The average counter salary is $32,875. The most common degree is a high school diploma degree with an business major. It usually takes zero years of experience to become a counter. Counters with a Certified Professional - Food Safety (CP-FS) certification earn more money. Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -4% and produce -138,700 job opportunities across the U.S.

What Does a Counter Do

There are certain skills that many counters have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed dexterity, near vision and patience.

Learn more about what a Counter does

How To Become a Counter

If you're interested in becoming a counter, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 31.1% of counters have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 2.3% of counters have master's degrees. Even though some counters have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Counter

Average Salary for a Counter

Counters in America make an average salary of $32,875 per year or $16 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $46,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $23,000 per year.
Average Counter Salary
$32,875 Yearly
$15.81 hourly

What Am I Worth?

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Roles and Types of Counter

The role of a counter includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general counter responsibilities:

  • Support technical solutions for r&d; projects to include but not limited to: supporting creation of functional
  • Assisting the customer in the completion of the 4473 form, act as the compliance captain
  • Prep and prepare food items to recipe specifications; knowledge of dessert

There are several types of counter, including:

Cashier

Role:

How may I help you? is probably the most common thing you will say as a cashier. Essentially your job is to collect payment from customers for the goods or services you provided. Cashiers are needed everywhere, so this is a job with a lot of opportunity behind it.

From grocery stores to gas stations, stores at the mall and coffee shops, the sky is the limit when it comes to finding a cashier job. Plus, there aren't any formal education requirements so you can just learn while you're on the job.
  • Average Salary: $28,144
  • Degree: High School Diploma

Services Clerk

Role:

A service clerk usually works in retail or for service-oriented companies such as banks, consulting firms, repair businesses, or telecommunications. They provide customer service in person, answering questions, providing information on services, retrieving products, or handling the cash register.

Service clerks are outgoing and friendly employees with great communication skills, an organized mindset, and attention to detail. Being good with numbers is a great asset to have as well, as you will be dealing with money and keeping track of payments.

Working as a service clerk is an entry-level position that does not require specific education, other than a high school diploma. You will be trained on the job, and the work is easy to learn. You will be a member of a team following the instructions of a department manager or a supervisor. Salaries average around $15.17 an hour, with many opportunities to grow and advance.

  • Average Salary: $31,246
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Counter Sales Person

Role:

A Counter Sales Person is responsible for the customer service of a company's physical location. They handle sales and other processes, too.

Their work generally includes duties such as greeting and helping customers, promoting the company's products but also their policies and beliefs, handling item returns, processing payments, checking inventory and reporting on items that need to be ordered, organizing items in the store, creating logs and other documents, taking and then following up on orders, and dealing with any customer issues as they come up. Certain Sales People might need to help customers further, or may be involved in making food, depending on where they work.

A person hoping to work in this position generally needs to have a minimum of a high school degree or a GED and excellent interpersonal skills and some maths skills. They may receive on the job training, too. On average, a Counter Sales Person makes $14.9 an hour.
  • Average Salary: $34,201
  • Degree: High School Diploma

States With The Most Counter Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active counter jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where counters earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Counter Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1California352$33,467
2Texas269$31,661
3North Carolina261$29,172
4Ohio232$37,971
5Florida227$26,429
6New York205$37,619
7Virginia181$36,920
8Indiana173$37,822
9Illinois158$30,954
10Pennsylvania155$34,984
11Tennessee142$28,235
12Washington128$38,126
13Georgia128$28,254
14Michigan127$35,768
15New Jersey126$37,830
16Wisconsin120$29,459
17Oregon104$33,289
18Massachusetts102$42,549
19Missouri101$30,103
20Kentucky93$35,517
21Mississippi89$28,788
22Maryland87$30,567
23South Carolina83$26,922
24Louisiana81$27,083
25Colorado78$43,954
26Connecticut77$42,715
27Minnesota73$33,337
28Arizona67$36,445
29Arkansas58$31,833
30Iowa58$30,738
31Alabama47$29,438
32Kansas46$29,605
33Nevada43$38,690
34Maine42$40,343
35Oklahoma40$31,049
36New Mexico35$33,164
37Hawaii34$29,304
38Utah32$32,505
39Nebraska26$30,706
40Montana24$29,591
41New Hampshire22$42,125
42Alaska21$36,158
43Vermont19$41,359
44Idaho19$37,402
45South Dakota14$29,754
46Delaware12$40,745
47West Virginia12$36,921
48Wyoming10$36,293
49Rhode Island9$42,691
50North Dakota6$38,965

Counter Education

Counter Majors

18.8 %

Counter Degrees

High School Diploma

36.6 %

Bachelors

31.1 %

Associate

17.6 %

Top Skills For a Counter

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 18.3% of counters listed basic math on their resume, but soft skills such as dexterity and near vision are important as well.

  • Basic Math, 18.3%
  • POS, 17.3%
  • Math, 12.7%
  • Pleasant Dining, 8.3%
  • Cash Handling, 8.2%
  • Other Skills, 35.2%

Choose From 10+ Customizable Counter Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Counter templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Counter resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

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Counter Demographics

Counter Gender Distribution

Female
Female
62%
Male
Male
38%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among counters, 61.6% of them are women, while 38.4% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among counters is White, which makes up 56.2% of all counters.

  • The most common foreign language among counters is Spanish at 62.1%.

Online Courses For Counter That You May Like

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1. Make the Sale: Build, Launch, and Manage E-commerce Stores

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Make the Sale: Build, Launch, and Manage E-commerce Stores is the sixth of seven courses in the Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce Certificate. This course explores how businesses and individuals sell products online, including using popular platforms like Shopify. You’ll go through the process of creating a mock e-commerce store. To do this, you’ll build a Shopify store, add the necessary information, and create product listings. You’ll explore how to reach customers online through...

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2. Customer Service, Customer Support, And Customer Experience

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4.5
(907)

Customer service, customer support, and customer experience training. Loyal clients through world-class customer service...

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3. Customer Service Mastery: Delight Every Customer

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4.6
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Master Customer Service using this practical customer care course...

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Best States For a Counter

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a counter. The best states for people in this position are Colorado, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. Counters make the most in Colorado with an average salary of $43,954. Whereas in Connecticut and Rhode Island, they would average $42,715 and $42,691, respectively. While counters would only make an average of $42,549 in Massachusetts, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. Maine

Total Counter Jobs: 42
Highest 10% Earn:
$55,000
Location Quotient:
1.94

2. Vermont

Total Counter Jobs: 19
Highest 10% Earn:
$58,000
Location Quotient:
1.52

3. Connecticut

Total Counter Jobs: 77
Highest 10% Earn:
$63,000
Location Quotient:
1.42
Full List Of Best States For Counters

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Top Counter Employers

Most Common Employers For Counter

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1MetLife$44,309$21.306
2Amazon$33,406$16.0624
3KDH Defense Systems$32,818$15.7810
4PCC Community Markets$31,895$15.337
5Reliant Inventory$31,836$15.318
6Whole Foods Market$31,405$15.107
7Peoples Pharmacy$31,382$15.095
8McLane$31,130$14.9741
9Quality Counts$30,760$14.798
10RGIS$30,752$14.7823

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