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A record high of one million restaurant and hospitality workers quit their jobs at the end of last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Within the industry, many of these workers do not receive a livable wage, which is estimated to equate to an average of $67,690 per year in the U.S. by personal finance resource GoBankingRates. Waiters stand to make as little as $17,000 a year, as reported by the BLS, with limited or non-existent PTO and benefits.
“With COVID, we have a perfect storm. We had a flurry of government subsidies and many workers — especially those in the service industry — found those subsidies far more favorable than actually going to work,” says Lily Valentin, head of operations of North America at job search engine, Adzuna. “It’s still hard to get folks to come back, so employers are left with pulling out every tool within their arsenal to draw them back.”
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One of those tools is money. Sign-on bonuses and increases in wages have been the go-to for companies like Amazon, McDonald’s, Chipotle and Hilton Hotels. However, an increase in salary does not mean service workers have caught up to today’s cost of living.
Adzuna calculated which jobs have seen the largest salary increase from January 2021 through November 2021, ranking waiters at the top with a nearly 64% climb. And yet, their current estimated annual salary of $30,000 is less than half of what GoBankingRates estimates it takes to cover basic expenses like housing and food, as well as recreational spending and savings contributions. Time will only tell if demand for talent will push these salaries further in 2022.
As of now, here are 10 jobs with the biggest salary increases over the last year, according to
