Beverage Industry Workers

Earnings for beverage industry workers vary based on their specific responsibilities, the size of their employer, the location, their union affiliation, their experience, and other such factors. Those in management, supervisory, research and development, or engineering positions naturally tend to have higher earnings. A sampling of job postings from Wade Palmer & Associates, a recruitment firm for food and beverage manufacturing professionals, provides some salary ranges for a variety of positions. For example, the firm's Web site (https://www.job-recruiters.com) advertised production supervisor and quality assurance positions from around the country with a general salary range of $70,000 to $125,000 in 2024. These salary ranges did not include bonuses, and earnings could be higher in individual cases. Of course, these earnings do not represent incomes for executives at the top of major corporations who may earn hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.

The U.S. Department of Labor provides earnings figures for a number of production occupations. It reports, for example, that first-line supervisors/managers of production and operating workers at food and beverage retailers had mean annual earnings of $50,830 in May 2023. The bottom 10 percent of all supervisors/managers of production and operating workers earned $43,540, and the top 10 percent earned $103,780. Packaging and filling machine operators and tenders had mean annual earnings of $38,330. Salaries ranged from less than $30,050 to $56,070 or more.

Beverage industry workers generally receive good benefits packages, including such things as health insurance, retirement plans or pensions, and paid vacation time.