Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between food service assistants and food servers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a food service assistant has an average salary of $29,354, which is higher than the $25,209 average annual salary of a food server.
The top three skills for a food service assistant include patients, customer service and food handling. The most important skills for a food server are beverage orders, wine, and cleanliness.
| Food Service Assistant | Food Server | |
| Yearly salary | $29,354 | $25,209 |
| Hourly rate | $14.11 | $12.12 |
| Growth rate | 2% | 9% |
| Number of jobs | 149,665 | 125,455 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 33% | High School Diploma, 36% |
| Average age | 37 | 42 |
| Years of experience | - | - |
A food service assistant helps in food and beverage preparation and serving customers. Foodservice assistants make sure that great customer service is provided to clients. Their duties include answering phone calls for inquiries, providing information, selling products, and solving problems. They may function as cashiers in restaurants or any other food service institution. Upon receiving customer complaints, they escalate them to top management. This job requires people skills, communication skills, and food service knowledge.
A Food Server specializes in helping customers attain a pleasant dining experience while ensuring to meet all food handling and health regulation standards. Most of the responsibilities revolve around greeting customers and directing them to comfortable seats, responding to their inquires and taking their orders, and courteously suggesting options. Aside from serving meals, Food Servers must also accept payments, organize order receipts, replenish stocks in food containers and drinking stations, and clean tables for the new customers.
Food service assistants and food servers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Food Service Assistant | Food Server | |
| Average salary | $29,354 | $25,209 |
| Salary range | Between $23,000 And $36,000 | Between $18,000 And $34,000 |
| Highest paying City | Springfield, MA | Los Angeles, CA |
| Highest paying state | Massachusetts | Vermont |
| Best paying company | Fremont Public Schools | Gettysburg College |
| Best paying industry | Retail | Retail |
There are a few differences between a food service assistant and a food server in terms of educational background:
| Food Service Assistant | Food Server | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 33% | High School Diploma, 36% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between food service assistants' and food servers' demographics:
| Food Service Assistant | Food Server | |
| Average age | 37 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 35.9% Female, 64.1% | Male, 36.0% Female, 64.0% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 12.1% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 18.0% Asian, 8.7% White, 55.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.0% | Black or African American, 4.2% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 20.4% Asian, 8.7% White, 60.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.9% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 7% |