Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders · SOC 51-3093

Highest-Paying Metro Areas for Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenderss

Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025U.S. metropolitan areas

Metro areas ranked by published median annual wage for food cooking machine operators and tenders. Areas where BLS suppressed the median are not ranked (1 such areas are excluded here). Higher medians often track higher living costs — this is a pay comparison, not a ranking of where the job is “best”.

Top 25 of 86 metro areas

Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders: metro areas with the highest published median annual wages, May 2025
#	Metro area	Median annual	Employment	Per 1,000 jobs
1	Cedar Rapids, IA	$63,690	40	0.3
2	Modesto, CA	$59,010	140	0.7
3	Kiryas Joel-Poughkeepsie-Newburgh, NY	$57,680	80	0.3
4	Scranton--Wilkes-Barre, PA	$57,490	110	0.4
5	Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA	$56,190	190	0.1
6	Memphis, TN-MS-AR	$55,270	190	0.3
7	Sioux City, IA-NE-SD	$51,600	190	2.5
8	Stockton-Lodi, CA	$51,560	70	0.2
9	Portland-South Portland, ME	$50,330	40	0.1
10	Dubuque, IA	$50,140	40	0.7
11	Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ	$49,220	460	0.2
12	Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO	$48,980	160	0.1
13	Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL	$48,460	100	0.6
14	Omaha, NE-IA	$48,420	260	0.5
15	Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI	$48,290	230	0.1
16	Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI	$48,230	50	0.0
17	Salt Lake City-Murray, UT	$48,010	70	0.1
18	Appleton, WI	$47,920	60	0.5
19	Rochester, NY	$47,760	150	0.3
20	St. Cloud, MN	$47,380	40	0.3
21	Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood, MI	$47,260	190	0.3
22	San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA	$47,220	220	0.1
23	Syracuse, NY	$46,780	60	0.2
24	Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY	$46,410	80	0.1
25	York-Hanover, PA	$46,350	370	2.0

Full state and metro tables, the national distribution, and the pay map are on the Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders overview.

About this data. Estimates are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program, May 2025 release, retrieved from bls.gov/oes/tables.htm on July 24, 2026. OEWS estimates describe metropolitan/nonmetropolitan areas and states — not city limits — and are not designed for year-over-year comparisons. See BLS methodology, our plain-English methodology, and sources. CitySalaryData is independent and not affiliated with BLS.