Food industry salaries – like any salary – need to stay competitive in order to keep the employees you value and recruit new staff. But what is the average food and beverage salary? Obviously, starting salaries for beverage industry jobs will be less than the pay given to long-term staff, but it’s also important to determine average food industry salaries for similar positions at other companies.
Many factors come into play when determining the average salary for jobs in the food industry. Use the following tools to establish up-to-date food and beverage salary guidelines:
1. Use food and beverage industry salary tools to help you hire new employees at a fair rate.
2. Use a food and beverage salary calculator and compensation tools during staff reviews and promotions.
3. Use national job boards to help you compare compensation and benefits for jobs in the food industry.
Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done
Determine fair food industry salaries before hiring new employees
Food and beverage salaries really run the gamut due to several factors, including job type, experience level, company size and location. Deciphering what a specific position is worth can be dizzying. Fortunately, there are a variety of food and beverage salary tools available that are easy to use and typically provide current information on food industry salaries.
I recommend: PayScale helps you find out the average pay for food and beverage industry jobs by searching by job title and location. The site also offers a glimpse at median salaries in the food and beverage industry in a handy pay chart.
CBSalary.com offers similar information and searching capabilities.
Stay current on food industry salaries to keep employees happy
Offering a competitive beverage salary to a new employee is essential, but it's also important to regularly provide fair salary increases to existing staff members. At the very least, all employees should get a cost-of-living increase at review time.
I recommend: Search for the average food industry salary in your area by using Salary.com’s
Salary Wizard. Compare food industry salaries between two cities with the cost-of-living calculator at
Bankrate.com.
Keep employee benefits in mind when establishing a food and beverage industry salary guide
Food industry pay is not the only thing that will attract and keep employees. Benefits such as medical and dental insurance, vacation pay, life insurance, flexible hours, casual dress, stock options and more are factors for many workers. Search your local newspaper's classified section or on national job boards for real salaries and benefits for real positions. Create a log of the salaries and benefits you see over several weeks to come up with a good range to use as a basis of comparison.
I recommend: Find food and beverage industry salary and benefits information by searching for jobs on industry-specific job boards like
FoodandDrinkJobs.com and on industry-wide boards such as
SimplyHired.
Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide
- Professional associations, such as The Food and Beverage Association of America, provide great forums for discussing food and beverage salary and benefits expectations.
The official source of Food and Beverage Industry Salary Tools is
the Food and Beverage Industry Salary Tools page at Business.com
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