All occupations · #200 of 1,410 by volume
Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers
SOC 35-9011.00, in the food preparation and serving major group. 218 PERM filings in DOL's current disclosure window, 212 certified and 3 denied.
This rate is level with the field
Computed over 215 decided filings. The 95% interval runs up to a 4.0% denial rate, which still covers the 3.20% the field as a whole records, so this record can't be told apart from the field in either direction.
Median wage
$34,320
all PERM $103,272
Filings
218
#200 of 1,410
Approval
98.6%
field 96.8%
Median days
452
25 faster than the field
Median offered wage
$34,320above 17%
Approval rate
98.6%ahead of 77%
Median days to decision
452 daysahead of 69%
- 5th to 95th
- 25th to 75th
- Median
- 10th and 90th
FY2025
$18,304 median · 61 certified cases
FY2026
$34,320 median · 149 certified cases
- 10th
- $33,024
- +92.0% since FY2025
- Median
- $34,320
- +87.5% since FY2025
- 90th
- $35,942
- +15.2% since FY2025
- 95th
- $35,942
- +15.2% since FY2025
These years are not measuring the same group of filings. The count moves by 2.4 times between the largest year and the smallest, so a change in the ladder is at least partly a change in which employers filed rather than a change in what the work pays. Read the shape, not the difference.
| Fiscal year | Cases | 5th | 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th | 95th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | 61 | $17,202 | $17,202 | $18,304 | $18,304 | $31,200 | $31,200 | $31,200 |
| FY2026 | 149 | $27,664 | $33,024 | $34,320 | $34,320 | $34,320 | $35,942 | $35,942 |
Who files this job
The sponsors and firms with the most PERM filings under this code, and the states the work sits in.
Sponsors filing it
- NEW CANEY INC 66 filings · 98.5% approved
- DENCO ENTERPRISES INC 56 filings · 100.0% approved
- White Lodging Services Corporation 27 filings
- Demida Corp. 12 filings
- KOBE-ALAFAYA II, LLC 9 filings
- KOBE JAPANESE STEAK HOUSE OF ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, L.L.C. 6 filings
The employers with the most applications under this code. 176 of 218 filings, 81% of the total.
Firms filing it
- Momentum Immigration 122 filings · 99.2% approved
- Ji Law Firm APC 33 filings · 100.0% approved
- ANDRADE LAW FIRM PLLC 21 filings
- Yerezhepova Law, P. C. 14 filings
- Mirae Immigration Law LLC 4 filings
- JAEWOON LEE & ASSOCIATES, LLC 3 filings
The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 197 of 218 filings, 90% of the total.
Where the jobs are
- California 124
- Florida 30
- Texas 19
- New York 13
- Indiana 10
- Wisconsin 7
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 203 of 218 filings.
Where this sits in the ranking
Ranked 200 of 1,410 by volume: 199 filed at least as many filings, and 1,210 filed no more.
- Just above
- Transportation Engineers 218 filings
- Just below
- Bakers 217 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. Wages inside a group still swing hard, because the group holds every seniority level and every metro.
- #194 Combined Food Preparation and Serving Workers, Including Fast Food 222 filings · 105 denied
- #185 Chefs and Head Cooks 234 filings · 27 denied
- #142 Dishwashers 352 filings · 13 denied
- #268 Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria 130 filings · 5 denied
- #129 First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers 405 filings · 18 denied
- #127 Food Preparation Worker 406 filings · 36 denied
Reading the wage
This 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.
What these numbers don't say
- The code is the identity
- 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 every wage 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. The measured factors are on the denial risk page, published as separate rates.
- Nothing here is pending
- Every case in DOL's disclosure files carries a decision date, so a case still waiting is in none of these counts. Where the queue stands today is on the processing times page.
The window these figures cover
DOL's FY2026 Q3 and FY2025 Q4 and New Form FY2024 Q4 and FY2024 Q4 PERM disclosure files, unioned and de-duplicated by case number: 373,939 cases. Every case in them carries a decision, so nothing here counts what’s still pending. How each figure is built, and what it can and can't answer, is set out in the methodology.
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.
Case data: DOL quarterly disclosure files (flag.dol.gov) · data through Jun 30, 2026 · quarterly
Employers and firms: Derived from the disclosure corpus · data through Aug 26, 2026 · rebuilt with each quarterly ingest