Waiters and Waitresses Average Salary in North Carolina
$37,850 average · $37,850 median · BLS OEWS 2025
SOC Code: 35-3031What is this?
This page shows employer-reported wages for Waiters and Waitresses in North Carolina, 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. For tipped roles, venue economics dominate — the same skills earn multiples more at a high-volume, high-check establishment. For kitchen roles, the ladder from line cook through sous chef to kitchen manager is the pay path, and it is climbed by demonstrated reliability more than credentials. Hotel and institutional food service generally out-pays restaurants at equivalent levels and adds benefits.
How much do Waiters and Waitresses make in North Carolina?
The average waiters and waitresses salary in North Carolina is $37,850 per year. That works out to about $18.20 per hour on average. BLS counts roughly 71,940 waiters and waitresses jobs in North Carolina.
Mean and median are close, so pay is relatively concentrated around $37,850. Entry-level roles (10th percentile) report about $37,850; experienced workers at the 90th percentile report about $37,850 — a 0% 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 Food Preparation and Serving Careers Are Structured
Food service is the largest low-wage occupational group in the country, and also one where the published data most understates true variation: tipped earnings are inconsistently captured, so wages for servers and bartenders in busy, high-priced markets can run far above the recorded figures, while quiet-market wages match them.
The wage tables and percentile chart on this page show how waiters and waitresses pay is distributed in North Carolina 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
For tipped roles, venue economics dominate — the same skills earn multiples more at a high-volume, high-check establishment. For kitchen roles, the ladder from line cook through sous chef to kitchen manager is the pay path, and it is climbed by demonstrated reliability more than credentials. Hotel and institutional food service generally out-pays restaurants at equivalent levels and adds benefits.
Entry is immediate and the skills are learned working. The realistic financial trajectories are: into supervision (the first-line supervisor premium over crew wages is visible and substantial in this data), into institutional settings with benefits, or out — food service experience transfers credibly into sales, customer success, and operations roles with stronger distributions.
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 Waiters and Waitresses Do?
Waiters and Waitresses positions belong to the food preparation and serving field. Food service is the largest low-wage occupational group in the country, and also one where the published data most understates true variation: tipped earnings are inconsistently captured, so wages for servers and bartenders in busy, high-priced markets can run far above the recorded figures, while quiet-market wages match them.
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) Code: 35-3031
Waiters and Waitresses pay in North Carolina
In North Carolina, waiters and waitresses report a median of $37,850 (about $18.20/hour) across roughly 71,940 jobs. The local pay band runs from about $37,850 at the 10th percentile to $37,850 at the 90th.
Compared with the national distribution, local industry mix and cost of living are the main reasons North Carolina wages for this occupation sit where they do — toggle Regional Price Parity on this page to see purchasing-power-adjusted pay.
What your paycheck is really worth in North Carolina
Prices in North Carolina run 6% below the national average (RPP 94.3). So a nominal salary of $37,850 has the buying power of about $40,127 in national terms.
North Carolina vs. United States for Waiters and Waitresses
The median waiters and waitresses salary in North Carolina is $37,850, which is -5.5% below the national median of $40,060 (mean pay is -5.5% below the U.S. mean of $40,070). Among 51 states and D.C. with OEWS data, North Carolina ranks #28 by median wage for this occupation. North Carolina accounts for about 0.5% of U.S. waiters and waitresses employment in the latest OEWS release.
See every state ranked for this occupation on the best-paying states page, or compare purchasing power on real wages.
Income reality check
The median salary for Waiters and Waitresses in North Carolina of $37,850 falls in the Stably paid band of this framework - roughly ~12% of the U.S. population and ~15% 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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Occupation Report Card
Top Industries for Waiters and Waitresses
| $40,155 | $35,220 | $19 | 7,870,080 | |
| $38,562 | $35,127 | $19 | 264,310 |
Related Occupations
SOC: 43-4051 • 87% match | $46,601 | $46,590 | $22 | 13,746,580 |
SOC: 43-9061 • 91% match | $46,270 | $46,420 | $22 | 14,034,620 |
SOC: 53-7065 • 91% match | $39,579 | $39,440 | $19 | 14,316,800 |
| $39,122 | $38,760 | $19 | 12,706,340 | |
| Find Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners Jobs | ||||
SOC: 35-2014 • 87% match | $38,701 | $38,600 | $19 | 8,130,270 |
SOC: 31-1120 • 87% match | $36,156 | $36,010 | $17 | 48,535,960 |
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Waiters And Waitresses in Other States
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