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PERM Tracker

All occupations · #51 of 1,410 by volume

Food Preparation Workers

SOC 35-2021.00, in the food preparation and serving major group. 1,284 PERM filings in DOL's current disclosure window, 1,195 certified and 45 denied.

This rate is level with the field

Computed over 1,240 decided filings. The 95% interval runs up to a 4.8% 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

$27,300

all PERM $103,272

Filings

1,284

#51 of 1,410

Approval

96.4%

field 96.8%

Median days

483

6 slower than the field

Fig 01 Position in the field 535 occupations with 30+ decided

Median offered wage

$27,300above 6%

$18k $500k

Approval rate

96.4%ahead of 48%

49% 100%

Median days to decision

483 daysahead of 29%

323d 536d
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
Fig 02 The wage ladder, year by year Food Preparation Workers, certified offers
  • 5th to 95th
  • 25th to 75th
  • Median
  • 10th and 90th

  1. FY2024

    $26,000 median · 100 certified cases

  2. FY2025

    $25,979 median · 578 certified cases

  3. FY2026

    $27,664 median · 516 certified cases

$15k$20k$25k$30k$35k$40k
10th
$24,211
-3.0% since FY2024
Median
$27,664
+6.4% since FY2024
90th
$35,110
+3.3% since FY2024
95th
$37,440
+10.1% since FY2024

These years are not measuring the same group of filings. The count moves by 5.8 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.

A median answers whether pay moved. The whole ladder answers which part of it moved, and those are not the same question: a distribution can hold its middle while its top stretches away. DOL PERM disclosure files, certified cases only

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

  1. FH Miami Operations LLC 136 filings · 100.0% approved
  2. Lizard's Thicket, Inc. 71 filings · 100.0% approved
  3. BH Acquisition Company, LLC 47 filings · 100.0% approved
  4. Big Splash Restaurant Group, LLC 41 filings · 100.0% approved
  5. Fast N Friendly LLC 31 filings · 67.7% approved
  6. RP Restaurant, LLC 29 filings

The employers with the most applications under this code. 355 of 1,284 filings, 28% of the total.

Firms filing it

  1. Momentum Immigration 312 filings · 100.0% approved
  2. DEVEER CONSULTING, LLC 136 filings · 100.0% approved
  3. DELAFUENTE LAW LLC 59 filings · 100.0% approved
  4. Law Offices of Andrew P. Johnson, Esq. 54 filings · 100.0% approved
  5. LAW OFFICES OF CHANG RYUL JI, PC 43 filings · 100.0% approved
  6. American International & Immigration Law, PC 40 filings · 75.0% approved

The law firms named on the most applications under this code. 644 of 1,284 filings, 50% of the total.

Where the jobs are

  • Florida 376
  • California 142
  • South Carolina 102
  • Virginia 69
  • Illinois 62
  • Texas 62

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 813 of 1,284 filings.

Where this sits in the ranking

Ranked 51 of 1,410 by volume: 50 filed at least as many filings, and 1,359 filed no more.

Just above
Manufacturing Engineers 1,301 filings
Just below
132011.01, Accountants 1,207 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.

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