Cashier Salary Guide (2026)

By Emma Fitzgerald, Senior Salary Analyst · Updated July 5, 2026 · ~14 min read

How much does a Cashier make?

As of 2026, the median annual wage for cashiers in the United States is approximately $29,500, or about $14.20 per hour. That figure comes from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program under SOC code 41-2011, which covers roughly 3.4 million workers — one of the five largest occupations the BLS tracks. The national mean sits slightly higher at around $31,400 per year, or about $15.10 an hour, meaning unionized grocery, warehouse-club, and hospital-cafeteria cashiers pull the average above what a typical fast-food or convenience-store cashier actually takes home. When you see a "cashiers make $X" headline number, always ask whether it is median or mean, and always look at the state figure — the national number blends 40-percent gaps between the top and bottom states.

The wage distribution is heavily compressed at the low end and modestly long-tailed at the high end. The tenth percentile earns about $24,000 a year (roughly $11.55 an hour, at or near the federal minimum in states that have not raised their own floor), while the ninetieth percentile earns around $40,500 in base pay. Those top-decile numbers are almost always attached to specific settings: unionized grocery chains (Kroger, Safeway, Publix), warehouse clubs (Costco, Sam's Club, BJ's), hospital-facility cashiers with union coverage, and casino cage or hotel front-desk cashier roles that carry shift differentials and holiday premiums. In fast-food, convenience, and quick-service settings, the top decile of base pay rarely exceeds $32,000 outside high-minimum-wage states.

The distinction between hourly and annual matters more here than in most occupations. Roughly 40 percent of cashiers work part-time, and the BLS annual figure assumes 2,080 hours per year, a full-time schedule. If you are working 25 to 30 hours a week, the same hourly wage translates to a materially different annual number — and that is before factoring in whether hours get cut during slow shifts or extended during the holiday season. When you compare offers, always convert to hourly first, then multiply by the schedule you'll actually be given. That is the only clean apples-to-apples comparison, especially across states with different minimum-wage floors.

The other thing worth naming up front: cashier is a stepping-stone occupation for the majority of people who take the job. Median tenure is under two years, but the people who stay past three years and move into head-cashier, front-end-lead, or customer-service-supervisor titles start out-earning peers by 25 to 45 percent within the same store. Category and tenure — not raw experience — are what actually move the number.

Base pay by level

Cashier has fewer explicit levels than most retail occupations, but the front-end ladder still exists and pay tracks it in a predictable way. The five-tier ladder below is how national grocery chains, warehouse clubs, and specialty retailers actually structure the front-end progression. Cashiers in the strict SOC sense sit in the first three tiers; the last two exist so you can see the pay ceiling if you stay on the front end and grow into supervision.

Two things get missed when people read this table. First, tenure at a unionized grocery chain (Kroger, Safeway, Publix, Stop & Shop) or warehouse club (Costco, Sam's Club) matters more than title in the first several years. A 10-year Costco front-end associate earns $28 to $32 an hour under the current wage grid — more than a level-4 front-end supervisor at most non-union chains. Employer beats title, dollar for dollar. Second, the jump from level 3 to level 4 usually converts you from hourly to salaried at national chains, and the salaried equivalent can briefly be lower per hour after you factor in the extended weekly schedule. Know that before you take the promotion.

Total comp: tips, differentials, benefits

Base pay is only part of the story. Variable pay for cashiers comes in four flavors, and understanding all four is how you compare offers honestly.

Tips

Roughly a quarter of cashier jobs — coffee counters, fast-casual restaurants, ice-cream and bakery counters, some hotel and casino cashier windows — include cashiers in tip pools. Tip income for a full-time counter cashier in a high-traffic urban location typically adds $1 to $4 per hour, or $2,000 to $8,000 per year, on top of base. Tipped-cashier jobs are the single biggest hidden pay variable in the occupation, and they are the reason a $15/hr Starbucks barista-cashier often out-earns a $17/hr Walmart cashier once the year is done. Verify the tip-pool structure in writing before you accept — some employers count tips against a lower "tipped minimum" instead of on top of state minimum.

Shift differentials

Evening, overnight, weekend, and holiday shifts pay premiums at almost every employer that runs those hours. Typical differentials are $0.50–$1.50 per hour for evenings, $1.00–$3.00 per hour for overnights, and time-and-a-half or double-time for major holidays. Grocery, warehouse-club, hospital, hotel, and 24-hour convenience-store cashiers see these regularly. If you have schedule flexibility, taking an overnight shift at a 24-hour grocery adds roughly $2,500 to $5,000 a year over the equivalent day-shift pay — often more than a one-level promotion would.

Bonuses and SPIFFs

Grocery and specialty retail chains pay quarterly or annual performance bonuses of 3 to 8 percent of base for consistent performers. SPIFFs — short vendor-paid incentives — are common at electronics, drug-store, and warehouse-club chains: per-application SPIFFs of $5 to $30 for credit-card sign-ups, warranty attach bonuses, and vendor loyalty-program enrollment payments. A cashier at a national drug store or warehouse club who hits the top decile for credit-card conversion adds $600 to $1,800 a year on top of base.

Benefits

Benefits value at national employers has climbed sharply since 2020. A full-time cashier at Costco, Trader Joe's, Wegmans, Target, or a unionized Kroger banner in 2026 typically has access to medical, dental, and vision insurance (employer contribution roughly $4,000 to $8,000 a year), a 401(k) with a 3 to 6 percent match, an employee discount (5 to 15 percent), tuition assistance in many chains, and paid time off in the range of two to three weeks. Union grocery contracts often include defined-benefit pensions worth another $2,000–$4,000 in annual value. Add that up and the total-comp value of a $32,000 base at Costco is closer to $44,000–$48,000. Compare that against a small independent paying $34,000 with no benefits, and the apparent premium disappears.

Salary by state and metro

Cashier pay varies more by state than most people expect. The delta between the highest-paying and lowest-paying state medians is roughly 45 percent, driven almost entirely by state and city minimum-wage schedules and the mix of employers operating there. The table below shows 2026 median hourly wages for the highest and lowest-paying states, per BLS OES state data adjusted for state minimum-wage changes taking effect in 2026.

Metro-area differences matter as much as state ones — sometimes more. Within California, a cashier in San Francisco or San Jose earns median $19.75 per hour under city minimum-wage ordinances, while the same job in Bakersfield or Fresno pays closer to $16.75. Within New York State, Manhattan and Brooklyn medians are around $17.25; Buffalo and Syracuse are closer to $14.00. Chicago cashiers earn $16.20 under the city ordinance, while downstate Illinois pays $14.50. If you have flexibility on where you work, moving from a bottom-quartile metro to a top-quartile one inside the same state is often a bigger raise than a one-level promotion. BLS publishes metro-area OES data if you want to check your specific city — search "OES [metro name] cashiers."

Salary by industry & setting

Setting matters more than title, city, or years of experience combined. The BLS breaks cashier employment into industries by NAICS code, and the pay ranges between them are large. Below are typical 2026 base ranges for a full-time experienced (level 2) cashier in each setting, before tips and differentials.

The gap between the top and bottom of this table is why the "average cashier salary" number is misleading. A cashier at a Costco front end and a cashier at a highway convenience store are both counted as SOC 41-2011, but their total pay lives in different universes. If you want to increase your earnings meaningfully without changing what you do day-to-day, the single highest-leverage move is switching setting. Marqee's offer data shows cashiers who move from quick-service or convenience into a warehouse club, unionized grocery chain, or hospital cashier role land total-comp increases of 30 to 60 percent inside the first year — with better benefits, more consistent hours, and a real promotion ladder attached.

What pushes you up the band

Within a setting and store, the difference between top-quartile and bottom-quartile earners comes down to a handful of measurable signals. If you want to earn more, these are the things you can actually influence.

• Till accuracy. A clean cash-drawer record over 90 days is the single strongest signal for head-cashier promotion. Zero shortages, zero overages, clean end-of-day reports. Marqee's offer data shows accuracy-tracked cashiers get promoted 2 to 3 months faster than peers.
• Transactions per hour. Speed at the register measurably raises both bonus eligibility and the hours managers assign you. Top-decile cashiers run 30 to 45 transactions per hour on standard traffic; the floor is closer to 18 to 22.
• Credit-card and loyalty-program conversion. Almost every national retailer pays a per-application SPIFF ($5–$30) and includes credit or loyalty conversion in the store bonus formula. Top-decile converters earn 5 to 10 percent more than same-hour peers.
• Bilingual fluency. Spanish, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Tagalog, or another regionally common language earns a $0.50–$1.50 differential at many chains and unlocks better schedule choices in immigrant-dense metros.
• Overnight and holiday availability. Openers, closers, weekends, overnights, and holidays. Managers reward availability with better shifts, differential-eligible hours, and priority for lead promotions.
• Cross-training on adjacent stations. Cashiers trained on customer service, bookkeeping cash office, self-checkout host, or lottery station earn more consistent hours and enter the head-cashier pipeline first.
• Union membership and tenure. Where union grocery contracts operate, staying through the seniority steps is the single largest lever. Contract raises compound to 30 to 60 percent over five years.
• Employer choice. A cashier at Costco earns roughly double a cashier at a non-union fast-food chain in the same metro. Which store you walk into for the interview matters more than any single skill.

How to negotiate a higher Cashier offer

Cashier candidates negotiate less than almost any other occupation Marqee tracks — under 15 percent of cashier hires in our offer database made any counter at all. The candidates who did counter landed offers one to three dollars per hour higher than the initial number, and the ones who negotiated the whole comp package (base, schedule, shift differentials, benefits eligibility timing) landed even more. Here's the four-step sequence that works.

1) Prep — anchor on data before you ever say a number

Pull three data points before your final call: (a) the BLS OES state median for cashiers in your state, (b) the specific employer's Payscale, Glassdoor, or Indeed range, and (c) if the posting had a range, the middle-to-upper third of that range. Write these three numbers on a Post-it. Know the state and city minimum wage taking effect this year — recruiters often quote the last-year floor by habit, especially in states where the minimum steps up mid-year. If you have offers from other stores, know their exact numbers, not general impressions. Union grocery contracts are public; look up the current wage grid on the local UFCW or Teamsters website before the call if you are interviewing at Kroger, Safeway, Stop & Shop, or a comparable banner.

2) Anchor — lead with value, not with your ask

Open with what you bring, then name your number. A one-sentence anchor works: "In my last cashier role I ran a 32-transactions-per-hour average with zero cash-drawer shortages over 90 days and I converted 22 percent of eligible customers on the store credit card. Based on that and the market range for this metro, I was hoping we could land at $16.50 an hour with weekend shift-differential eligibility from day one." Notice: specific numbers, one clear ask, and it references both your value and the market. Do not apologize before or after. If you're a first-time cashier, substitute a transferable signal — cash handling in food service, POS experience, retail volunteering — and anchor on the state median instead.

3) Counter — respond to the recruiter's response with a real question

If the recruiter says the number is fixed, ask what is flexible. "Understood on base. Can we move the shift-differential eligibility from 90 days to day one, or can we bring the first-raise review from six to three months?" Almost every cashier employer has flex in at least one of: shift-differential eligibility timing, review cadence, PTO accrual start, benefits eligibility date, or the specific schedule you'll be assigned. Naming a specific alternative is much more effective than "is there any flexibility?" Cashier hiring runs on urgency — most stores are actively short-staffed — and recruiters have more room to move than they'll admit unless you ask.

4) Close — get the final number, schedule, and next-raise trigger in writing

Before you say yes verbally, ask for a written offer letter that includes: base hourly rate, shift-differential rates and eligibility date, review cadence and the exact metric that triggers the next raise (whether it's 90 days, 6 months, or a specific performance grade), benefits eligibility date, and the exact weekly schedule for the first month. This is the single most common place cashier offers go sideways after acceptance — verbal promises about schedule, differentials, and raise timing that never make the letter. Ten extra minutes of paperwork protects the pay you just negotiated, and it protects you from the classic bait-and-switch where a promised evening schedule turns into all mornings once you're on the floor.

Frequently asked questions