How To Become A Dietary Worker: What It Is and Career Path

What is a dietary worker and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a dietary worker. For example, did you know that they make an average of $13.27 an hour? That's $27,601 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 2% and produce 17,700 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreDietary WorkerUS Average

Salary

2.2

Avg. Salary $27,601

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.8

Growth rate 2%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.96%

Asian 6.38%

Black or African American 11.95%

Hispanic or Latino 15.55%

Unknown 4.88%

White 60.29%

Gender

female 55.73%

male 44.27%

Age - 34

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 34

Stress level

4.8

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.2

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.6

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a dietary worker

Explore dietary worker education requirements

Most common dietary worker degrees

High School Diploma

44.5 %

Associate

20.9 %

Bachelor's

19.1 %

Start to develop specific dietary worker skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	15.73%
Food Service	15.33%
Customer Service	12.90%
Dishes	9.20%
Phone Calls	8.67%

Complete relevant dietary worker training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New dietary workers learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a dietary worker based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real dietary worker resumes.

Research dietary worker duties and responsibilities

Job duties consist of delivering food trays to patients, maintaining a clean and sanitary work space, and restocking products.
Prepare and provide healthy meal to patients according to their nutritional requirement.
Assist with planning and directing food preparation and culinary activities along with safely handling and storing all products appropriately.
Experience in operating a heavy duty dishwasher

Prepare your dietary worker resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your dietary worker resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a dietary worker resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable dietary worker resume templates

Build a professional dietary worker resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your dietary worker resume.

Apply for dietary worker jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a dietary worker job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do dietary workers rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Dietary worker reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jul 2020

Pros

Not sedentary, moving around. Creativity.

Cons

Repetitive tasks. Or obviously, working with people who are highly critical.

A zippia user wrote a review on Jan 2020