Food Preparation Workers
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA metropolitan area. Estimated employment 11,190.
Where you sit in the distribution
That is the median — half of food preparation workers in Riverside earn more.
$38,420 in Riverside buys what $36,100 buys across the country as a whole.
Riverside's regional price parity is 106.4 — above the national average, so the nominal figure overstates what it buys. Adjusted figures for other metros are in the nearby-metros table below.
The same job, elsewhere in California
Adjusted figures apply each metro's regional price parity, so the columns are directly comparable.
| Metro area | Median | Adjusted | RPP | vs. Riverside |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Jose | $45,580 | $41,300 | 110.4 | +14.4% |
| Napa | $42,810 | $38,000 | 112.6 | +5.4% |
| Santa Rosa | $42,640 | $39,600 | 107.8 | +9.6% |
| San Francisco | $41,000 | $35,500 | 115.6 | −1.7% |
| Los Angeles | $39,770 | $35,000 | 113.6 | −3.0% |
| Santa Cruz | $39,110 | $35,600 | 109.9 | −1.4% |
| Merced | $38,980 | $39,700 | 98.3 | +9.9% |
| Vallejo | $38,840 | $35,800 | 108.5 | −0.8% |
Price parity and difference against Riverside are in the full table on wider screens.
Nominal against real
The same median, once as published and once restated in 2025 dollars.
Published pay rose 25.8% over the five years to 2025. Adjusted for inflation it still rose 5.9% — pay has outrun prices since 2021. The two lines meet at the right edge by construction, since 2025 is the base year.
How this page was made
- Wage data
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 release. Public domain.
- Price parity
- Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024.
- Inflation
- Real figures deflate by CPI-U annual averages (BLS, all items, US city average).
- Employment
- 11,190 employed in this occupation in the metro (BLS estimate; excludes the self-employed).
- Occupation
- SOC 35-2021, Food Preparation Workers. Mapped to our taxonomy as food-preparation-workers.
Percentiles are reported exactly as released and are never interpolated between published values. We take no payment from employers, recruiters or anyone else for how any figure is presented.