PayCrunch Research · National BLS OEWS May 2025 pay, with the state table still to come

PayCrunch · Food · SOC 35-1012

The shift lead who can staff the station that is actually behind

$65,570national 90th percentile · middle $44,080 / yr
The shift is the product

First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers in the United States earn a median of $44,080 a year. Pay starts near $29,940. The national 90th percentile is $65,570. This page does not publish a state top-of-range figure.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers, SOC 35-1012). Employment 1,223,240. Last checked 22 September 2026. National percentiles via the BLS OEWS release as republished on O*NET OnLine wage tables.

Entry level · national 10th
$29,940
National 90th percentile
$65,570
O*NET education note
High school diploma
Lower disruption Higher exposure The shift is the product
Entry · $29,940 National 90th · $65,570 Middle $44,080

Wages — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS, May 2025 (First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers). Entry is the national 10th percentile. The top chip is the national 90th percentile, not a state. The middle half of workers earns $35,980 to $54,570. Hourly equivalents: $14.40, $21.19, and $31.52. O*NET respondents most often said a high school diploma or equivalent is required (70 percent). That is an employer survey, not a license. The marker on the exposure bar is PayCrunch editorial context, not a BLS statistic. Updated 22 September 2026.

Supervise food preparation and serving workers. Train the station, assign the work, resolve the complaint, and present the bill.

AI tools that fit Food Service Supervisor work September 2026

A short list of general tools. This is not a sponsored placement, not a weekly crawl, and not a product review with prices. Use whatever your employer already allows.

ChatGPTSee the vendor

A general assistant for plain-language notes.

How a Food Service Supervisor uses it: Turn a station miss into steps a new cook can follow, then match them to the kitchen's own sheet.

Microsoft CopilotSee the vendor

AI inside Excel and Outlook.

How a Food Service Supervisor uses it: Summarize a week of late tickets or waste notes before a pre-shift.

Google GeminiSee the vendor

Google's assistant in Search and Workspace.

How a Food Service Supervisor uses it: Check a published food-safety step only from a source you can name, not from a guess.

Food service supervisor: the station, the shift, and SOC 35-1012

First-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers are SOC 35-1012. The locked chips are entry $29,940, median $44,080, and a national 90th percentile of $65,570. BLS counted 1,223,240 wage-and-salary workers in this occupation in May 2025. The maitre-d page on this site is a PayCrunch estimate that names this SOC. It is not this wage. The food-service-manager page is a different occupation.

Where the national band sits

The middle half earns $35,980 to $54,570. The step from the median $44,080 to the national 90th percentile $65,570 is $21,490 a year. Opening and closing the shift, training, and the complaint log are the work inside that step. This page does not invent a state median.

What the shift actually checks

A station list names who is on it and what is eighty-sixed. A complaint without the table and the item is not a complaint you can fix. Cash at the end of the shift still has to match a reason.

Outlook

O*NET reports projected growth for 2024–2034 as faster than average (5 to 6 percent). O*NET projects about 183,900 openings a year over 2024–2034. Faster than average is not a raise.

Locked wage chips on this page: entry $29,940, median $44,080, national 90th percentile $65,570. SOC 35-1012. If a sentence disagrees with those three figures, the figures win.

How to do the work that sits inside this pay band

These steps stay inside the published national range. They are not a promise that you will be paid the 90th percentile.

1
Staff the station that is behind, not the one that is loud

A full host stand does not cook the ticket.

1
Name the station that is late.
2
Move a person who is already on the clock.
3
Leave a hole visible instead of pretending it is covered.
Prompt
Turn this pre-shift note into a station list. Do not add a person I did not name.
What changesThe line knows who owns the late station.
2
Train the miss against the recipe card

A verbal fix disappears at the next shift.

1
Point at the step on the card.
2
Have the cook repeat the step.
3
Write down what still failed.
Prompt
Rewrite this coaching note so it names the missed step and the result. Do not invent a recipe I did not paste.
What changesThe next shift can see the same correction.
3
Log the complaint so the item is in it

A story without the dish cannot be fixed.

1
Record the item.
2
Record what you did for the table.
3
Tell the cook if the same item failed twice.
Prompt
Turn this complaint into three lines: item, what we did, what is still open. Do not add a comp I did not paste.
What changesThe log is something the manager can audit.

Careers related to Food Service Supervisor

Similar pay, same field

Where this can lead

Wages in this list are the national medians printed on those pages. Every new page in this batch uses BLS OEWS May 2025. The step from this median to the national 90th percentile is $21,490.

Never used AI before? Start here (2 minutes).

Paste only facts you already have: a count, a date, a step, a file name. If the draft adds a number, a policy, or a product you did not provide, delete it.

Do not paste account numbers, full customer records, patient information, or anything your employer has told you to keep inside its own system.

Gear for this job

TODO: PC_GEAR is not filled in this batch. No product links and no ASINs until a reviewed list exists. Do not invent ASINs.

What Food service supervisors earn by state

TODO: state-wage table is not filled in this batch. The chips above are national OEWS May 2025 percentiles only. State medians are not estimated here.

Questions
How much does a food service supervisor make?
The national median is $44,080 a year ($21.19 an hour). The 10th percentile is $29,940. The national 90th percentile is $65,570. Source: BLS OEWS May 2025, SOC 35-1012.
Is a maitre d this job?
The maitre-d page is a PayCrunch estimate. This page is the BLS occupation, SOC 35-1012.
Why is there no state table?
State medians are a TODO on this page. The figures above are national percentiles only.

Sources

  • Salary (10th, 25th, median, 75th, 90th) — national BLS OEWS May 2025.
  • Employment — national OEWS May 2025 wage-and-salary employment, 1,223,240.
  • Outlook — O*NET reports projected growth for 2024–2034 as faster than average (5 to 6 percent). Projected openings: about 183,900 a year.
  • Not on this page — state wages, metro wages, and product recommendations.

Check another occupation

These ten pages are the next high-employment OEWS lines that were missing as their own salary URLs.