- The lowest-paid tenth earn under
- $35,230
- A quarter earn under
- $36,092
- Half earn under
- $37,568
- Three quarters earn under
- $43,946
- The highest-paid tenth earn over
- $47,227
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Waiters and Waitresses | $36,994 | 469,390 | +2.8% |
| Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers | $36,922 | 148,130 | +10.2% |
| Food Servers, Nonrestaurant | $39,998 | 59,610 | +11% |
| Fast Food and Counter Workers | $43,351 | 1,105,280 | +9.9% |
| Hotel, Motel, and Resort Desk Clerks | $40,291 | 45,330 | +2.5% |
| Locker Room, Coatroom, and Dressing Room Attendants | $47,739 | 7,030 | +7.7% |
Programs that train for this job — 1
Certificate of Achievement, Hospitality Management
College of Marin · Greenbrae · $1,486