Cashier: Career Information

Cashiers total bills, receive money, make change, fill out charge forms, and give receipts at supermarkets, department stores, gasoline service stations, movie theaters, restaurants, and many other businesses.

Cashiers held about 3.55 million jobs in 2008. Twenty-four percent of all jobs were in grocery stores. Other jobs were in gasoline stations, department stores, restaurants, and other retail establishments. Some cashiers worked in amusement, gambling, and recreation industries, local government, and personal and laundry services.

There are no educational requirements but employers filling full-time jobs often prefer applicants with high school diplomas.

Cashier jobs are entry-level positions which requiring little or no previous work experience. Most cashiers are trained on the job.

Persons who want to become cashiers:

• should be able to do repetitious work accurately;
• need basic mathematics skills;
• need good manual dexterity;
• should be neat in appearance;
• should be able to deal tactfully and pleasantly with customers

Advancement opportunities can include promotion to:

• a full-time position for those working part time;
• head cashier or cash-office clerk;
• another position with more responsibility

The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that, of all occupations, cashiers will have the greatest number of job openings through the year 2018. This is because there is a lot of turn-over in this field since many people see it as temporary employment. Overall however, cashier employment is expected to grow more slowly than the average for all occupations through 2018.

Cashiers earned median hourly wages of $8.57 and a median annual salary of $17,820 in 2009.

Use the Salary Calculator at Salary.com to find out how much cashiers currently earn in your city.

On a typical day a cashier will:

• be assigned to a register at the beginning of his or her shift and given a drawer containing a "bank" of money;
• count his bank to ensure that it contains the correct amount of money and adequate supplies of change;
• either manually enter into a cash register the price of each item or use a scanner to transmit a code number to a computer;
• count the drawer's contents and compare the total with sales data at the end of a shift;
• separate and total charge forms, return slips, coupons, and any other noncash items;
• handle returns and exchanges;
• enter charges for all items and subtract the value of any coupons or special discounts, and then total the bill and take payment;
• request additional identification from the customer or call in for an authorization for checks and charges;
• verify the age of customers purchasing alcohol or tobacco;
• issue a receipt to the customer and return the appropriate change;
• wrap or bag the purchase

A cashier's duties will vary according to the establishment in which he or she works:

• A supermarket cashier weighs produce and bulk items and returns unwanted items to the shelves.
• A convenience store cashier uses a variety of machines other than cash registers and furnishes money orders.
• A movie theater or ticket agency cashier operates ticket-dispensing machines and answers customers' questions.
• In casinos, gaming change persons and booth cashiers exchange coins and tokens and may issue payoffs. They may also operate a booth in the slot-machine area and furnish change persons with a money bank at the start of the shift, or count and audit money in drawers.

Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition, Cashiers, on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos116.htm (visited November 9, 2010).
Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, O*NET Online, Cashiers, on the Internet at http://online.onetcenter.org/link/details/41-2011.00 (visited November 9, 2010).

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