High paying food service jobs in Springfield, IL with no experience

The best paid food service occupations in Springfield, IL that require neither a degree nor prior experience in a related job. 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 Springfield, IL run 7.3% below the national average (2024), so a Springfield, IL salary is worth about 1.08× 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 Springfield, IL

OccupationMedian, Springfield, IL · Employed

1Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria$35,600
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $43,510460
2Food Servers, Nonrestaurant$34,800
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $37,840240
3Food Preparation Workers$32,530
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $37,300510
4Dishwashers$32,200
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $36,630330
5Fast Food and Counter Workers$31,350
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $36,2101,760
6Waiters and Waitresses$31,200
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $45,6801,600
7Bartenders$31,200
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $54,170870
8Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers$31,200
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $36,300360
9Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop$31,200
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $35,870260
10Food Preparation and Serving Related Workers, All Other$31,200
No formal educational credential
$31,200 – $37,06040

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

#	Occupation	MedianSpringfield, IL	10th–90th percentilemiddle half shaded darker	Employed
1	Cooks, Institution and CafeteriaNo formal educational credential	$35,600	$31,200 – $43,510	460
2	Food Servers, NonrestaurantNo formal educational credential	$34,800	$31,200 – $37,840	240
3	Food Preparation WorkersNo formal educational credential	$32,530	$31,200 – $37,300	510
4	DishwashersNo formal educational credential	$32,200	$31,200 – $36,630	330
5	Fast Food and Counter WorkersNo formal educational credential	$31,350	$31,200 – $36,210	1,760
6	Waiters and WaitressesNo formal educational credential	$31,200	$31,200 – $45,680	1,600
7	BartendersNo formal educational credential	$31,200	$31,200 – $54,170	870
8	Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender HelpersNo formal educational credential	$31,200	$31,200 – $36,300	360
9	Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee ShopNo formal educational credential	$31,200	$31,200 – $35,870	260
10	Food Preparation and Serving Related Workers, All OtherNo formal educational credential	$31,200	$31,200 – $37,060	40

Ranked among the occupations common enough to employ roughly one in every three thousand workers in Springfield, 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.

More for Springfield, IL

Other metro areas in IL

By field in Springfield, IL

Without a degree

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

High paying food service jobs in Springfield, IL with no experience

More for Springfield, IL

Other metro areas in IL

By field in Springfield, IL

Without a degree

High paying food service jobs in each state with no experience