Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between sales clerks and cashiers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a cashier has an average salary of $28,144, which is higher than the $25,739 average annual salary of a sales clerk.
The top three skills for a sales clerk include customer service, stock shelves and sales floor. The most important skills for a cashier are front end, cash handling, and basic math.
| Sales Clerk | Cashier | |
| Yearly salary | $25,739 | $28,144 |
| Hourly rate | $12.37 | $13.53 |
| Growth rate | - | -10% |
| Number of jobs | 372,651 | 456,110 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 4.2 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 34% | High School Diploma, 45% |
| Average age | 41 | 34 |
| Years of experience | - | - |
A sales clerk is responsible for assisting customers in purchasing products, responding to customer inquiries, and providing product recommendations. Sales clerks require excellent customer service and communication skills to offer the best services to the customers and maintain good customer feedback for the business. They also check inventories, request supplies as needed, and organize product displays on the appropriate shelves. A sales clerk must have strong verbal communication skills to manage customer concerns and excellent time-management skills to perform tasks within the fast-paced work environment.
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 clerks and cashiers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Sales Clerk | Cashier | |
| Average salary | $25,739 | $28,144 |
| Salary range | Between $16,000 And $39,000 | Between $21,000 And $36,000 |
| Highest paying City | Washington, DC | Washington, DC |
| Highest paying state | New York | Massachusetts |
| Best paying company | Hawaii Pacific Health | Deloitte |
| Best paying industry | Energy | Retail |
There are a few differences between a sales clerk and a cashier in terms of educational background:
| Sales Clerk | Cashier | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 34% | High School Diploma, 45% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between sales clerks' and cashiers' demographics:
| Sales Clerk | Cashier | |
| Average age | 41 | 34 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 35.3% Female, 64.7% | Male, 27.1% Female, 72.9% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 10.2% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 19.7% Asian, 6.8% White, 57.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5% | 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% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 5% |