How to become a food service counter attendant

Official title: Food service counter attendants

Also called: Cafeteria counter attendant, Salad bar attendant

Food service counter attendants serve customers at food counters and finish preparation of simple food items in restaurants, cafés, hotels, fast food outlets, cafeterias, hospitals and other settings.

Main tasks

• Serving food to customers at counters
• Ascertaining the products desired by customers, assisting them in making choices and taking orders
• Cleaning, peeling, slicing and trimming foodstuffs, using manual and electric appliances
• Preparing simple food items and reheating prepared meals
• Portioning and wrapping food or placing it directly on plates for service to patrons
• Packaging takeaway food
• Stocking refrigerators, salad and buffet bars and keeping records of the quantities of food used
• Receiving payment for food items purchased

Pay · Outlook · AI and this job

• Median pay: HK$16,500 a month
• About 732,700 people in 2025, and about 740,500 projected by 2028. (+1.1%)
• Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.

Related jobs

• Door to door salespersons
• Sales demonstrators
• Contact centre salespersons
• Sales workers not elsewhere classified
• Service station attendants

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Questions people ask

Do you need a degree to become a food service counter attendant?

Usually not. Only 6% of people in this job hold a bachelor's degree or higher.

Will AI change the work of a food service counter attendant?

Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.

Sources

• Census and Statistics Department (2021 Population Census): 2021 Population Census, Interactive Data Dissemination Service: working population by occupation (38 groups) and sex, age, education, income; median income and field of education (9 groups) (2021 Population Census), retrieved 4 October 2026
• Census and Statistics Department (General Household Survey): Median monthly employment earnings by occupation (9 groups), excluding foreign domestic helpers (Table 210-06317A); employed persons by occupation, age and sex (210-06307A) and by industry (210-06308A) (2025 annual (series to 2026-07)), retrieved 4 October 2026
• Census and Statistics Department (Annual Earnings and Hours Survey): Monthly and hourly wage percentiles by occupational group (5 groups) (Tables 220-23014, 220-23024, 220-23003) (2025 (May to June 2025), released 2026-03-23), retrieved 4 October 2026
• Labour and Welfare Bureau; tables published by C&SD: Mid-term Update of Manpower Projection to 2028: supplementary statistical tables (5 occupation groups, 17 selected industries) (2025 to 2028 (published 2026-09)), retrieved 4 October 2026
• International Labour Organization, Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure (ILO Working Paper 140, Gmyrek et al.) (ILO Working Paper 140, May 2025, Annex Table A1), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 4 October 2026

Updated 4 October 2026