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Waiters and Waitresses vs Food Service Managers

Side-by-side · O*NET · BLS · AI-exposure research · Anthropic Economic Index

A factual, source-backed comparison of Waiters and Waitresses and Food Service Managers on the dimensions both occupations carry. Every figure is a position within an independent published dataset — not a verdict on which job is better, safer, or more “future-proof.”

Waiters and Waitresses Food Service Managers
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$33,760
$65,310
Employment · BLS OEWS
2,302,690
244,230
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
83rd pct
27th pct

At a glance

Dimension Waiters and Waitresses Food Service Managers
Median pay $33,760 $65,310
Employment 2,302,690 244,230
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection Declining (-0.7%) About average (+6.4%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 456,700 42,000
Typical education · O*NET Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not. Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.
AI exposure · published exposure studies High · 83rd pct Low · 27th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 52nd pct · 28% of tasks 67th pct · 36% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index Augmentation-leaning (42.9%) Automation-leaning (45.7%)
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman No No

Pay and employment are BLS OEWS estimates; outlook and openings are BLS 2024–2034 projections; AI exposure and observed-use figures come from separate research and reflect exposure and usage, not predictions that either job will disappear. Compare like with like.

Skills

Shared: Customer and Personal Service, Service Orientation, Oral Comprehension, Oral Expression, Speech Recognition, Speech Clarity, English Language, Active Listening, Speaking, Social Perceptiveness, Sales and Marketing, Coordination, Problem Sensitivity, Monitoring, Deductive Reasoning, Near Vision, Critical Thinking, Written Comprehension, Selective Attention, Reading Comprehension, Persuasion, Judgment and Decision Making, Time Management, Complex Problem Solving, Food Production.

Specific to Waiters and Waitresses

  • Time Sharing
  • Trunk Strength
  • Stamina
  • Information Ordering
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness
  • Manual Dexterity
  • Finger Dexterity
  • Gross Body Coordination

Specific to Food Service Managers

  • Administration and Management
  • Management of Personnel Resources
  • Personnel and Human Resources
  • Mathematics
  • Administrative
  • Production and Processing
  • Education and Training
  • Active Learning

Knowledge, skills & abilities O*NET rates as important for each occupation. “Shared” are common to both; the columns list what is distinctive to each (top by the order O*NET surfaces).

Tools & technology

Shared: Web page creation and editing software , Point of sale POS software .

Specific to Waiters and Waitresses

Specific to Food Service Managers

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Waiters and Waitresses or Food Service Managers — tasks, the full skill graph, tools, work context, preparation, wages by percentile, industries, AI exposure and the AI work map.

More comparisons

Related occupations you can place side by side on the same sourced scale.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Waiters and Waitresses vs Food Service Managers." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/compare/waiters-and-waitresses-vs-food-service-managers

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Waiters and Waitresses vs Food Service Managers. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/waiters-and-waitresses-vs-food-service-managers

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-waiters-and-waitresses-vs-food-service-managers,
  title  = {Waiters and Waitresses vs Food Service Managers},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/compare/waiters-and-waitresses-vs-food-service-managers}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.