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

The best paid food service occupations in Decatur, 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 Decatur, IL run 11.6% below the national average (2024), so a Decatur, IL salary is worth about 1.13× 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 Decatur, IL

OccupationMedian, Decatur, IL · Employed

1First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers$39,730
High school diploma or equivalent
$31,840 – $61,120300
2Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria$36,750
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $45,220170
3Cooks, Restaurant$36,440
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $45,090320
4Food Servers, Nonrestaurant$33,710
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $37,400100
5Food Preparation Workers$33,450
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $37,810200
6Dishwashers$31,990
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $35,520100
7Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop$31,250
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $46,140110
8Fast Food and Counter Workers$31,200
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $35,510970
9Waiters and Waitresses$31,200
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $48,490530
10Bartenders$31,200
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $46,940320
11Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers$31,200
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $36,790100

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

#	Occupation	MedianDecatur, IL	10th–90th percentilemiddle half shaded darker	Employed
1	First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving WorkersHigh school diploma or equivalent	$39,730	$31,840 – $61,120	300
2	Cooks, Institution and CafeteriaNo formal educational credential	$36,750	$31,200 – $45,220	170
3	Cooks, RestaurantNo formal educational credential	$36,440	$31,200 – $45,090	320
4	Food Servers, NonrestaurantNo formal educational credential	$33,710	$31,200 – $37,400	100
5	Food Preparation WorkersNo formal educational credential	$33,450	$31,200 – $37,810	200
6	DishwashersNo formal educational credential	$31,990	$31,200 – $35,520	100
7	Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee ShopNo formal educational credential	$31,250	$31,200 – $46,140	110
8	Fast Food and Counter WorkersNo formal educational credential	$31,200	$31,200 – $35,510	970
9	Waiters and WaitressesNo formal educational credential	$31,200	$31,200 – $48,490	530
10	BartendersNo formal educational credential	$31,200	$31,200 – $46,940	320
11	Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender HelpersNo formal educational credential	$31,200	$31,200 – $36,790	100

Ranked among the occupations common enough to employ roughly one in every three thousand workers in Decatur, 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 Decatur, IL to rank honestly.

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

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