High paying food service jobs in Bloomington, IL with no degree

The best paid food service occupations in Bloomington, IL that require no bachelor's degree — a high school diploma, a certificate, or an associate's degree is the typical entry. This is the narrowest cut on the site, so it is also the shortest list: where a field has only two or three such occupations, there is no page at all rather than a page pretending otherwise.

Cost of living: prices in Bloomington, IL run 6.5% below the national average (2024), so a Bloomington, IL salary is worth about 1.07× its face value in national terms. That scales every wage here by the same factor — it changes what the numbers mean, not their order.

Local wage estimates are suppressed more often than state ones — BLS withholds any figure too few local employers report — so an occupation missing here simply has no published local estimate.

Wages: BLS OEWS, May 2025 · Cost of living: BEA regional price parities, 2024

Find food service jobs in Bloomington, IL

OccupationMedian, Bloomington, IL · Employed

1Chefs and Head Cooks$55,700
High school diploma or equivalent
$43,430 – $73,460100
2Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria$37,950
No formal educational credential
$31,860 – $49,940520
3First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers$36,780
High school diploma or equivalent
$31,200 – $60,070700
4Cooks, Restaurant$35,310
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $42,100850
5Food Servers, Nonrestaurant$33,540
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $37,910230
6Food Preparation Workers$32,030
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $38,080580
7Cooks, Fast Food$31,430
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $36,640170
8Dishwashers$31,390
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $35,070330
9Fast Food and Counter Workers$31,200
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $35,0602,430
10Waiters and Waitresses$31,200
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $46,8701,370
11Bartenders$31,200
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $51,120580
12Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers$31,200
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $35,830300
13Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop$31,200
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $37,120300

Bars run from the 10th to the 90th percentile; the middle half is shaded darker, and the tick is the median.

#	Occupation	MedianBloomington, IL	10th–90th percentilemiddle half shaded darker	Employed
1	Chefs and Head CooksHigh school diploma or equivalent	$55,700	$43,430 – $73,460	100
2	Cooks, Institution and CafeteriaNo formal educational credential	$37,950	$31,860 – $49,940	520
3	First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving WorkersHigh school diploma or equivalent	$36,780	$31,200 – $60,070	700
4	Cooks, RestaurantNo formal educational credential	$35,310	$31,200 – $42,100	850
5	Food Servers, NonrestaurantNo formal educational credential	$33,540	$31,200 – $37,910	230
6	Food Preparation WorkersNo formal educational credential	$32,030	$31,200 – $38,080	580
7	Cooks, Fast FoodNo formal educational credential	$31,430	$31,200 – $36,640	170
8	DishwashersNo formal educational credential	$31,390	$31,200 – $35,070	330
9	Fast Food and Counter WorkersNo formal educational credential	$31,200	$31,200 – $35,060	2,430
10	Waiters and WaitressesNo formal educational credential	$31,200	$31,200 – $46,870	1,370
11	BartendersNo formal educational credential	$31,200	$31,200 – $51,120	580
12	Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender HelpersNo formal educational credential	$31,200	$31,200 – $35,830	300
13	Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee ShopNo formal educational credential	$31,200	$31,200 – $37,120	300

Ranked among the occupations common enough to employ roughly one in every three thousand workers in Bloomington, IL. The rarer ones are real jobs — but a 1,190-person occupation at the top of a list answers a different question than the one most readers are asking.

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The same fields, narrowed to what you can enter without one. Fields missing here have too few such occupations in Bloomington, IL to rank honestly.

High paying food service jobs in Bloomington, IL with no degree

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