Dishwasher Career Assessment
The job a kitchen cannot run an hour without
Welcome
Dishwashers keep a kitchen supplied with clean dishes, pans, and equipment through a service.
It is the easiest job on this site to get hired into, and it is the door most cooks in North Dakota walked through.
This takes about 15 minutes.
What is a Dishwasher?
You run the dish machine, scrape and rack dishes, scrub pans by hand, keep clean ones moving back out to where they are needed, and handle the mopping and trash at close. In most kitchens you also help with basic prep when the dishes are caught up.
The Reality: If nobody washes dishes, the kitchen stops within an hour. Not by the end of the night — within an hour. That is the plainest way to say what this job is worth, and it is still the lowest-paid job in this whole area. The work is hot, wet, loud, and relentless during service. You are on your feet in standing water with steam in your face, and the stack never goes down for long. People treat this job as the bottom of the kitchen, and that attitude is part of what you deal with.
Your Responsibilities:
- Run the dish machine and keep it supplied and drained
- Scrape, rack, and load dishes continuously
- Scrub pots and pans by hand
- Return clean dishes and pans to where the cooks need them
- Keep the dish area from flooding or backing up
- Take out trash and break down boxes
- Mop floors and clean at close
- Help with basic prep when you are caught up
The measure of a good dishwasher is that the cooks never once have to look for a clean pan.
A Day in the Life
4:00 PM — Clock in. Set up the machine, check chemicals and temperature.
4:30 PM — Prep dishes start arriving. Stay ahead while it is quiet.
6:00 PM — Service. Racks coming in steadily.
7:30 PM — Peak. The stack is at its worst. Keep the pans moving.
9:00 PM — It eases. Catch up on the pot sink.
9:45 PM — Last tables. Start on floors and trash.
10:30 PM — Break down and clean the machine.
11:00 PM — Mop out, final trash, lock up the dish area.
Steady, then two hours of flat out, then a methodical clean-down.
Training in North Dakota
No school, no diploma, no experience. You are usually trained in one shift. There is nothing to study. An hour alongside someone experienced covers the machine, the chemicals, and where everything goes.
Training Pathways:
- Walk in and ask: Kitchens are short of dishwashers nearly all the time. This is the fastest hire in the state.
- Say you want to learn prep: Most kitchens will teach you prep work in the slow stretches if you ask, and that is how the move up starts.
- Dish to prep to line: This is the standard kitchen path in North Dakota and it does not require a single day of school.
Where to Train in North Dakota:
Before You Start: No diploma or experience required. You need to stand for a long shift in heat and wet, lift racks and trash, and keep moving when it is busy. Some positions require you to be 16 or 18 depending on equipment.
Tip: Most of these jobs need no school, so the cost of starting is not tuition — it is the things you need in the first month. Non-slip shoes, work clothes or a uniform, a way to get to work, and getting through the two or three weeks before the first paycheck arrives. Ask the employer first: many will supply a uniform, some give a shoe allowance, and some pay weekly rather than every two weeks, which matters a lot at the start. After that, ask a career counselor or Job Service North Dakota whether WIOA or other programs can help with what is left over, like work clothes, boots, tools, or getting to work. What can be paid for depends on the program and on your own situation, so ask before you start rather than after.
Certification & Licensing
Nothing is required. You can start without any certificate at all. Chemical safety training is the employer’s responsibility and they provide it.
Worth knowing about:
- Chemical safety training — required by law for the dish machine chemicals, and the employer provides it
- Food handler card — not needed to wash dishes, but needed the moment you start helping with prep, and usually employer-paid
The Exams: None.
Cost: Nothing.
Keeping It Current: Employer safety training is typically repeated yearly.
Salary & Job Outlook
North Dakota Dishwasher Pay (May 2025):
- Starting out (bottom 10–25%): $10.85–$12.60/hour ($22,570–$26,200/year)
- Middle (median — half earn more, half earn less): $14.41/hour ($29,980/year)
- Experienced (top 25–10%): $17.16–$18.48/hour ($35,690–$38,440/year)
What that means: This is the lowest median in this area. The upper end is usually a long-serving dishwasher in a hotel or hospital kitchen who also does prep. Hours vary a lot — many dish positions are part-time, so ask how many hours a week you will actually get.
Jobs in North Dakota: About 1,090 people do this work in ND today. By 2034, that should be about 1,110 (about 2% growth). Expect about 180 job openings every year in ND from growth and people retiring or changing jobs. Across the U.S., the change is growing slowly.
Outlook: Steady but small — about 180 openings a year in North Dakota. Turnover is high, which is why getting hired is easy even though the total number of positions barely moves.
Who Hires in ND: Restaurants, hotels, hospitals, nursing homes, schools, casinos, and camp kitchens.
Work Setting: Indoors, hot, wet, loud, and tight. Evenings and weekends are the busy shifts. Hospital and school kitchens run day shifts.
Physical Demands: High. Standing in water for the whole shift, steam and heat, lifting racks and trash, repetitive reaching and bending, wet floors.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, North Dakota, May 2025 (SOC 35-9021); North Dakota and U.S. long-term employment projections 2024–2034, via O*NET OnLine. Numbers are rounded.
Where This Leads
Path 1: Dishwasher — Where you start, often within days of applying.
Path 2: Prep Cook — The usual first step up — about $3.30 an hour more.
Path 3: Line Cook — The fastest-growing job in this area, and most cooks here started at the dish pit.
Path 4: Kitchen Lead — Running a station and training new staff.
Path 5: Janitor or Custodian — If you want out of kitchens — median about $3.70 an hour higher.
Path 6: Hospital Kitchen Work — Day shifts, steadier hours, usually better pay than restaurants.
The Real Talk
What's Great:
- The fastest job on this site to get hired into
- No diploma, experience, or certificate at all
- Trained in a single shift
- The standard route into cooking, which pays and grows far better
- You are genuinely needed — a kitchen stops without you
- Free or cheap food on shift at most places
What's Hard:
- The lowest median pay in this area
- Hot, wet, loud, and relentless during service
- Standing in water for an entire shift
- Nights and weekends
- Often part-time, so the weekly total can be small
- Treated as the bottom of the kitchen by people who would not last a shift at it
Be Honest: Can you keep moving when the stack is not going down? Can you work hot and wet for eight hours? And are you willing to ask to be taught prep, so this job becomes a start rather than a stop?