Dishwashers

Highest risk Low pay & highrisk
High Risk
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Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
2.2/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

79% (High Risk)

High Risk (61-80%): This occupation shows a significant risk of end-to-end replacement by automation. Many core parts of the role may be structured, repeatable, software-driven, or physically predictable enough for AI, machines, or robotic systems to take over. If you work in this area, it may be worth exploring safer related careers or moving towards more human-centred responsibilities.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

We have not found any highly rated human strengths for this job yet.

What users think

Based on 118 votes

69% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted that it's probable this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 79% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Dishwashers will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

Based on user votes over time

View sentiment trend

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

Very low paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Dishwashers was $33,670 ($16 per hour).

The median annual wage for Dishwashers was 32.0% lower than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Slow growth relative to other professions.

The number of 'Dishwashers' job openings is expected to rise 0.2% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Significantly greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 471,670 people employed as 'Dishwashers' within the United States.

This represents around 0.31% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 326 people are employed as 'Dishwashers'.

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What people are saying (5)

Leave a comment
A (No chance)
03 Jan 2026 00:31
Needs to react to changing situations during restaurant service and adjust priorities constantly, needs good dexterity and to be resistant to water damage or damage from chemicals, food waste, etc. would be very expensive to replace human labor and likely not as efficient in actual business usage
Dish Wash, Er. (No chance)
09 May 2023 03:53
Maintaining a robot able to wash dishes will cost more money than it would to hire a dishwasher. Also, most restaurants don't actually care about having clean dishes. A robot would be unable to decide what dishes to wash and what not to wash. A robot would wash everything and be very expensive.
Ethan (Highly likely)
14 Feb 2023 05:05
There are automatic dishwashing machines
Prince (Highly likely)
13 Oct 2019 01:40
This occupation is not hard, as we can see robot are now manufacturing vehicles and working as assistant in hospitals and hotels. Dish-washing is on the high demand for robot taking over.
steven burthstone (Highly likely)
13 Sep 2019 01:14
This job is close to %100 likely of being taken by robots because its such a simple task and women are main dishwashers. also the waige is a bit higher.
Leave a reply about this occupation
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Job description

Clean dishes, kitchen, food preparation equipment, or utensils.

O*NET-SOC code: 35-9021.00