Food Service Working
Drawn directly from OPM FedScope (June 2026), this page tracks headcount, average salary, tenure, and pay comparison for the Food Service Working occupation series (code 7408).
The verdict
With 5,692 employees (0.3% of the federal civilian workforce), Food Service Working ranks as a smaller, specialized federal occupation within the Food Preparation and Serving Family family, and headcount edged up from the prior period. Its average salary of $49,044 pays below the federal average.
- Headcount change
- +0.0%
- Pay change
- +0.1%
- Avg tenure
- 8.2 yrs
- Rank in family
- #1 of 6
FedScope read on Food Service Working (dense series)
On pay, the move between reporting periods was a small shift, within the range of normal year-to-year rounding rather than a broad pay-table change. On length of service, 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 useful gauge for job seekers on USAJOBS trying to assess whether this role is expanding government-wide or contracting under hiring freezes and attrition.
Code 74, the Food Preparation and Serving Family family, is where the federal government classifies Food Service Working alongside 5 related occupations. Candidates browsing USAJOBS for Food Service Working postings should also review these sibling occupations in the Food Preparation and Serving Family family. The Food Preparation and Serving Family family totals 10,719 employees, and Food Service Working accounts for 53.1% of them. Its average salary ranks in the bottom half (0th percentile) of pay among Food Preparation and Serving Family occupations.
Salary context · lean-pay series
How Food Service Working pay compares to the federal average
Occupation Average
$49,044
Federal Average
$117,339
vs. Federal Avg
-58.2%
Where Food Service Working ranks on lean federal pay
Food Service Working earns more on average than 5% of federal occupation series (28 of 541). The highlighted bar marks where Food Service Working sits in the federal pay distribution.
Average-salary distribution across all 541 federal occupation series; the highlighted bar marks Food Service Working.
Related Occupations in Food Preparation and Serving Family
5 other occupations in the same family
| Occupation | Employees | Avg Salary | Avg LOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cooking | 3,863 | $72,079 | 12.3 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 Food Service Working 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 (5,692 here).
Similar lean average salary
Nearest average salaries in other occupation families ($49,044 here).
Key takeaways
- Place Food Service Working 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 Food Service Working 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.