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

The best paid food service occupations in Kankakee, 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 Kankakee, IL run 3.6% below the national average (2024), so a Kankakee, IL salary is worth about 1.04× 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 Kankakee, IL

OccupationMedian, Kankakee, IL · Employed

1Chefs and Head Cooks$47,160
High school diploma or equivalent
$45,480 – $62,76040
2First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving Workers$37,320
High school diploma or equivalent
$34,120 – $51,770370
3Cooks, Restaurant$35,560
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $44,250320
4Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria$35,200
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $45,670230
5Food Servers, Nonrestaurant$32,430
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $36,410240
6Cooks, Fast Food$31,900
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $34,08080
7Fast Food and Counter Workers$31,220
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $35,4001,220
8Waiters and Waitresses$31,200
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $46,910550
9Bartenders$31,200
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $59,520290
10Food Preparation Workers$31,200
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $37,390270
11Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop$31,200
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $36,860140
12Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers$31,200
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $36,310130
13Dishwashers$31,200
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $35,770110

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

#	Occupation	MedianKankakee, IL	10th–90th percentilemiddle half shaded darker	Employed
1	Chefs and Head CooksHigh school diploma or equivalent	$47,160	$45,480 – $62,760	40
2	First-Line Supervisors of Food Preparation and Serving WorkersHigh school diploma or equivalent	$37,320	$34,120 – $51,770	370
3	Cooks, RestaurantNo formal educational credential	$35,560	$31,200 – $44,250	320
4	Cooks, Institution and CafeteriaNo formal educational credential	$35,200	$31,200 – $45,670	230
5	Food Servers, NonrestaurantNo formal educational credential	$32,430	$31,200 – $36,410	240
6	Cooks, Fast FoodNo formal educational credential	$31,900	$31,200 – $34,080	80
7	Fast Food and Counter WorkersNo formal educational credential	$31,220	$31,200 – $35,400	1,220
8	Waiters and WaitressesNo formal educational credential	$31,200	$31,200 – $46,910	550
9	BartendersNo formal educational credential	$31,200	$31,200 – $59,520	290
10	Food Preparation WorkersNo formal educational credential	$31,200	$31,200 – $37,390	270
11	Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee ShopNo formal educational credential	$31,200	$31,200 – $36,860	140
12	Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender HelpersNo formal educational credential	$31,200	$31,200 – $36,310	130
13	DishwashersNo formal educational credential	$31,200	$31,200 – $35,770	110

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

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

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