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The differences between cashiers and sales associates can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a sales associate has an average salary of $32,167, which is higher than the $28,144 average annual salary of a cashier.
The top three skills for a cashier include front end, cash handling and basic math. The most important skills for a sales associate are customer service, sales floor, and cash handling.
| Cashier | Sales Associate | |
| Yearly salary | $28,144 | $32,167 |
| Hourly rate | $13.53 | $15.46 |
| Growth rate | -10% | - |
| Number of jobs | 456,110 | 579,849 |
| Job satisfaction | 4.2 | - |
| Most common degree | High School Diploma, 45% | Bachelor's Degree, 38% |
| Average age | 34 | 41 |
| Years of experience | - | - |
A cashier is one of the most visible positions in the retail industry. Cashiers are the last direct point of contact with customers and play a key role in service, retail, and wholesale establishments. They leave a long-lasting impression, which helps encourage the customers to go back. The most common tasks for cashiers are to scan items, conduct price checks, and collect payments. They may deal with a great amount of money on a daily basis, so this position requires them to be honest, reliable, and trustworthy employees. They also need to have great skills in customer service as they may handle customer complaints from time to time, assist in answering questions, and process refunds or exchanges.
Sales associates are responsible for promoting the company's goods or services. They are expected to provide exceptional customer service to prospective buyers. They should be familiar with all features of the company's products or services so that they can answer the customers' inquiries. Sales associates also assist customers in processing their checkouts, refunds, returns, and other needs. They should be customer-oriented, and they should have great communication skills. They should know how to sell their products or services to customers. They are considered the company's representatives on the ground.
Cashiers and sales associates have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Cashier | Sales Associate | |
| Average salary | $28,144 | $32,167 |
| Salary range | Between $21,000 And $36,000 | Between $21,000 And $47,000 |
| Highest paying City | Washington, DC | New York, NY |
| Highest paying state | Massachusetts | New York |
| Best paying company | Deloitte | Barclays |
| Best paying industry | Retail | Manufacturing |
There are a few differences between a cashier and a sales associate in terms of educational background:
| Cashier | Sales Associate | |
| Most common degree | High School Diploma, 45% | Bachelor's Degree, 38% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between cashiers' and sales associates' demographics:
| Cashier | Sales Associate | |
| Average age | 34 | 41 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 27.1% Female, 72.9% | Male, 38.4% Female, 61.6% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 9.9% Unknown, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 20.7% Asian, 7.5% White, 55.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.9% | Black or African American, 10.6% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 21.4% Asian, 6.9% White, 55.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6% |
| LGBT Percentage | 5% | 7% |