Food Servers, Nonrestaurant · SOC 35-3041

Highest-Paying Metro Areas for Food Servers, Nonrestaurants

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

Metro areas ranked by published median annual wage for food servers, nonrestaurant. 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 353 metro areas

Food Servers, Nonrestaurant: metro areas with the highest published median annual wages, May 2025
#	Metro area	Median annual	Employment	Per 1,000 jobs
1	Kahului-Wailuku, HI	$62,960	200	2.7
2	San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA	$46,210	1,960	1.7
3	Hanford-Corcoran, CA	$45,030	50	1.0
4	San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA	$44,710	4,160	1.8
5	Napa, CA	$41,850	240	3.0
6	Burlington-South Burlington, VT	$41,090	310	2.6
7	Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA	$40,640	4,800	2.3
8	Ithaca, NY	$40,240	120	2.4
9	Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA	$40,180	520	2.5
10	Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO	$39,850	4,570	2.8
11	Lawton, OK	$39,720	50	1.1
12	Anchorage, AK	$39,550	250	1.4
13	New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ	$39,120	19,450	2.1
14	Goldsboro, NC	$38,980	50	1.3
15	Boulder, CO	$38,930	650	3.4
16	Vallejo, CA	$38,910	300	2.1
17	Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA	$38,740	450	2.2
18	Salinas, CA	$38,660	400	2.1
19	Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA	$38,460	1,980	1.8
20	Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA	$38,350	11,850	1.9
21	Vineland, NJ	$38,350	160	2.6
22	San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA	$38,260	3,400	2.2
23	Bozeman, MT	$38,210	130	1.7
24	Flagstaff, AZ	$38,200	140	2.1
25	San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA	$38,150	310	2.6

Full state and metro tables, the national distribution, and the pay map are on the Food Servers, Nonrestaurant 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.