Employment
68,901
Total employees (Census CBP)
Accommodation and Food Services ·NAICS 722514
NAICS 722514 · IRS SOI (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Cafeterias, Grill Buffets, and Buffets - Industry Benchmarks
$22,646/yr average annual pay, with 159 SBA loans on record for NAICS 722514.
- 5.6%
- Accommodation and Food Services sector margin
- 69K
- Workers employed
- $22,646/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $114M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 722514
Texas leads Cafeterias, Grill Buffets, and Buffets activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Accommodation and Food Services sector runs a 5.6% net margin.
- 5.6%
- Accommodation and Food Services sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 69K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $22,646/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $114M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Cafeterias, Grill Buffets, and Buffets's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Cafeterias, Grill Buffets, and Buffets is reported here with financial measures from IRS Statistics of Income and workforce measures from Census County Business Patterns. The page keeps those source systems distinct, shows unavailable fields rather than estimating them, and links the underlying industry context so readers can compare the same NAICS activity before interpreting a margin or payroll figure.
Source: IRS SOI (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023
Benchmarking Insights for Cafeterias, Grill Buffets, and Buffets
Cafeterias, Grill Buffets, and Buffets sits inside Accommodation and Food Services, a sector that runs a 5.6% net margin overall.
4,622 establishments employ 68,901 workers (14.9/location) at $22,646/yr average annual pay. Texas leads employment, followed by California and Georgia.
Cafeterias, Grill Buffets, and Buffets sits in the 64th percentile for employment among 6-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$22,646/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
4,622
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment decreased by 2,074; establishment count decreased by 152. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Subscribe to this industry's release updates (RSS)Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $1.6B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 14.9
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Texas | 9,943 |
| California | 6,054 |
| Georgia | 4,804 |
| North Carolina | 3,394 |
| New York | 2,246 |
| South Carolina | 2,196 |
| Tennessee | 2,169 |
| Missouri | 2,139 |
| Louisiana | 1,791 |
| Ohio | 1,772 |
Showing top 10 of 50 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
159
Total Loan Volume
$114M
Avg Loan Size
$717K
Jobs Supported
3,544
Program Breakdown
7(a) 145 (91%)
504 14 (9%)
Top SBA Lender
Northeast Bank
12 loans in this industry
New Business Share
39.0% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 19
2021 19
2022 11
2023 22
2024 40
2025 46
2026 2
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Cafeterias, Grill Buffets, and Buffets?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 722514 level. Texas leads this industry nationally. The broader Accommodation and Food Services sector runs a 5.6% net margin (IRS SOI 2013 C corp).
How many businesses are in Cafeterias, Grill Buffets, and Buffets?
4,622 business establishments. Together they employ 68,901 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Cafeterias, Grill Buffets, and Buffets?
$22,646/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 14.9 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Cafeterias, Grill Buffets, and Buffets employment?
Texas leads with 9,943 workers. California (6,054) and Georgia (4,804) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Cafeterias, Grill Buffets, and Buffets receive?
Cafeterias, Grill Buffets, and Buffets businesses received 159 SBA loans totaling $114 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $717K. These loans supported 3,544 jobs at origination. Most lending (91%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Cafeterias, Grill Buffets, and Buffets, both at NAICS level 6 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Cafeterias, Grill Buffets, and Buffets ranks #288 of 801 U.S. industries at the 6-digit NAICS level by total employment.
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (68,901 here).
Read with this industry: Industry employment trends · Accommodation and Food Services · Rankings
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.
Sources: IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) Business Tax Statistics · Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023
NAICS 722514 · CBP 2023 · IRS SOI
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released its 2023 County Business Patterns dataset in June 2025, PlainBizBench benchmarks 2,002 U.S. industries against Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income data. See our methodology for the full compilation process.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns / SUSB Industry employment scale, payroll, and firm-size benchmarks · 2023
Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates profit-margin, payroll, entity-type, and SBA-lending benchmarks for this industry, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.