Cashiers: Salary Overview
Cashiers receive payments from customers who purchase goods and services.
Their job responsibilities also include scanning and registering customer’s purchases, wrapping the products, processing returns and exchanging merchandise, answering customer’s questions, and counting the money in the register at the beginning and at the end of each shift.
Cashiers who work in establishments that sell alcoholic beverages or tobacco are also responsible for verifying the age of their customers.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median hourly wage for cashiers in the United States was $11.37 in May 2019.
Salaries in this field vary based on experience, employer, region, and many other factors.
The lowest 10 percent earned less than $8.73 and the highest 10 percent earned more than $15.04.
Many entry-level inexperienced cashiers earn the federal minimum wage of $7.25 but some states regulate minimum wages higher than the federal minimum.
Cashier Salary by Industry
Cashier salaries vary widely depending on the field of employment.
According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 3.6 million cashiers employed in the U.S. in 2018, 27% of them being employed by food and beverage stores.
General merchandise stores employed about 21% of cashiers while 17% of them worked for gasoline stations and 9% in restaurants and other eating places.
Pharmacies and drug stores employ about 5% of all cashiers.
Cashier salaries also vary depending on the industry of employment.
Their biggest employer, food, and beverage stores offered a mean annual salary of $24,990 to cashiers while the second biggest employer, general merchandise stores, paid its cashiers with $24,340 a year, on average.
The mean annual salary for cashiers who work in gasoline stations was $22,830 as of May 2018 while the mean annual salary for those who work in restaurants and other eating places were paid, on average, with $22,680 a year.
The industry of health and personal care stores employed about 193,610 cashiers in 2018 and offered an average annual salary of $25,340.
Cashiers who worked in beer, wine, and liquor stores earned, on average, an annual mean wage of $24,660 while those who worked in a general merchandise store earned an average annual salary of $24,340.
The top-paying industry for cashiers is, according to BLS, the federal executive branch, an industry that employed around 920 cashiers and offered an average annual salary of $38,960.
7,430 of cashiers worked for state governments and earned a mean annual salary of $37,880.
The field of electric power generation, transmission, and distribution employed around 790 cashiers and offered an annual wage of $36,300 a year.
The industries that offer the most attractive compensation package typically offer fewer jobs for cashiers and competition for these positions may be stronger.
Having a few years of experience behind the counter in a regular store may give you an advantage if you want to find a better paying job in a different field.
Cashier Salary by Compensation Structure
Many cashiers, especially entry-level employees, are paid by the hour but some of them may also receive a fixed salary.
Some employers offer compensation packages that include bonuses and profit sharing.
A cashier with this type of compensation package may earn anywhere between less than $10 and more than $1,200 a year in bonuses and up to $1,500 a year in profit sharing, according to payscale.com
Full-time workers may receive health and life insurance and paid vacation days but those who work part-time typically have fewer benefits.
Many companies also provide discounts to their employees on the services they provide or the products they sell.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment of cashiers is projected to decline 4 percent from 2018 to 2028 mainly because more stores start to use self-service checkout stands and online sales.
Competition may be strong, especially in fields that offer a higher salary, but job opportunities for cashiers are expected to be good because of the need to replace workers who retire or leave the occupation each year.
* Based on information from the May 2023 salary report from the BLS. The figures represent accumulated data for all states of employment for Cashiers. BLS data represents averages and medians for workers at all levels of education and experience. This data doesn't represent starting salaries.
* Employment conditions in your area may vary.