Cashiers Average Salary in United States
$33,202 average · $33,180 median · BLS OEWS 2025
SOC Code: 41-2011What is this?
This page shows employer-reported wages for Cashiers in United States, drawn from the Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS survey — median and mean pay, the full percentile distribution, and the industries that employ this occupation locally. Wage bands are compressed. Union grocery markets and high-cost metros show the visible premiums; overnight and weekend differentials add more than title changes within cashier roles. The larger pay moves are out of the occupation — into customer service, stocker/lead, or supervisory tracks — rather than within it.
How much do Cashiers make in United States?
The average cashiers salary in United States is $33,202 per year, with a median of $33,180. That works out to about $15.96 per hour on average. BLS counts roughly 15,770,510 cashiers jobs in United States.
Mean and median are close, so pay is relatively concentrated around $33,180. Entry-level roles (10th percentile) report about $31,820; experienced workers at the 90th percentile report about $34,270 — a 8% spread from bottom to top. Figures are employer-reported wages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program — not self-reported survey averages — so they are the right baseline for offers, raises, and relocation decisions in this market.
How Cashiers Careers Are Structured
Cashiers handle transactions in grocery, big-box, convenience, and specialty retail. The role is high-volume, schedule-flexible, and among the most automated-exposed occupations in the OEWS dataset — self-checkout and mobile pay have already reshaped headcount in many formats.
The wage tables and percentile chart on this page show how cashiers pay is distributed in United States specifically — and because state-level wages for the same occupation routinely differ by 30% or more, the local figures here are the ones that matter for offers, raises, and relocation decisions in this market.
What Moves Pay in This Field
Wage bands are compressed. Union grocery markets and high-cost metros show the visible premiums; overnight and weekend differentials add more than title changes within cashier roles. The larger pay moves are out of the occupation — into customer service, stocker/lead, or supervisory tracks — rather than within it.
Hiring is immediate and often a first job. Treat cashier work as an on-ramp: reliability plus inventory or customer-service cross-training converts into stocker, sales, or shift-lead roles with higher distributions on adjacent Wage Atlas pages.
New to reading wage distributions? Our guide to salary percentiles explains how to place yourself on the chart above, and the negotiation playbook shows how to use these numbers in an actual conversation.
What Do Cashiers Do?
Cashiers positions belong to the cashiers field. Cashiers handle transactions in grocery, big-box, convenience, and specialty retail. The role is high-volume, schedule-flexible, and among the most automated-exposed occupations in the OEWS dataset — self-checkout and mobile pay have already reshaped headcount in many formats.
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) Code: 41-2011
Cashiers pay in United States
In United States, cashiers report a median of $33,180 and an average of $33,202 (about $15.96/hour) across roughly 15,770,510 jobs. The local pay band runs from about $31,820 at the 10th percentile to $34,270 at the 90th.
National figures average across high-cost coastal metros and lower-cost inland markets, so individual state pages on Wage Atlas are usually the better reference for a specific offer.
Income reality check
The median salary for Cashiers in United States of $33,180 falls in the Low-income band of this framework - roughly ~18% of the U.S. population and ~25% of the global population sit in this band.
Illustrative relative standing for education only - this ladder is a simplified framework, not an official Census, BLS, or World Bank statistical series. Salary figures on Wage Atlas come from official BLS OEWS data.
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Official BLS Employment Projections for Cashiers
Skills & What You Do
No formal educational credential typically required
- Receive and process payments
- Issue receipts and change
- Maintain checkout area
- Answer customer questions
Top Industries for Cashiers
| $32,895 | $32,164 | $16 | 3,407,940 | |
| $31,863 | $31,443 | $15 | 974,330 |
Related Occupations
| $37,964 | $37,590 | $18 | 33,310,030 | |
SOC: 41-2031 • 89% match | $37,302 | $37,310 | $18 | 19,723,450 |
SOC: 31-1120 • 88% match | $36,156 | $36,010 | $17 | 48,535,960 |
SOC: 35-3000 • 83% match | $36,004 | $35,680 | $17 | 38,643,470 |
| Find Food and Beverage Serving Workers Jobs | ||||
| $33,250 | $33,190 | $16 | 15,896,020 | |
SOC: 35-3023 • 86% match | $32,226 | $31,790 | $15 | 19,781,110 |
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Cashiers in Other States
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Viewing: Cashiers (SOC: 41-2011)