Bakers are below average when it comes to happiness.

At CareerExplorer, we conduct an ongoing survey with millions of people and ask them how satisfied they are with their careers. As it turns out, bakers rate their career happiness 3.1 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 37% of careers.

To put this into perspective, we compared how happy bakers are to similar careers in the industry. Take a look at the results below:

Salaries and satisfaction ratings in similar careers

Career Satisfaction Avg Salary
Personal chef
3.6
$37k
Cake designer
3.6
$22k
Sommelier
3.4
$41k
Pastry chef
3.2
$26k
Baker
3.1
$6k
Bartender
3.0
$26k
Culinary chef
2.9
$21k
Barista
2.9
$18k
Caterer
2.9
$28k

So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:

Are bakers happy with their salary?

Bakers rated their satisfaction with their salaries 2.6/5. Bakers tend to be quite unhappy with their salary, with very few reporting satisfaction with their pay.

We asked bakers how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:

2.6 out of 5 stars

1422 bakers

5 Star
8%

8% of bakers rated their compensation 5 stars

4 Star
16%

16% of bakers rated their compensation 4 stars

3 Star
27%

27% of bakers rated their compensation 3 stars

2 Star
26%

26% of bakers rated their compensation 2 stars

1 Star
23%

23% of bakers rated their compensation 1 stars

Do bakers find their jobs meaningful?

On average, bakers rate the meaningfulness of their work a 2.6/5. The majority of bakers struggle to find any sort of meaning in their work, likely resulting in less satisfaction with the career overall.

We asked bakers how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:

2.6 out of 5 stars

1433 bakers

5 Star
9%

9% of bakers rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars

4 Star
15%

15% of bakers rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars

3 Star
23%

23% of bakers rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars

2 Star
27%

27% of bakers rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars

1 Star
24%

24% of bakers rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars

How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as bakers?

Bakers rated their personality fit with their work an average of 3.8/5. The majority of bakers find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.

We asked bakers how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:

3.8 out of 5 stars

1536 bakers

5 Star
30%

30% of bakers rated their career fit 5 stars

4 Star
36%

36% of bakers rated their career fit 4 stars

3 Star
21%

21% of bakers rated their career fit 3 stars

2 Star
8%

8% of bakers rated their career fit 2 stars

1 Star
6%

6% of bakers rated their career fit 1 stars

How enjoyable is a baker’s work environment?

As a whole, bakers rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.3/5. Most of them tend to enjoy, or at least not be actively bothered by, their work environment.

We asked bakers how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:

3.3 out of 5 stars

1539 bakers

5 Star
18%

18% of bakers rated their work environment 5 stars

4 Star
32%

32% of bakers rated their work environment 4 stars

3 Star
25%

25% of bakers rated their work environment 3 stars

2 Star
16%

16% of bakers rated their work environment 2 stars

1 Star
10%

10% of bakers rated their work environment 1 stars

Are bakers making the best use of their abilities?

Former bakers on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 2.9/5. Bakers tend to feel that they don’t manage to use their abilities to their fullest, when compared to other careers.

We asked bakers how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:

2.9 out of 5 stars

1535 bakers

5 Star
14%

14% of bakers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars

4 Star
20%

20% of bakers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars

3 Star
25%

25% of bakers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars

2 Star
23%

23% of bakers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars

1 Star
19%

19% of bakers rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars