Cooking
Drawn directly from OPM FedScope (June 2026), this page tracks headcount, average salary, tenure, and pay comparison for the Cooking occupation series (code 7404).
The verdict
In the Food Preparation and Serving Family family, Cooking counts 3,863 employees, a smaller, specialized federal occupation at 0.2% of the federal civilian workforce, and headcount edged up from the prior period; pay averages $72,079, which pays below the federal-wide average.
- Headcount change
- +0.2%
- Pay change
- +0.1%
- Avg tenure
- 12.3 yrs
- Rank in family
- #2 of 6
FedScope read on Cooking (dense series)
For job seekers weighing career length: this series shows a mid-length average tenure, reflecting a mix of career employees and those who transfer or exit mid-career. Headcount moved up versus the prior period, a modest but trackable signal for anyone considering this specialized federal career path. As for pay, the latest move was a small shift, within the range of normal year-to-year rounding rather than a broad pay-table change.
Cooking sits inside the Food Preparation and Serving Family family (code 74), which contains 6 related occupations across the federal government. Candidates browsing USAJOBS for Cooking postings should also review these sibling occupations in the Food Preparation and Serving Family family. Across the Food Preparation and Serving Family family, 10,719 employees work in 6 occupations; Cooking is 36.0% of that headcount. Its average salary ranks in the top half (67th percentile) of pay among Food Preparation and Serving Family occupations.
Salary context · lean-pay series
How Cooking pay compares to the federal average
Occupation Average
$72,079
Federal Average
$117,339
vs. Federal Avg
-38.6%
Where Cooking ranks on lean federal pay
Cooking earns more on average than 28% of federal occupation series (153 of 541). The highlighted bar marks where Cooking sits in the federal pay distribution.
Average-salary distribution across all 541 federal occupation series; the highlighted bar marks Cooking.
Related Occupations in Food Preparation and Serving Family
5 other occupations in the same family
| Occupation | Employees | Avg Salary | Avg LOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Food Service Working | 5,692 | $49,044 | 8.2 yrs |
| Meatcutting | 1,125 | n/a | 12.9 yrs |
| Baking | 16 | $63,987 | 21.6 yrs |
| Misc Food Preparation and Serving | 13 | n/a | 6.4 yrs |
| Waiter | 10 | n/a | 25.6 yrs |
Nationwide peers near this dense headcount
Two peer sets for Cooking outside the Food Preparation and Serving Family family, on headcount and average salary axes that vary across all OPM occupation series.
Similar dense headcount
Nearest employee counts in other occupation families (3,863 here).
Similar lean average salary
Nearest average salaries in other occupation families ($72,079 here).
Key takeaways
- Place Cooking pay in context with the pay-rank chart above, then compare it with another occupation.
- Turn an average salary into a grade: the GS pay grade tables show how grades and steps map to pay.
- Browse the Food Preparation and Serving Family family occupations in the table above, or search current Cooking postings on USAJOBS.
OPM FedScope and Federal Workforce Data figures are federal civilian headcounts, average salaries, and length-of-service statistics - not job-quality scores, hiring advice, or a live vacancy listing. A larger or higher-paid agency is not a better employer.