June 4, 2012 - 6:52am
wage for assistant bread bakers?
I am trying to figure out what a fair wage should be for an assistant bread baker. I work 3 nights a week in Massachusets where the minimum wage is $8 per hour. My initial pay was $10 and after 3 months and some tough negotiation I was bumped up to $11.50. I don't have schooling in bread baking but I have experience baking a lot at home and working in a bakery for a few months. My main tasks are weighing, shaping, cleaning up, and mixing dough.
All the bread is sourdough and we use a wood fired brick oven. There bread sells out nearly every day. I feel like $11.50 per hour is pretty low for this kind of work and especially the night shift 11 - 7. I'm wondering how other bread bakers feel about this.
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At 11.50 you're getting up there in terms of total wage expectations. If you're outperforming everyone else, you can prove it, and the bakery where you work is turning a fine profit, I'd ask for more money but I wouldn't expect to get that much more. $12/hr is about where assistants top out. If you're very talented you might be able to go higher, but at that point I'd start looking into getting that "assistant" thing out of your title. If you can't make that leap at your current workplace and you're confident in the quantity, quality, and consistency of your output, start looking elsewhere. Quietly.
That said, I've been out of food service for a while and have to ask friends to keep up with current events. YMMV.
thanks for the reply! I didnt know if I was getting ripped off or not, but now I feel better about things. I work hard, and the hours are tough. There really isn't anyone else to out perform. It is just me and the head baker.