Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders Salary
Production Occupations · 31K employed in the U.S.
Median annual
$41,590
Median hourly
$20
Average annual
$42,570
Typical range
$31,680–$54,410
Pay distribution
10th to 90th percentile, with the median marked.
What this role pays
The median annual salary for Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders is $41,590 as of May 2025, based on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey. That works out to about $20 an hour at a full-time schedule.
Operate or tend cooking equipment, such as steam cooking vats, deep fry cookers, pressure cookers, kettles, and boilers, to prepare food products..
Most earn between $31,680 and $54,410 a year. There are roughly 31K people employed as food cooking machine operators and tenders in the United States. Use the state and metro pages below to see how pay changes by location, and the calculator to convert any hourly or annual figure.
Salary calculator
Convert your pay and see where it lands for Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders.
- Hourly
- $20.00
- Daily
- $160
- Weekly
- $800
- Bi-weekly
- $1,600
- Monthly
- $3,466
- Annual
- $41,590
$41,590 a year is around the 50th percentile for Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenderss. The median is $41,590.
Highest-paying states
Median annual wage by state.
Top-paying metro areas
Median annual wage by metro area.
- 1Cedar Rapids, IA$63,690
- 2Modesto, CA$59,010
- 3Kiryas Joel-Poughkeepsie-Newburgh, NY$57,680
- 4Scranton--Wilkes-Barre, PA$57,490
- 5Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA$56,190
- 6Memphis, TN-MS-AR$55,270
- 7Sioux City, IA-NE-SD$51,600
- 8Stockton-Lodi, CA$51,560
- 9Portland-South Portland, ME$50,330
- 10Dubuque, IA$50,140
- 11Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ$49,220
- 12Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO$48,980
Related job titles
Employers advertise Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders roles under these titles.
Related occupations
- Food Batchmakers$42,290
- Food and Tobacco Roasting, Baking, and Drying Machine Operators and Tenders$44,810
- Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders$51,610
- Cooling and Freezing Equipment Operators and Tenders$41,330
- Bakers$37,160
- Cleaning, Washing, and Metal Pickling Equipment Operators and Tenders$43,530
- Mixing and Blending Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders$48,990
- Furnace, Kiln, Oven, Drier, and Kettle Operators and Tenders$48,040
What a Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders does
- Read work orders, recipes, or formulas to determine cooking times and temperatures, and ingredient specifications.
- Collect and examine product samples during production to test them for quality, color, content, consistency, viscosity, acidity, or specific gravity.
- Pour, dump, or load prescribed quantities of ingredients or products into cooking equipment, manually or using a hoist.
- Clean, wash, and sterilize equipment and cooking area, using water hoses, cleaning or sterilizing solutions, or rinses.
- Observe gauges, dials, and product characteristics, and adjust controls to maintain appropriate temperature, pressure, and flow of ingredients.
- Measure or weigh ingredients, using scales or measuring containers.
- Tend or operate and control equipment, such as kettles, cookers, vats and tanks, and boilers, to cook ingredients or prepare products for further processing.
- Record production and test data, such as processing steps, temperature and steam readings, cooking time, batches processed, and test results.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does a Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders make?
- The median annual wage for Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders is $41,590 ($20 per hour). Pay ranges from about $31,680 at the 10th percentile to $54,410 at the 90th percentile.
- What is the average salary for a Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders?
- The average (mean) annual salary is $42,570, which is higher than the median because a small number of high earners pull the average up.
- Which state pays Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenderss the most?
- Washington has the highest median annual wage for this occupation at $51,100.
- Is Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders a growing occupation?
- BLS employment data for May 2025 counts about 31K people in this occupation. Projected growth is published separately in the BLS Employment Projections program.
- What does a Food Cooking Machine Operators and Tenders do?
- Read work orders, recipes, or formulas to determine cooking times and temperatures, and ingredient specifications.; Collect and examine product samples during production to test them for quality, color, content, consistency, viscosity, acidity, or specific gravity.; Pour, dump, or load prescribed quantities of ingredients or products into cooking equipment, manually or using a hoist..