Updated October 16, 2026

PERM occupation, SOC 35-3023.01, #380 of 1,410 by filings

Baristas

5 H-1B LCAs

Biggest sponsor: CGI Little Tokyo Inc. · 11% of its filings
Busiest state: CA · 49% of its filings
Major group: Food preparation and serving · SOC 35

Weighing an offer for this job?

Where it falls among certified offers, and the four wage levels DOL sets for it by area.

Compare my offer DOL's wage levels for this job

This rate is level with the field

Over 70 decided filings, this rate can't be told apart from the field in either direction.

Why

The 95% interval runs up to a 5.2% denial rate, which still covers the 3.20% the field as a whole records.

Median wage

$35,100

all PERM $103,272

Filings

#380 of 1,410

Approval

100.0%

field 96.8%

Median days

490

13 slower than the field

What it pays

Where its median offer sits among every occupation, then the whole ladder of certified offers by year and by state.

Position in the field 535 occupations with 30+ decided

Median offered wage

$35,100above 18%

$18k $500k

Approval rate

100.0%ahead of 91%, level with 49 more

49% 100%

Median days to decision

490 daysahead of 7%

323d 536d

Each bar counts occupations at that value. More

Each bar counts occupations at that value. PERM runs two labour markets through one process, which is why the wage axis is two humps rather than a bell. The line marks this one.

DOL PERM disclosure files

Who files it

The sponsors and firms with the most PERM filings under this code, the places the work sits, and who the workers were.

Sponsors filing it

CGI Little Tokyo Inc. 8 filings
ARDEN'S GARDEN THE JUICE MARKET, INC 6 filings
Buja Equity, Ltd. 5 filings
Heritage Donut LLC 5 filings
Crafe Cafe Inc. 4 filings
Gum Spring Donut LLC 4 filings

How this is counted

The employers with the most applications under this code. 32 of 71 filings, 45% of the total.

Firms filing it

LAW OFFICES OF GARY J. KIM 16 filings
AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL & IMMIGRATION LAW, PC 9 filings
GJK Law Group 7 filings
THE LAW OFFICE OF DAVID R GATES PLLC 6 filings
Law offices of George J Shalhoub 4 filings
Chou Colwell PS 2 filings

How this is counted

The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 44 of 71 filings, 62% of the total.

Where the jobs are

California 35
Virginia 11
Georgia 8
New York 5
Florida 3
Colorado 2

How this is counted

The worksite state on the application, which is where the job is and not where the company is headquartered. Volume by state across everyone is on the state map. These 6 states cover 64 of 71 filings.

Where the work is

Los Angeles, CA 21
East Point, GA 6
Gainesville, VA 5
New York, NY 5
South Riding, VA 4
West Hills, CA 4

How this is counted

The worksite city on the application, which is where the job is. These 6 cities cover 45 of 71 filings.

Newspapers it advertised in

Los Angeles Times

29 cases
The Washington Post

10 cases
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

6 cases
The San Diego Union-Tribune

3 cases
Atlanta Constitution-Journal

2 cases
The Dallas Morning News

2 cases

How this is counted

The newspaper or professional journal named for each case's two print ads, one count per paper per case, however the filer spelled it.

How long before filing it began

Under 30 days

0.0%
30 to 59 days

1.4%
60 to 89 days

55%
90 to 119 days

15%
120 to 149 days

13%
150 to 180 days

15%
Over 180 days

0.0%

How this is counted

Days from the first recruitment step to the filing. 20 C.F.R. § 656.17(e) puts the job order and ads 30 to 180 days before filing.

Where every PERM employer recruits

The job itself

What O*NET says the work is, what the market pays it by BLS's survey, its outlook, and DOL's wage levels year by year.

What the job pays outside PERM BLS May 2025, DOL wage year 2026-27

United States
3,854,050 jobs
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA
Los Angeles
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
Gainesville, South Riding
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA
East Point
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ
New York

$20k$30k$40k

middle half of pay (BLS)
median
10th to 90th percentile
DOL's Levels I to IV, left to right
median PERM offer

Market pay and DOL wage levels, by area
Area	BLS median	Level I	Level II	Level III	Level IV
United States	$31,200
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA	$42,110	$35,984	$38,522	$41,059	$43,597
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV	$34,600	$30,867	$33,197	$35,526	$37,856
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA	$27,780	$21,466	$24,877	$28,309	$31,720
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ	$35,420	$33,550	$35,318	$37,107	$38,875

How these figures fit together

BLS surveys employers on what they pay everyone in a job; DOL builds its four levels from the same survey a year later (the July 2026 wage year uses BLS's May 2025 estimates). DOL publishes levels by area, not nationally, so the United States line has none. Levels are hourly in DOL's tables; here they're shown a year at 2,080 hours, as DOL computes them. The metros are the ones holding the most of this job's PERM filings, placed by Census's county files.

The block is the middle half of what employers report paying everyone in this job, citizen or not; the ticks under it are DOL's four prevailing wage levels for that metro, the floors a PERM or H-1B offer is held to. More

BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics; DOL OFLC wage tables

DOL's levels for this job in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA, year by year

Each July DOL resets the four levels from BLS's newest survey. A determination keeps the figures of the year it was issued in.

DOL wage levels by wage year, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA
Wage year	Level I	Level II	Level III	Level IV
2026-27	$35,984	$38,522	$41,059	$43,597
2025-26	$34,840	$36,920	$38,979	$41,059
2024-25	$33,550	$34,986	$36,400	$37,835
2023-24	$31,034	$32,594	$34,174	$35,734
2022-23	$29,744	$30,805	$31,886	$32,947

Every area and both wage tables in the wage-level tool.

What the job is

Perform duties such as taking orders and serving food and beverages. Serve customers at counter or from a steam table. May take payment. May prepare food and beverages.

Preparation: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed; O*NET Job Zone 1-2
DOL's education basis: None; Wage year 2026-27
Jobs, 2025 to 2035: +5.8%; About 827,400 openings a year (BLS)
Typical entry: No formal educational credential; BLS

Bright Outlook O*NET OnLine lists this job for rapid growth and numerous job openings.

The work, most important first

Accept payment from customers, and make change as necessary.
Serve customers in eating places that specialize in fast service and inexpensive carry-out food.
Request and record customer orders, and compute bills, using cash registers, multi-counting machines, or pencil and paper.
Balance receipts and payments in cash registers.
Communicate with customers regarding orders, comments, and complaints.
Serve food, beverages, or desserts to customers in such settings as take-out counters of restaurants or lunchrooms, business or industrial establishments, hotel rooms, and cars.

The education workers in it report

Less than a High School Diploma

56%
High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED)

24%
Some College Courses

17%

Titles people use for it

Cafeteria Worker, Counter Worker, Food Service Worker, Server, Cafe Server, Cafeteria Server, Deli Worker (Delicatessen Worker), Dietary Aide.

O*NET also describes Baristas under this SOC code.

This section includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database and O*NET OnLine by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. PERM Tracker has modified some of this information (the shares are rounded and only the top tasks are shown); what changed. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

Against other jobs

Where this sits in the ranking

Ranked 380 of 1,410 by volume: 379 filed at least as many filings, and 1,030 filed no more.

Just above: Forestry Crew Leader 72 filings
Just below: Sustainability Specialists 71 filings

Other food preparation and serving roles

Occupations sharing this one's SOC major group, which is carried in the first two digits of the code. More

Occupations sharing this one's SOC major group, which is carried in the first two digits of the code. Wages inside a group still swing hard, because the group holds every seniority level and every metro.

The same job on H-1B

5 certified H-1B labor condition applications for this occupation since FY2020, offering a median of $24,000 a year; the middle half ran $20,800 to $32,000. By state and year in the salary explorer.

Notes on these numbers

Reading the wage

A floor, not a salary survey: every level and metro mixed. DOL's four wage levels for this job, by area.

What the median is

The median wage employers committed to in federal filings for this occupation. It mixes every experience level and every metro, and it's a floor: the employer must offer at least the prevailing wage DOL determines for the occupation, level and county. Across all PERM filings the middle half of offered wages runs $45,178 to $141,357, so a figure inside that band is unremarkable whichever occupation it belongs to. The levels page reads DOL's OFLC wage search live.

What these numbers don't say

4 notes

The code is the identity: This one is SOC 35-3023.01. Two SOC codes can carry the same job title, so a title that looks duplicated on the ranking is two different occupations. Match on the code when you're checking a specific filing.
A median isn’t an offer: It's the middle of all 71 wages committed to for this occupation across the country, entry level and principal alike. The same role's medians swing hard by worksite, which the state map shows directly.
Approval isn’t about the occupation: The denial rate moves with what happened in the filing rather than with the job title, so nothing here is a property of Baristas. The measured factors are on the denial risk page, published as separate rates.
Nothing here is pending: All 71 counted here carry a decision date, because every case in DOL's disclosure files does, so a case still waiting is in none of them. The largest filer of this occupation is CGI Little Tokyo Inc.. Where the queue stands today is on the processing times page.

The window these figures cover: DOL's PERM disclosure files for fiscal years 2024 to 2026, through the third quarter of 2026, 373,939 decided cases. Nothing pending is counted here. How each figure is built

Weighing an offer?

Compare it against this median, then check the state map, where the same occupation's medians swing hard by worksite.

Setting one?

All 1,410 occupations sort together on the wages page, and denial rates show how outcome moves with the offered wage.

Filings newer than DOL's last published file can't be attributed to this occupation until DOL publishes them. The live list on the case search page carries them by employer.

Case data: DOL quarterly disclosure files (flag.dol.gov) · data through Jun 30, 2026 · quarterly

Employers and firms: Derived from DOL's disclosure files · data through Jun 30, 2026 · rebuilt with each quarterly load

O*NET occupation data: O*NET Database, USDOL/ETA (onetcenter.org) · data through Aug 16, 2026 · twice a year

BLS market pay: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (bls.gov) · data through May 31, 2025 · yearly, each spring

BLS employment projections: BLS Employment Projections (bls.gov) · data through Dec 31, 2025 · yearly, each autumn

DOL wage tables: DOL OFLC wage data downloads (flag.dol.gov) · data through Jul 1, 2026 · yearly, each july

What each source includes

Case data: Decided PERM cases only. A case still waiting isn't in here, so counts and durations describe finished cases.

Employers and firms: Employers, law firms and occupations ranked from decided cases only.

O*NET occupation data: What O*NET says each occupation is and takes: its description, tasks, Job Zone and the education workers report. A description of the job everywhere, not of any one employer's opening.

BLS market pay: What employers report paying everyone in each job, nationally, by state and by metro, from BLS's yearly survey (May of the year named). Citizens and immigrants alike; not PERM offers.

BLS employment projections: BLS's ten-year projection of each job's employment and yearly openings, and the entry education it calls typical. A projection, not a count.

DOL wage tables: The four prevailing wage levels DOL publishes for every job in every area, each wage year from 2021-22, as DOL's own tables print them. The floors an offer is held to, not what anyone was paid.

Cite this page

Waiting on a PERM case?

When it'll likely be decided
An email when DOL moves it