OverviewSalaryAboutEducationWhere are the jobsEmploymentGenderRace/Origin
Overview
Operate or tend cooking equipment, such as steam cooking vats, deep fry cookers, pressure cookers, kettles, and boilers, to prepare food products.
Titles for this career often contain these words
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Responsibilities and activities
Food and tobacco processing workers typically do the following:
- Set up, start, or load food or tobacco processing equipment
- Check, weigh, and mix ingredients according to recipes
- Set and control temperatures, flow rates, and pressures of machinery
- Monitor and adjust ingredient mixes during production processes
- Observe and regulate equipment gauges and controls
- Record batch production data
- Clean workspaces and equipment in accordance with health and safety standards
- Check final products to ensure quality
Food and tobacco processing workers often have different duties depending on the type of machinery they use or goods they process.
Food and tobacco roasting, baking, and drying machine operators and tenders operate machines that produce roasted, baked, or dried food or tobacco products. For example, dryers of fruits and vegetables operate machines that produce raisins, prunes, or other dehydrated foods. Tobacco roasters tend machines that cure tobacco for wholesale distribution to cigarette manufacturers and other makers of tobacco products. Others, such as coffee roasters, follow recipes and tend machines to produce standard or specialty coffees.
Food batchmakers typically work in facilities that produce baked goods, pasta, and tortillas. Workers mix ingredients to make dough, load and unload ovens, operate pasta extruders, and perform tasks specific to large-scale commercial baking. Some workers are identified by the type of food they produce. For example, those who prepare cheese are known as cheese makers and those who make candy are known as candy makers.
Food cooking machine operators and tenders operate or tend cooking equipment to prepare food products. For example, potato and corn chip manufacturing workers operate baking and frying equipment.
Other workers operate machines that mix spices, mill grains, or extract oil from seeds.
Salary
Median salary: $33,010 annually
Half of those employed in this career earn between $27,080 and $39,670.
Context: Median Salary
How do salaries for this career compare to other jobs' salaries?
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Salary growth for food cooking machine operators and tenders
Is this job likely to reward you for sticking with it through pay raises and promotions? The higher a job’s “experience quotient,” the more you are likely to get as you stay there.
Experience quotient percentile
Take a minute to look at how much you might expect your salary to increase with each five years' experience, as well as how the numbers working at each age change. Does this seem to be a job for the young or the old, or could it be a career offering steady salary growth for many years?
Salary distribution
Number employed
About Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders
How do benefits for this career compare to other jobs? The availability of health care, especially employer provided health care, and pension plans can add significantly to the value of compensation you receive in a career. These charts compare how this career compares to other careers with regard to health care and pension plans.
Employee has health insurance
Employer is providing health insurance
Worker concerns
Some jobs are more stressful than others, and some are just plain dangerous. The following list gives the percentages of food cooking machine operators and tenders who report hazardous or difficult situations typically occurring at least once a week.
- Minor Burns, Cuts, Bites (80%)
- Time Pressure (80%)
- Hazardous Equipment (68%)
- Exposed to Contaminants (65%)
- Unpleasant or Angry People (56%)
- High Places (50%)
- Consequence of Error (43%)
- High Conflict Frequency (40%)
- Responsible for Others' Health (38%)
- Hazardous Conditions (31%)
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Personality and skills
Can you see yourself in the ranks of Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders? Here are the skills and traits that could lead to success.
Detail oriented
Workers must be able to detect small changes in the quality or quantity of food products. They must also closely follow health and safety standards to avoid food contamination and injury.
Physical stamina
Workers stand on their feet for long periods as they tend machines and monitor the production process.
Physical strength
Food and tobacco processing workers should be strong enough to lift or move heavy boxes of ingredients, which may weigh up to 50 pounds.
Math skills
Workers need to know math skills in order to accurately mix specific quantities of ingredients.
Injury and Illness
About 123 food cooking machine operators and tenders become injured or ill for every 10,000 workers, making this job more dangerous than 86% of other careers. The most common specific illnesses or injuries are detailed following.
Heat (thermal) burns
All cuts, lacerations, punctures
Soreness and pain
Education pathways to this career
Education attained by food cooking machine operators and tenders
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), food cooking machine operators and tenders typically hold a high school diploma or equivalent.
Sometimes the typical education identified by the BLS differs a bit from the reality of the how much education current workers actually have. The donut shows the education level held by people currently working as food cooking machine operators and tenders as reported in responses to the American Community Survey.
Details: Education and training recommended for food cooking machine operators and tenders
Food batchmakers and food cooking machine operators typically need a high school diploma or equivalent.
Because workers often adjust the quantity of ingredients that go into a mix, math and reading skills are considered helpful.
Education level of Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders
Only 4% of food cooking machine operators and tenders have a bachelor's degree or higher.
Education attained by food cooking machine operators and tenders
None
High School
Some College
Associate's Degree
Bachelor's Degree
Master's Degree
Professional Degree
Doctorate
Where are the jobs
State-by-state employment numbers
Some careers tend to be centered in specific parts of the country. For example, most jobs in fashion are in New York or California. Let's see if your dream job is easy to find in your dream location! We have a few choices for viewing the data that can help you get a full employment picture.
Select a state to see local area details
Number of Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders per 1,000 workers (ACS)
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Job density versus job count
Which states hire the most food cooking machine operators and tenders? We wonder if that's a fair question since states come in all sizes, so instead let's start with the question of which states have the highest density of people working as food cooking machine operators and tenders. You can choose to view the number of jobs per state if you prefer.
Salaries by state
Let's get a feel for where food cooking machine operators and tenders earn the highest salaries. There are several choices for which data we consider and how we view that data, and each can lead to different conclusions, so please read on...
Median salary versus state ratio
We use two methods to compare salaries across states:
- In-state comparisons: the ratio of median (middle) salaries for food cooking machine operators and tenders compared to the median salary for all people working in each state, or
- Median salary: the unaltered median salaries for food cooking machine operators and tenders.
The darkest shading corresponds to states in which food cooking machine operators and tenders earn the highest salary when compared to other jobs in the state. We think this figure might be a better indicator than the actual salary for your buying power as a state resident.
Select a state to see local area details
Location-adjusted median salary for Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders (ACS)
Employment
27% of Food cooking machine operators and tenders are working part time.
We’ve found that some jobs have a huge number of part-time workers, and typically that is because they are unable to find full-time work or the job itself can’t provide full-time hours. With 27% part-time workers, this occupation has a higher percentage of part-time workers than 80% of careers.
Employer types
This donut shares the break-down of workers by employer type, giving us a picture of what employers most typically hire for this career.
Employers of undefined (ACS)
Private for-profit
Private not-for-profit
Local government
State government
Federal government
Self-employed incorporated
Self-employed not incorporated
Working without pay
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Distribution: Salaries of food cooking machine operators and tenders by type of employer
Here are the salary distributions based on employer type.
Gender
Food cooking machine operators and tenders and gender
With 36% women, this occupation has a lower percentage of women than 51% of careers.
Gender of Food cooking machine operators and tenders
Men (64%)
Women (36%)
Distribution: salaries by gender
Does gender greatly influence your salary in this career? The closer the bars are, the less discrepancy there is.
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
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Context: Women in the workforce
How does this career compare to other careers with regard to the percentage of women in the career.
Context: Salary inequity
The median (middle) salary for all full-time male workers
in the US exceeds the full-time median salary for women
by 19%, and the difference
for food cooking machine operators and tenders tops that, with the median salary for
men 31% higher than the median
salary for women.
Race/Origin
Race and origin of Food cooking machine operators and tenders
This donut shows the distribution of race and origin among those employed as Food cooking machine operators and tenders.
Race/origin of food cooking machine operators and tenders
White (60% )
Black (14% )
Other (11% )
Asian (8% )
Multiracial (4% )
Hispanic (1% )
American Indian (1% )
Distribution: salaries by race/origin
Some careers might have a pay disparity based on race or origin, the closer the below bars are the less of a discrepancy is present.
We only include salary data when the survey error is less than 20%, so you may see only partial information for some categories.
