What a Back of House Team Member Actually Does: Duties, Skills, and Pay

“Back of house team member” is one of the vaguest job titles in the restaurant industry, and that’s mostly deliberate. It describes a role that covers whatever the kitchen needs on a given shift: prep in the morning, a station during the rush, dish when the pit backs up, restocking between waves, and a deep clean at the end of the night.

If you’re applying for one, the vagueness is the thing you need explained: what will you be doing at 7pm on a Saturday, what does it pay, and what do you need before you start. If you’re hiring for one, the vagueness is a problem to solve in the job description, because a posting that says “assist as needed” gets you applicants who leave in three weeks.

This guide covers both. It runs through the duties, the positions the role sits between, the skills and certifications employers screen for, what the pay data says, and where the job leads. Along the way it touches the two areas its companion guides cover in depth: front of house vs back of house for the full comparison of the two sides, and how to fix communication between front of house and back of house for the handoff that decides whether a busy shift goes well.

The Bottom Line

• A back of house team member handles food production and kitchen upkeep out of guest view: prep, cooking, plating, dish, restocking, receiving, and cleaning.
• Pay depends heavily on format. Indeed reports an average of $12 to $15 an hour for the title, while the BLS median for restaurant cooks was $17.98 an hour in May 2025 (BLS, May 2025). The title skews toward entry-level quick-service postings.
• Most states require a food handler card within 30 to 60 days of hire, though the rules vary by state and sometimes by county.
• It’s an entry point, not a dead end. Prep and line experience is the standard route to line cook, then sous chef or kitchen manager.

What is a back of house team member?

A back of house team member is a kitchen employee who handles food production and kitchen operations in the areas guests don’t see. The title is a general one, used most often in quick-service and fast-casual chains, where it covers a set of duties rather than one fixed station. In full-service restaurants, the same work is usually split into named roles: prep cook, line cook, dishwasher.

The “back of house” part refers to the physical and operational boundary in a restaurant. Everything behind the pass is back of house: the kitchen line, prep area, dish pit, walk-in, dry storage, and receiving door. Everything in front of it, where guests sit and staff serve them, is front of house.

The “team member” part carries weight in that title. It signals a role defined by flexibility rather than by station. On a given shift you might be on the fry station for three hours, then in the dish pit, then breaking down and sanitizing. Employers use the title precisely because they need someone who can be moved.

What a back of house team member does on a shift

The duties follow the shape of the day rather than a fixed list. A typical full shift looks roughly like this:

Before service: prep and setup

• Receiving deliveries, checking them against the invoice, and rotating stock into the walk-in and dry storage
• Producing mise en place: portioning proteins, cutting vegetables, making sauces and dressings, labeling and dating everything
• Setting up stations with the right pans, tools, and par levels so the line doesn’t run dry mid-rush
• Checking equipment and temperatures, and logging them where required

During service: production and support

• Cooking to ticket on an assigned station, or floating between stations as volume shifts
• Plating and assembling to spec, including modifiers and allergen requests
• Packing takeout and delivery orders, checking bags against tickets
• Restocking the line between waves, the quiet skill that separates good BOH staff from adequate ones
• Running dish when the pit backs up, because a stalled dish pit stalls the entire line

After service: breakdown and close

• Breaking down stations, wrapping, labeling, and dating everything going back into the walk-in
• Cleaning and sanitizing surfaces, equipment, and floors to health-code standard
• Taking out trash and recycling, and cleaning grease traps or filters on schedule
• Recording waste and flagging low counts for the next order

The pattern to notice: the role is defined by the shift’s needs, not by a single station. That’s what employers mean by “team member,” and it’s the honest answer to what the job involves.

Back of house positions a team member works alongside

A back of house team member sits between and often covers for several more specialized roles. Knowing the ladder helps whether you’re moving up it or staffing it:

• Prep cook — produces mise en place before service. Frequently the same person as a BOH team member in smaller operations.
• Line cook — runs a station during service: grill, sauté, fry, or garde manger. The most common next step up.
• Dishwasher — keeps plateware, glassware, and smallwares cycling. Essential, and underrated by everyone except the cooks who have worked a night without one.
• Expediter — calls tickets, checks plates before they leave the pass, and paces the flow between kitchen and floor.
• Sous chef — the kitchen’s second in command, running the line and covering for the head chef.
• Head chef or executive chef — owns the menu, costing, standards, and food safety.
• Kitchen manager — handles ordering, inventory, scheduling, and vendors. In many independents, the chef and kitchen manager are the same person.

How a back of house team member fits against front of house

Front of house covers the guest-facing side: the dining room, bar, host stand, and counter, staffed by servers, bartenders, hosts, bussers, runners, and floor managers. Back of house covers everything behind the pass. The split shapes pay structure, scheduling, and what each side is measured on: the floor on covers, check average, and reviews; the kitchen on ticket times, food cost, and consistency.

For a back of house team member, the practical implications are simple. Your hours start earlier and end later than the dining room’s, because prep and breakdown sit outside service. Your pay is a straight hourly wage rather than a tipped one in most formats. And your day is judged on output, not on presentation.

That’s the short version. Front of house vs back of house goes through the full comparison: areas, roles, pay bands, skills, and where the line blurs on things like expo and delivery packing.

Back of house team member skills employers hire for

Job postings list “attention to detail” and “teamwork,” which is true and useless. Here’s what those mean on a line:

• Speed under repetition. Producing the four-hundredth portion to the same standard as the first. This is the core skill and the hardest to fake in a trail shift.
• Station organization. Knowing where everything is without looking, keeping the station clean while working it, and restocking before you run out rather than after.
• Knife skills and basic technique. Consistent cuts, safe handling, and understanding why consistency matters for cook times.
• Temperature and food safety discipline. Cooling procedures, cross-contamination awareness, holding temps, labeling and dating. This is the part that closes restaurants when it goes wrong.
• Allergen awareness. Knowing which modifiers are preference and which are medical, and treating the second category differently.
• Clear communication under pressure. Calling back what you heard, saying when you’re behind rather than hoping, and flagging an 86 the moment it happens instead of after the next three tickets.
• Physical stamina. Standing for eight to twelve hours, lifting cases, working near heat.

The last soft skill deserves its own note. Kitchens run on short, high-stakes exchanges through a pass window in a loud room, and the people who thrive are the ones who can be direct without being sharp. Most of what gets labeled a personality problem in a kitchen is really a communication breakdown between the line and the floor, a structural issue covered in fixing front of house and back of house communication.

Certifications and requirements for back of house work

Formal education requirements are light. Indeed’s guidance for the role notes that basic education up to high school level is enough in most cases, with hospitality qualifications mattering mainly at upscale establishments (Indeed).

Food safety certification is the requirement that bites, and it’s set at the state or local level rather than federally. The FDA Food Code is a model that each state adopts and modifies. A few examples of how much it varies:

• California requires a food handler card within 30 days of hire for employees handling unpackaged food, valid for three years.
• Texas requires approved food safety training within 60 days of hire, with cards valid for two years.
• Illinois has no uniform statewide food handler law. Requirements are set city by city and county by county.
• Louisiana and Pennsylvania don’t require every employee to be certified, instead requiring a certified food protection manager on staff.

Check your own state and county before your start date, since the deadline usually runs from hire rather than from your first shift. ServSafe’s manager certification is ANSI-accredited under Conference for Food Protection standards and is accepted in all 50 states wherever a certified food protection manager is required.

Beyond that, employers typically ask for reliable availability including nights and weekends, the ability to lift 25 to 50 pounds, and comfort standing for long shifts. Prior kitchen experience helps but is not usually required. This is one of the few roles that still hires and trains from zero.

Back of house team member pay: what the numbers say

Reported pay for this title runs lower than the broader occupational data, and the gap explains itself once you know what each figure measures. Indeed puts the average for a back of house team member at $12 to $15 an hour (Indeed). The federal occupational data sits meaningfully higher:

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.

The gap isn’t a contradiction. Job-board averages for “back of house team member” skew toward quick-service and fast-casual postings, which are entry-level and clustered near state minimums. The BLS medians cover all restaurant cooks and prep workers, including experienced staff in full-service kitchens. In other words, the title marks the bottom of a range that the underlying occupations extend well above.

Three things move the number in practice:

• Format. Full-service and independent kitchens generally pay above quick-service for the same nominal duties.
• Location. State and city minimum wages create wide regional spreads for identical work.
• Station and certification. Someone who can run a station unsupervised, holds a food handler card, and shows up reliably is worth more than the posting rate, and is often paid it.

If you’re hiring: posting a range rather than “competitive pay” measurably improves applicant quality in a market where back-of-house roles turn over at roughly 43% a year, according to figures compiled by Homebase (2025).

Where a back of house team member role leads

This is an entry point rather than a dead end, and the ladder is well-worn:

1. Back of house team member or prep cook. Learn the kitchen, the menu, and food safety. Six months to a year.
2. Line cook. Own a station. This is where technique and speed compound, and where pay starts moving.
3. Lead line cook or expo. Run the pass, train new hires, cover the sous chef’s shifts.
4. Sous chef. Manage the line, order, and step in for the head chef.
5. Head chef or kitchen manager. Own the menu, costing, and standards. This is the point where the BLS median jumps to $30.03 an hour for chefs and head cooks.

What accelerates it: volunteering for stations nobody wants, learning the ordering and inventory side early, and getting a food safety manager certification before anyone asks you to. What stalls it: staying on one station because you’re good at it.

How to write a back of house team member job description

If you’re hiring, the vagueness that makes the title useful operationally is what makes the posting weak. A few things that help:

• Name the actual stations. “Fry, grill, and dish rotation” tells an applicant more than “assist with kitchen operations” and filters out people who’ll quit when they see a dish pit.
• State the shift pattern honestly. Prep shifts and close shifts are different jobs. Say which one you’re hiring for.
• Post the range. Not “competitive.”
• Name the certification and who pays for it. If a food handler card is required within 30 days, say so, and say whether you cover the cost.
• Describe the volume. “200 covers on a Saturday” or “high-volume drive-thru” sets accurate expectations better than any adjective.
• List physical requirements plainly. Lifting, standing hours, heat exposure.

Frequently asked questions

What does a back of house team member do?

They handle food production and kitchen operations away from guests: prepping ingredients, cooking and plating to ticket, packing takeout and delivery orders, restocking stations, receiving and rotating deliveries, running dish when needed, and cleaning and sanitizing the kitchen at close.

How much does a back of house team member make?

Indeed reports an average of $12 to $15 an hour for the title. The broader federal data runs higher: the BLS median was $17.98 an hour for restaurant cooks, $16.98 for food preparation workers, and $16.73 for dishwashers in May 2025 (BLS, May 2025). The title itself skews toward entry-level quick-service postings.

Do you need experience to be a back of house team member?

Usually not. It’s one of the standard entry points into restaurant work, and most employers train on the job. What they screen for instead is reliability, physical stamina, and the ability to keep pace during a rush.

What certification does a back of house team member need?

In most states, a food handler card obtained within 30 to 60 days of hire. Requirements vary by state and sometimes by county, so check locally. Some states instead require only that a certified food protection manager be on staff.

Is back of house team member the same as a line cook?

Not quite. A line cook owns a specific station during service. A back of house team member covers whatever the shift needs, which may include a station, prep, dish, and packing. Line cook is typically the next step up, and the pay reflects it.

What’s the difference between back of house and front of house?

Back of house is everything guests don’t see: kitchen, prep, dish, storage, receiving. Front of house is everything they do see, including the dining room, bar, and counter, plus the servers, bartenders, and hosts who work there. The full comparison covers duties, pay, and skills on each side.

What the back of house team member role really asks of you

Strip away the job title and a back of house team member is the person who keeps a kitchen able to produce. Not the one who designs the menu or the one who describes it to a table. The one who makes sure there are portioned proteins at four, a stocked station at seven, and a clean kitchen at midnight.

It’s physical, repetitive, and largely invisible when it goes right, which is exactly why it’s the best available proving ground in a restaurant. The people who run kitchens almost all started here, and the ones who move up fastest are the ones who treat the vague title as an invitation to learn every station rather than a reason to stay on the easiest one.