6 free templates across cinema, theater, stadium, event-staffing, small-venue, and church ushers, with the FLSA overtime and youth-employment guidance the template farms skip. Download as DOCX.
An usher job description has two traps the generic templates walk right into. First, the word usher covers three different situations: a paid commercial usher at a cinema or venue (a real W-2 hire), a church usher (a volunteer ministry role), and a wedding usher (a friend or family member, not a hire at all). Second, compliance: paid ushers are non-exempt and hourly, ushering is a classic teen job that triggers child-labor rules, and almost no competitor template explains either.
At FirstHR, we build templates for the small, independent venues that hire ushers without a dedicated HR department, the independent cinema, the small live-music venue, the event-staffing startup, and we add the FLSA overtime and youth-employment guidance the template farms skip. The six below cover cinema, theater, stadium, event-staffing, small-venue, and church versions. The guide to writing a job description covers the fundamentals.
TL;DR
An usher helps patrons at an entertainment venue: tickets, seating, safety, and house upkeep. It maps to the federal occupation ushers, lobby attendants, and ticket takers (SOC 39-3031), median around $14.98 an hour (May 2024). Three versions exist: paid commercial (a W-2, non-exempt, hourly hire), church (volunteer ministry role), and wedding (not a hire). Paid ushers are non-exempt with overtime, and teen ushers trigger federal child-labor hour limits. Download six versions as DOCX.
What an Usher Does
An usher helps patrons at an entertainment venue, checking tickets, guiding guests to seats, and keeping the space pleasant and safe. The duties cluster into tickets and entry, seating and guest help, safety and policy, and house upkeep, with the pace shifting by venue.
The role maps to the federal ushers, lobby attendants, and ticket takers occupation, defined as assisting patrons at entertainment events by collecting tickets, helping find seats, and helping patrons locate facilities. It is an entry-level role needing little or no preparation and short on-the-job training.
Three Kinds of Usher
Before writing anything, sort which usher you mean, because two of the three are not employment at all and need a different document. Only the paid commercial usher is a job you hire and write an employment posting for.
Paid commercial usher
W-2 employee
Works at a cinema, theater, stadium, arena, or event venue. A W-2, non-exempt, hourly hire, usually part-time or on-call. This is the role you write a job description and an employment offer for.
Church usher
Volunteer ministry role
Serves a congregation as a volunteer, not a paid employee. Use a ministry role description, not an employment posting. If a church pays ushers, they generally become W-2 employees.
Wedding usher
Not a hire at all
A friend or family member who helps seat guests at a wedding. Not an employee and not a job, so it does not need a job description. Included here only to clear up the search confusion.
Only the Paid Usher Gets an Employment Posting
Write a job description and an offer only for the paid commercial usher. The church usher gets a volunteer ministry role description, not an employment posting, and the wedding usher needs nothing at all. Keeping these straight is not pedantic: a volunteer role and a paid job carry different legal weight under wage law.
Usher Duties and Responsibilities
An usher's duties cluster into tickets and entry, seating and guest help, safety and policy, and house upkeep. The setting changes the emphasis (a stadium leans on crowd flow, a cinema on cleaning between showings), but these four areas hold across venues.
Tickets and entry
Greet guests and scan or check tickets
Verify guests are in the correct section or auditorium
Manage entry, re-entry, and late seating
Seating and guest help
Direct guests to seats, exits, and facilities
Distribute programs or bulletins
Assist guests with disabilities and accessibility needs
Safety and policy
Monitor the section or house for issues
Enforce venue policies politely but firmly
Assist with emergencies and orderly exits
House upkeep
Clean auditoriums or the house between events
Keep aisles, exits, and common areas clear
Help with concessions or lobby tasks as needed
A cinema usher cleans between showings; a stadium usher manages a section and crowd flow. For a structured way to scope the role before posting, the guide to defining job responsibilities walks through the process.
Which Template Should You Use?
Pick the template by venue: cinema for a movie theater, theater for a performing arts venue, stadium for a large sports or concert venue, event-staffing for an on-call roster, the small-venue version for an owner-run independent venue, and the church version for a volunteer ministry role. Use this guide to choose.
Cinema / Movie Theater
Independent cinemas
For a movie theater: ticket scanning, seating, cleaning between showings, and screening checks, with the minor-employment note built in.
Theater / Performing Arts
Playhouses, concert halls
For a performing arts venue: scanning tickets, distributing programs, dark seating, and accessibility, with the volunteer-versus-paid note for nonprofits.
Stadium / Arena Event
Sports, concerts
For a large venue: section-based seating, crowd flow, policy enforcement, and safety, with the multi-event overtime note built in.
Event Usher / On-Call
Staffing rosters
For an event-staffing roster: per-assignment shifts across venues, with the W-2-versus-contractor classification note built in.
Small Venue / No HR
Owner-run, first hire
The flagship version for a small, owner-run cinema, live-music venue, or event space hiring its first or only usher, with the first-hire compliance basics.
Church Usher (Volunteer)
Ministry role
A volunteer ministry role description, not an employment posting, with the volunteer-versus-paid line spelled out for nonprofits.
Match the Template to Your Venue
Movie theater: Cinema. Playhouse or concert hall: Theater. Stadium or arena: Stadium / Arena Event. On-call across venues: Event Usher. Small owner-run venue: Small Venue / No HR. Volunteer church team: Church Usher. Whichever paid version you pick, classify as non-exempt and build in the youth-employment rules if you hire teens.
6 Free Usher Job Description Templates
Download all six as a single Word document or copy individual templates. The five paid versions follow the same structure: venue overview, position summary, key responsibilities, qualifications, a compliance note, and how to apply. The church version is a volunteer role description. Fill in the brackets and post.
Download All 6 Templates
Cinema, theater, stadium, event staffing, small venue, and church usher. All in one DOCX.
Template 1: Cinema / Movie Theater Usher
For a movie theater: ticket scanning, seating, cleaning between showings, and screening checks, with the minor-employment note built in.
Age requirement: [16+ / verify minor-hour rules if under 16]
Compensation: $______ per hour
ABOUT THIS ROLE
A movie theater usher keeps the auditoriums and lobby running smoothly:
checking tickets, seating guests, cleaning between showings, and keeping
the screening experience pleasant and safe.
POSITION SUMMARY
[Theater Name] is hiring an Usher to greet and seat guests, scan tickets,
keep auditoriums clean between showtimes, and help guests with questions.
You will be part of a small front-of-house team across evenings, weekends,
and holidays.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Greet guests and scan or check tickets at the door
•Direct guests to the correct auditorium and seats
•Clean auditoriums between showings (sweep, trash, spills)
•Monitor screenings for problems (sound, picture, disruptions)
•Answer guest questions and handle basic complaints
•Enforce theater policies and assist in emergencies
•Help with concessions or lobby tasks as needed
•Keep aisles, exits, and common areas clear and safe
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•Friendly, dependable, and comfortable with the public
•Able to stand, walk, climb stairs, and work in low light for a full shift
•Available evenings, weekends, and holidays
•No experience required; short on-the-job training provided
•Minimum age [16] (verify local minor-employment rules)
COMPLIANCE NOTE (read before posting)
The usher role is non-exempt (hourly) and overtime-eligible. If you hire
workers under 16, federal child-labor rules limit their hours and times of
day, so confirm the rules before scheduling minors. This is general
information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Theater Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $______ per hour
To apply, email __ or apply in person.
Template 2: Theater / Performing Arts Usher
For a performing arts venue: scanning tickets, distributing programs, dark seating, and accessibility, with the volunteer-versus-paid note for nonprofits.
Theater / Performing Arts Usher Job Description
THEATER / PERFORMING ARTS USHER JOB DESCRIPTION
Venue: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [House Manager / Front-of-House Manager]
An event usher on a staffing roster works a variety of venues and events on
an on-call, per-assignment basis: festivals, concerts, conferences, and
private events, providing guest-services and crowd-direction support
wherever assigned.
POSITION SUMMARY
[Company Name] is building a roster of Event Ushers for assignments across
[venues / events]. You will accept shifts that fit your availability, then
greet and direct guests, scan tickets, and support crowd flow and safety at
the assigned event.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Accept event assignments and arrive on time, in uniform
•Greet guests and scan or check tickets
•Direct guests to seats, sections, and facilities
•Monitor an assigned area for issues and safety
•Enforce event and venue policies
•Support entry, crowd flow, and orderly exit
•Adapt to different venues and event types
•Report incidents and complete event paperwork
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•Reliable, flexible, and responsive to shift offers
•Friendly and calm under crowd pressure
•Able to stand, walk, and climb stairs for long shifts
•Reliable transportation to varied event locations
•Available on short notice for nights, weekends, events
COMPLIANCE NOTE (staffing roster)
Non-exempt (hourly) and overtime-eligible. On-call event workers are
typically W-2 employees, not independent contractors, so classify
carefully; misclassifying staff as contractors is a common wage-law risk.
Hours across all assignments in a workweek count toward overtime. This is
general information, not legal advice.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $______ per hour [per assignment]
To apply, email __ with your availability.
Template 5: Usher (Small Independent Venue / No HR)
The flagship version for a small, owner-run cinema, live-music venue, or event space hiring its first or only usher, with the first-hire compliance basics built in.
Usher Job Description (Small Independent Venue / No HR)
USHER JOB DESCRIPTION (SMALL INDEPENDENT VENUE / NO HR)
This is the part the template farms skip, and for ushers it is where the real risk sits: paid ushers are non-exempt and hourly, and because ushering is a classic teen job, child-labor rules often apply. Both belong in the hiring decision.
On classification, an usher is non-exempt and overtime-eligible; for event and on-call staff, hours across multiple events in one workweek add up toward the 40-hour overtime threshold. For the underlying rule, the DOL covers it under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the exempt versus non-exempt guide explains how to classify.
On youth employment, federal rules under DOL Fact Sheet #43 sharply limit when workers under 16 can work. Here are the federal hour limits.
When
14- and 15-year-olds
16- and 17-year-olds
Hours per school day
Up to 3 hours
No federal hour limit
Hours per school week
Up to 18 hours
No federal hour limit
Hours per non-school day
Up to 8 hours
No federal hour limit
Hours per non-school week
Up to 40 hours
No federal hour limit
Times of day
7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (to 9 p.m. June 1 to Labor Day)
No federal time-of-day limit
Child-Labor Penalties Are Real
Federal child-labor civil penalties run up to roughly $16,000 per minor subject to a violation, and higher where a violation causes serious injury (29 CFR Part 579). A venue that schedules a 15-year-old usher for a 9 p.m. weeknight shift in October is out of compliance. Build the age rules into your scheduling, and check state law too. This is general information, not legal advice.
Requirements and Qualifications
This is an entry-level role that usually needs no experience: most venues hire on attitude and availability and train on the job. Keep the requirements light and focused on reliability, customer friendliness, and the physical demands.
Requirement
What to know
Experience
None required; short on-the-job training
Education
High school diploma usual but often not required
Skills
Friendly, dependable, calm with crowds, customer-service mindset
Physical
Standing, walking, stairs, low light, long shifts
Availability
Evenings, weekends, holidays; part-time, seasonal, or on-call
Age and classification
Often 16+; non-exempt and hourly; verify minor-hour rules
Keep the posting neutral and inclusive, since the EEOC prohibits job advertisements that show a preference based on protected characteristics, and the SHRM guide covers the standard sections of a job description.
How to Write an Usher Job Description
A strong usher posting starts by sorting which usher you mean, then names the venue and handles the FLSA and youth-employment rules the template farms skip. Here is the process the templates are built around.
1
Sort which usher you mean
Paid commercial (a real hire), church (volunteer ministry role), or wedding (not a hire). Use an employment posting only for paid roles.
2
Name the venue and the title
Cinema, theater, stadium, event-staffing roster, or small venue. Pick the matching template and describe the setting plainly.
3
List the real responsibilities
Tickets and entry, seating and guest help, safety and policy, and house upkeep, calibrated to your venue.
4
Handle FLSA and youth employment
Classify as non-exempt and hourly with overtime. If you hire workers under 16, build the child-labor hour and time-of-day limits into the schedule.
5
Set the pay and availability
Benchmark the hourly rate to your local minimum wage. State the part-time, evening, weekend, and holiday availability the role needs.
For the teen-hiring rules that come up constantly with this role, the DOL youth-employment guidance spells out the hour and time-of-day limits for 14- and 15-year-olds.
Usher Pay
Usher pay is hourly and sits at or near the local minimum wage, consistent with an entry-level, part-time role.
A Near-Minimum-Wage Band
Ushers, lobby attendants, and ticket takers had a median wage of about $14.98 an hour (roughly $31,150 a year) in May 2024. In the detailed May 2023 data the lowest 10 percent earned about $10.45 an hour and the highest 10 percent about $18.16 (BLS).
Most ushers fall in a roughly $10 to $18 hourly band, with pay tracking state and local minimum wages closely, so a venue in a higher-minimum-wage state will pay more. Because the role is non-exempt, you pay an hourly wage plus overtime over 40 hours in a workweek, so describe the pay as an hourly rate. Note that ushering is overwhelmingly part-time, seasonal, or on-call rather than a full-time salaried job, so most postings are for variable-hour roles. For a posting, benchmark to your local minimum wage and market rather than a single national figure, and include a good-faith range where your state or city requires pay transparency. National compensation surveys are a useful reference for regional detail.
Hiring an Usher
The usher hire turns on three things the template farms get wrong: sorting the paid, volunteer, and wedding versions, being honest that most demand is large-venue while the real small-business fit is the independent venue, and handling the FLSA and child-labor rules that come with an hourly, often-teenage role. Here is what actually matters.
Sort the three ushers first: paid commercial, church volunteer, and wedding
The word usher covers three completely different situations, and sorting them is the first hiring decision, because two of the three are not employment at all. The paid commercial usher is the one you actually hire: a worker at a cinema, theater, stadium, arena, or event venue who is a W-2, non-exempt, hourly employee, usually part-time or on-call. That is the role you write a job description and an offer for, and the templates on this page are built for it. The church usher is a volunteer ministry role, not a paid position, so it needs a role description rather than an employment posting, and if a church does pay its ushers they generally become W-2 employees subject to wage law. The wedding usher is a friend or family member who seats guests at a wedding, not an employee and not a job at all. Confusing these is the most common mistake, and it matters: a volunteer role description and an employment job posting are different documents with different legal weight. Decide which usher you mean, then use the matching template, and keep paid roles clearly paid and volunteer roles genuinely voluntary.
Most ushers work for big venues, so the small-venue version is the real opportunity
The honest picture is that most paid ushers work for large employers, national cinema chains, big arenas and stadiums, major performing-arts centers, and third-party event-staffing firms, organizations that already run their own HR and hiring systems. That is the reality of the role, and roughly half of all ushers work in the motion-picture-and-video industry alone. But there is a real small-venue segment the generic templates ignore: the independent cinema, the small live-music venue or bar, the minor-league or college venue, and the small event-staffing startup. These employers hire ushers too, often part-time, seasonal, and as one of just a handful of staff, and usually without a dedicated HR department to handle the paperwork. That is exactly where a small venue needs the most help and gets the least from a copy-paste big-chain template. The small-venue version on this page is written for that case, with the first-hire compliance basics built in, because the owner or manager doing the hiring is also the one who has to get the classification and the minor-employment rules right.
Two compliance traps: overtime on hourly staff and child-labor rules for teen ushers
Ushers raise two real compliance issues that the template farms skip, and both hit small venues hardest. First, FLSA classification: an usher is non-exempt and hourly, entitled to overtime over 40 hours in a workweek, and for event and on-call staff the hours across multiple events or assignments in a single week add up toward that 40, which is easy to lose track of when shifts come from different events. Misclassifying on-call event staff as independent contractors instead of W-2 employees is a related and common trap. Second, child labor: ushering is a classic teen job, and federal rules restrict workers under 16 sharply. Fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds may work at most 3 hours on a school day and 18 hours in a school week, only between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. (extended to 9 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day), and only outside school hours; sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds have no federal hour limits but state rules may still apply. The penalties are not trivial: federal child-labor civil penalties run up to roughly $16,000 per minor subject to a violation. A venue that schedules a 15-year-old for a 9 p.m. weeknight shift in October is out of compliance, so naming the age rules in the posting and the schedule is a genuine risk reducer. This is general information, not legal advice.
After You Hire: Onboarding
The job description is step one, and because the role is high-turnover, part-time, and often filled by teens, a simple, repeatable onboarding matters more than a long one. Start with the employment basics: get the offer signed with the hourly rate and non-exempt status, complete Form I-9 within the first days along with the rest of the new hire paperwork, and gather tax forms.
If the hire is under 18, verify age, and for workers under 16 confirm the child-labor hour and time-of-day limits before building the schedule, plus any state work-permit requirement. Then orient them to the venue: the ticketing and seating system, the safety and emergency procedures, the venue policies, and who to escalate to, the kind of structured start the employee onboarding guide describes. Have them sign off on the key policies, and store the signed forms with the rest of the onboarding documents centrally so the next seasonal hire is fast.
A repeatable onboarding matters here because ushers turn over often and many are minors, so a checklist you reuse every time beats a long handbook. FirstHR supports it directly: an AI onboarding wizard and task workflows so each step is tracked, e-signature for the offer and policy acknowledgments, training modules for venue safety and policies, document management for signed forms, and a simple HRIS with an org chart as the venue grows. Because pricing is flat rather than per employee, a small venue pays one rate even through seasonal turnover. FirstHR does not run payroll or administer benefits, so pair it with a payroll provider. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Key Takeaways
Usher covers three situations: paid commercial (a real W-2 hire), church (volunteer ministry role), and wedding (not a hire). Only the paid version gets an employment posting.
The paid role maps to ushers, lobby attendants, and ticket takers (SOC 39-3031), median around $14.98 an hour (May 2024), near minimum wage and usually part-time.
Paid ushers are non-exempt and hourly with overtime; for event and on-call staff, hours across multiple events in a week add up toward 40.
Ushering is a classic teen job: 14- and 15-year-olds are capped at 3 hours a school day, 18 a school week, and 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (9 p.m. in summer).
Child-labor civil penalties run up to roughly $16,000 per minor, so build the age rules into scheduling and check state law.
Most employers are large venues and chains, but the real small-business fit is the independent cinema, small live-music venue, or event-staffing startup.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does an usher do?
An usher helps patrons at an entertainment venue, guiding them to seats, checking or scanning tickets, and keeping the space pleasant and safe. The federal occupation defines the work as assisting patrons at entertainment events by collecting tickets, helping find seats, searching for lost articles, and helping patrons locate facilities like restrooms. In practice the duties cluster into a few areas: tickets and entry (greeting guests, scanning tickets, managing late seating), seating and guest help (directing guests, handing out programs, assisting patrons with disabilities), safety and policy (monitoring the house, enforcing venue rules, helping in emergencies), and house upkeep (cleaning between showings, keeping aisles and exits clear). Ushers work at cinemas, theaters, concert halls, stadiums, arenas, and performing arts centers. It is an entry-level role that usually needs no experience and only short on-the-job training. This page includes cinema, theater, stadium, event-staffing, small-venue, and church templates so you can pick the one that matches your setting.
What is the difference between a paid usher, a church usher, and a wedding usher?
They are three different situations, and only one is an employee. A paid commercial usher works at a cinema, theater, stadium, arena, or event venue and is a W-2, non-exempt, hourly employee, usually part-time or on-call; this is the role you write a job description and an employment offer for. A church usher is a volunteer who serves a congregation, not a paid worker, so the right document is a ministry role description rather than an employment posting; if a church does pay its ushers, they generally become W-2 employees subject to wage and hour law. A wedding usher is a friend or family member who seats guests at a wedding, not an employee and not a job at all, so it needs no job description. Sorting these three is the first step because a volunteer role description and an employment job posting carry different legal weight, and treating paid workers as volunteers, or volunteers as if the rules do not matter, creates risk. Decide which usher you mean, then use the matching template.
Is an usher exempt or non-exempt from overtime?
An usher is non-exempt, meaning an hourly role entitled to overtime at one and one-half times the regular rate for hours worked over 40 in a workweek. The work is routine, hands-on guest-service work that does not involve management or the exercise of independent judgment on significant matters, so it does not meet any FLSA exemption test, and the pay (typically at or near the local minimum wage) sits well below the salary threshold anyway. A subtlety that catches event and on-call employers: when an usher works multiple events or assignments in the same workweek, all of those hours add up toward the 40-hour overtime threshold, even if the shifts came from different events or venues under the same employer. The title does not change the classification. Classify ushers as non-exempt and hourly, track all hours across all shifts in the workweek, and pay overtime when the weekly total passes 40. This is general information, not legal advice; confirm classification with a professional.
What are the child-labor rules for hiring teen ushers?
Ushering is a common first job for teens, so the federal child-labor rules matter. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the minimum age for most non-agricultural work is 14. Fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds face strict limits: they may work at most 3 hours on a school day and 18 hours in a school week, at most 8 hours on a non-school day and 40 hours in a non-school week, only outside school hours, and only between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., except from June 1 through Labor Day when the evening limit extends to 9 p.m. Sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds have no federal limits on hours or times of day for non-hazardous work like ushering, though many states impose their own rules, so check state law too. The penalties are real: federal child-labor civil penalties run up to roughly $16,000 per minor subject to a violation, and higher where a violation causes serious injury. The practical takeaway: if you hire ushers under 16, build the hour and time-of-day limits into your scheduling, and confirm both federal and state rules. This is general information, not legal advice.
Does a church need a job description for ushers?
Not an employment job description, because church ushers are almost always volunteers rather than paid employees. What a church needs is a volunteer ministry role description: a clear, welcoming summary of what the role involves (greeting attendees, handing out bulletins, helping people find seats, assisting with offering or communion, supporting safety) and who it is for, used to recruit and orient volunteers. It should not read like an employment posting with wages, classification, and at-will language, because the role is not employment. The one caveat that matters: if a church ever pays its ushers, those paid workers generally become W-2 employees subject to wage and hour law, and the line between a genuine volunteer and a paid employee is a real compliance area for nonprofits. So keep volunteer usher roles genuinely voluntary, use a ministry role description rather than a job posting, and if you start paying ushers, switch to treating them as employees. The church template on this page is written as a volunteer role description for exactly this reason. This is general information, not legal advice.
Does a small venue hire ushers, and is FirstHR a fit?
Yes, though it is worth being honest that most paid ushers work for large employers, national cinema chains, big arenas and stadiums, major performing-arts centers, and third-party event-staffing firms, which already have HR departments and hiring systems. The genuine small-venue segment exists and is where a tool like FirstHR fits: independent cinemas, small live-music venues and bars, minor-league and college venues, and small event-staffing startups hire ushers too, usually part-time and seasonal and often as one of just a handful of staff, without a dedicated HR department. That is where the paperwork and compliance fall on an owner or manager rather than HR staff, especially the FLSA classification and the child-labor rules for teen hires. FirstHR helps there: e-signature for the offer and policy acknowledgments, an AI onboarding wizard and task workflows to run a consistent checklist (I-9, W-4, age verification, policy sign-off), training modules for venue safety and policies, document management to store signed forms, and a simple HRIS with an org chart as the venue grows. Because pricing is flat rather than per employee, a small venue pays one rate even with seasonal turnover. FirstHR does not run payroll or administer benefits, so pair it with a payroll provider, and applicant tracking is coming soon.
How much does an usher make?
Usher pay is hourly and sits at or near the local minimum wage, consistent with an entry-level, part-time role. There is a federal occupation, ushers, lobby attendants, and ticket takers (SOC 39-3031), with a median wage of about $14.98 an hour (roughly $31,150 a year) in the May 2024 federal data, up from a median of $14.32 an hour in the May 2023 detailed table. The spread is narrow and low: in the May 2023 data the lowest 10 percent earned about $10.45 an hour and the highest 10 percent about $18.16 an hour, so most ushers fall in a roughly $10 to $18 hourly band, with pay tracking state and local minimum wages closely. Because the role is non-exempt, you pay an hourly wage plus overtime over 40 hours in a workweek, so describe the pay as an hourly rate. Note that ushering is overwhelmingly part-time, seasonal, or on-call rather than a full-time salaried job. For a posting, benchmark to your local minimum wage and market, and include a good-faith range where your state or city requires pay transparency. National compensation surveys are a useful reference for regional detail.
What happens after I hire an usher?
Run a simple, repeatable onboarding, since the role is high-turnover, part-time, and often filled by teens, which makes consistency and compliance more important than depth. Start with the employment basics: get the offer signed with the hourly rate and non-exempt status, complete Form I-9 within the first days, and gather tax forms. If the hire is under 18, verify age and, for workers under 16, confirm the child-labor hour and time-of-day limits before building the schedule, plus any state work-permit requirement. Then orient them to the venue: the ticketing and seating system, the safety and emergency procedures, venue policies, and who to escalate to. Have them sign off on the key policies, and keep the signed forms and acknowledgments stored centrally so the next seasonal hire is fast to onboard. Because ushers turn over often and many are minors, a checklist you reuse every time is worth more than a long handbook. FirstHR supports it with an AI onboarding wizard and task workflows, e-signature for the offer and policy acknowledgments, training modules for venue safety and policies, document management for signed forms, and a simple HRIS. FirstHR does not run payroll or administer benefits, and applicant tracking is coming soon.
