How Much Money Do Chick-Fil-A Employees Typically Make?

To create a multi-million dollar business out of thin air is a wish of many; the only issue comes with actually achieving it. Since trees that grow money and bottomless pits of gold haven't been discovered yet, acquiring the funds to develop such a venture is not easy, not that such a little problem prevented the founder of Chick-fil-A from completing his business dream.

According to Chick-fil-A's website, the fast food restaurant chain was founded with its first location in Hapeville, Georgia, in 1946. The man behind the scheme was S. Truett Cathy, whose money-making habits began when he was just 8 years old selling bottles of Coca-Cola to his neighbors for a pleasant little profit (via Chick-fil-A's website). Perhaps he lived in a particularly thirsty neighborhood.

These days, Chick-fil-A operates a significantly larger empire: more than 2,800 locations across the U.S., per ScrapeHero. After all, the company allows people to develop its stores through franchise opportunities. To look after all of these restaurants, Chick-fil-A naturally requires a large staff — over 140,000, per the company's website — but how much money are these employees actually paid by the restaurant chain that accrues an annual revenue of $5.8 billion (via Franchise Times)?

Serving and cooking jobs are low paid at Chick-fil-A

One of the most popular roles at Chick-fil-A is team member. According to Indeed, this job involves lots of monotonous tasks in sometimes busy and stressful environments, but the work required is generally straightforward. As a reward, Indeed estimates hourly pay to be $13.06, which is above Payscale's belief of a company-wide average of $11.83 but below Talent's reported national average of $16.50. A similarly popular job at Chick-fil-A is cashier, which Glassdoor reports receives an annual pay of $23,100, below the U.S. average of $27,098.

Meanwhile, team members sweating away in the kitchens and preparing customers' orders are reputed by Indeed to take home $13.87 an hour ($22,451 per year). Meanwhile, drive-thru staff members take home an average $20,781 a year, and front-of-house employees greeting restaurant visitors earn $13.05 hourly. Finally, $12.39 is the financial reward for being one of Chick-fil-A's food preparation workers, while cooks make an estimated $13.64 each hour ($21,797 a year).

Straightforward pay isn't the only thing to consider. Payscale reports that Chick-fil-A workers receive benefits, including a pension plan, profit-sharing, and insurance for health, life, dental, vision, and disabilities. Chick-fil-A adds that the possibility of college scholarships and free food are also incentives to work for the chain.

Drivers, computer experts, and cleaners are important Chick-fil-A roles

As well as people dealing with customers and serving food on the frontline in restaurants, Chick-fil-A requires a robust backbone of roles to enable the company's continued success. Delivery drivers are predictably a big part of Chick-fil-A's ability to provide customers with tasty snacks quickly and conveniently. Reviewers on Indeed believe the role to be good for young people to learn basic skills and a bit of cash, but say income can sometimes be sparse. Indeed estimates average delivery driver pay at Chick-fil-A to be $13.35 per hour, but Payscale puts the national average for this type of role at $15.65.

The dishwasher is another crucial supporting task. Nobody wants to eat food off of dirty plates, do they? According to Indeed, pay for Chick-fil-A's dishwashers is very much in line with similar roles in the company, bringing an average hourly rate of $13.49. Cleaners, on the other hand, are said by Indeed to earn $14.07. The U.S. average for this role is $12.66, as noted by Payscale.

Other jobs in Chick-fil-A include $27,763 annually for trainers, plus $13.68 hourly for marketing interns. Ambassadors for Chick-fil-A's brand can earn around $15.49 an hour, and computer experts for the company's networks achieve average annual pay of $23,739 (or as low as $21,467).

Chick-fil-A executives earn the really big bucks

Acquiring knowledge and techniques to climb the corporate ladder is one of Chick-fil-A's arguments for why people should join the company. One of the first steps to take is to become a shift leader, for which financial reward is estimated by Glassdoor to be $31,783 (or $16.10 an hour, according to Indeed). Shift managers, meanwhile, are reputed to take home $34,624 a year, details Glassdoor ($16.75 an hour).

Still higher up the chain of corporate command are store managers, earning $36,776 per year (or $17.88 an hour). Kitchen managers are reported by Glassdoor to make $35,478, while marketing managers earn $39,833, and general managers can get as much as $53,543.

As is perhaps to be expected, the biggest earners at Chick-fil-A are the executives sitting at the top of the company. According to Comparably, the average executive compensation at the company is a hefty $233,533 a year, with the lowest being paid $50,000 and the highest (most likely to be CEO Andrew Truett Cathy, per Chick-fil-A) taking home an impressive $700,000. This is substantially more than Chick-fil-A's store workers but somewhat less than the estimate by Equilar that declares the median pay for the chief executives of America's biggest businesses to be $20 million.

Ultimately worth noting is that Chick-fil-A pay rates vary by state, as each state in the U.S. can set its own minimum wage.