2021 Roasting Business and Salary Survey
Insights on Coffee Roasting Businesses and Employee Compensation
As the coffee industry tries to find its footing again after one of the most challenging years for roasting and retail businesses, we wanted to share the results of our Roasting Business and Salary Survey, conducted this past April. This year’s survey, a follow-up to our three previous iterations conducted in 2008, 2012 and 2016 aimed to better understand the landscape for coffee roasting businesses, help our readers gain a clearer picture of the roles coffee roasters play in the industry, and provide insights into the current state of compensation for professional roasters in the United States.
Since 2016, when Roast published its third roasting industry survey, the coffee market has evolved significantly. As in past years, the majority of our survey responses came from wholesale roasters. Over half of respondents reported annual revenue of $500,000 or more—a reversal from past surveys. We received responses from roasters located across the United States, with nearly a quarter of entries coming from oversees.
The statistics in the following pages provide a snapshot of the roasting industry, but there are layers of nuance for roasters when it comes to their career. A majority of respondents reported a base salary of less than $40,000—with less than half having received an increase in compensation during the past year—and half of respondents reported working more than 40 hours per week. Despite these factors, over 60 percent of respondents reported being very satisfied with their job.
“I have worked here nine years, currently supervising our production department, am a production roaster, and am the company’s Preventive Controls Qualified Individual (PCQI),” says a roaster from the Pacific region in the United States. “It’s a fair amount of responsibility but I like the job. It feels easy most of the time and when it’s hard, it’s fun.” Another respondent who owns a roasting business in the East North Central region of the United States says, “I love the whole process of coffee roasting and find it is a very rewarding career.”
However, many respondents pointed to the pandemic restrictions and rapid changes that were made within their companies since March 2020, noting that they have had to take on more responsibility, often without a formal promotion or wage increase. “Pay is lower than I would like, but covid-19 restrictions have greatly reduced company turnover,” says one roaster from the United Kingdom. “I would be paid more for my qualifications in almost any other industry, but I hope that 2021 will bring the opportunity for increased income.”
Another roaster from Australia says, “Due to covid-19 and other crises within the company, my roles have increased from roaster and barista trainer to green bean buyer, quality control, wholesale, defacto operations manager and admin/help desk. While my salary is decent, my company is getting more than its pound of flesh for the last year.”
We invite you to dig into the following pages for more comments from roasters, and information and insights into roasting businesses of all sizes.
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