How much do coffee shop employees make?
How much do coffee shop employees make per month?
This is a set of typical employee wages for an average coffee shop in US dollars:
- Waiter/Waitress: USD 1200 to 1500
- Kitchen Assistant: USD 1200 to 2000
- Baristas: USD 1800 to 3000
- Chef/Cook: USD 2500 to 5000
- Part timer hourly pay: USD 8 to 15
This is based on the research on numerous locations ranging from Hong Kong/Japan (Asia), Italy/Norway (Europe) to US/Canada (N.America).
This will give you a potential cafe owner, some insights on how to structure your compensation package for your coffee shop employees. If you are working out your cafe set up cost, try out our free calculator.
Which country coffee shop employees make the most?
If we look at the salary range of chefs as comparison, Europe coffee shop employees is more likely to have a higher wage (even with the same job title). The hourly pay in Europe and North America is also higher, as they are protected by the minimum wage (unlike in Asia).
How much F&B employees make in Asia?
When we look at the wages for coffee shop employees in Asia, we picked up the more developed economies (Japan and Hong Kong) and also a comparison between front of the house and back of the house employees.
If we take Japan as a representation of the developed economy in Asia, per hourly wage is approximately USD 8. This will likely be the expectation for employees in Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul, Taiwan, and most 1st tier city in China.
And when we look at the monthly wages of F&B employees using Hong Kong as a benchmark, a waiter wage starts from USD 1500 with chef wages a few hundreds more than the front of the house staff.
Once again, this will be the benchmark for coffee shop employees wages across the various developed countries in Asia.
Starting your own Cafe?
Try out the free cafe setup cost calculator to estimate how much you need for your upcoming coffee business endeavour.
How much F&B employees make in Europe?
Looking at the wages for F&B employees in Italy gives us the salary range from entry level staff to the owners and directors for a F&B chain.
The range is similar to what we have showcased at the beginning of this article.
And the wages for a typical F&B employee in Europe is higher than Asia, possibly due to the minimum wage requirement in Europe.
In fact, employees working in coffee shop in Europe will make more when compared to their peers working in Asia or North America.
How much F&B employees make in North America?
The two charts below are from Canada and United States and there are not much difference in their compensation structure.
Their wage is also almost on par with front of the house waiter in Hong Kong.
Overall, they make less than their counterparts in Europe.
Summary
This is not an HR piece forecasting any trends nor it is trying to state if the wage in one location is better or worse. We hope what we present here can be a source of information for potential cafe/coffee shop owners mulling over how much to pay their coffee shop employees.
There is no strict formula on how much to pay your staff, but we hope by showcasing F&B employees' wages in different locations will assist you in setting your own compensation structure.
If you are looking for other reading materials on the cost of running or starting a coffee shop, similar to how much do coffee shop employee make - check out this link as well.
About US | OCM Profile
OCM (OnCoffeeMakers.com) was started in 2007 with the first webpage about coffee machines. And for a number of years, we focused on helping people find their desired coffee machine (we still are helping folks with that! So, if you are looking for coffee machines for office or restaurants - check out the link).
In 2010, we started getting enquiries on restaurant marketing and we start to help food and beverage brands with their marketing. Below are campaigns and events that we have done over the years:
OCM's campaigns: F&B Marketing Ideas by OCM
OCM's Events: F&B Industry events by or with OCM
Check out this restaurant marketing guide to learn more about the many campaigns and companies we have worked with.
Since then, we have also created many marketing workshops and classes for the F&B industry. Many of these modules are still running in tertiary institutions such as Temasek Polytechnic Skillsfuture Academy and also ITE College East COC classes, below are some snippets of our lectures and workshops:
OCM’s F&B workshops: Food and Beverage Marketing Lectures | Workshops - click to watch classes on customer journey map, JTBD and more.
So, if you are looking for industry practitioners to help you scale your coffee or F&B businesses, do drop us a message or book an appointment. Do also check out our various social media platforms on regular F&B and coffee market updates:
For regular coffee (F&B) related videos: OCM Youtube
For Daily Coffee Inspiration (fun coffee content): OCM IG
For insights into the coffee (F&B) industry: OCM LinkedIN
PS: For the coffee lovers, we continue to share coffee articles (and videos) and have also started a free coffee class section (with free online coffee training supported by coffee partners).
