Waiter
Drawn directly from OPM FedScope (June 2026), this page tracks headcount, average salary, tenure, and pay comparison for the Waiter occupation series (code 7420).
The verdict
Waiter is a smaller, specialized federal occupation: 10 employees (0.0% of the federal civilian workforce) in the Food Preparation and Serving Family family. At an average salary of n/a it pays below the federal average.
- Headcount change
- 0.0%
- Pay change
- 0.0%
- Avg tenure
- 25.6 yrs
- Rank in family
- #6 of 6
FedScope read on Waiter (thin series)
For job seekers weighing career length: this series shows a long average tenure, typical of career federal roles where employees stay through much of a full career before retirement. Headcount moved sideways versus the prior period, though at this small a headcount, year-to-year swings can reflect a handful of hires or departures rather than a broad hiring trend. 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.
The Food Preparation and Serving Family family (code 74) groups Waiter together with 5 other related occupations across the federal government. Candidates browsing USAJOBS for Waiter 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 Waiter accounts for 0.1% of them.
Salary context · lean-pay series
How Waiter pay compares to the federal average
Occupation Average
n/a
Federal Average
$117,339
vs. Federal Avg
-100.0%
Where Waiter ranks on lean federal pay
Waiter earns more on average than 0% of federal occupation series (0 of 541). The highlighted bar marks where Waiter sits in the federal pay distribution.
Average-salary distribution across all 541 federal occupation series; the highlighted bar marks Waiter.
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 |
| 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 |
Nationwide peers near this thin headcount
Two peer sets for Waiter outside the Food Preparation and Serving Family family, on headcount and average salary axes that vary across all OPM occupation series.
Similar thin headcount
Nearest employee counts in other occupation families (10 here).
Similar lean average salary
Nearest average salaries in other occupation families (n/a here).
Key takeaways
- Place Waiter 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 Waiter 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.