Pay in this trade is extremely stage-dependent: the gap between a commis chef's wage and a successful chef-owner's income is far wider than in most professions, because the top of the range is really business profit, not salary.
Demand, meanwhile, is not in question. Restaurants across major economies report chronic difficulty hiring cooks and chefs, and wages have risen accordingly — even as the trade's punishing hours keep turnover among the highest of any skilled occupation.
The pay ladder
US, entry-level cook wages, 2024; often lower elsewhere, and effectively unpaid during a school-based stage in parts of Europe.
US, typical cook wage, 2024.
US, industry salary surveys, 2024.
US median for chefs and head cooks, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2024.
US, highly variable — this is business profit and brand income, not a wage, and the real range runs far higher for a small few.
What it pays around the world
United Kingdom
Average head-chef salary, 2025; London kitchens typically run 15–20% above the national figure.
United States
Median pay for chefs and head cooks, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2024.
United Arab Emirates
Typical executive-chef range in Dubai hotels, 2025; migrant line cooks in the same market often earn a small fraction of this.
Australia
National chef average, 2025; a persistent shortage has pushed wages up faster than in many other skilled trades.
France
Typical chef de cuisine, 2024; can exceed €60k in Michelin-starred kitchens and far less in small-town bistros.
Japan
Typical restaurant/sushi chef salary, 2024; senior itamae who own their counter earn from the business rather than a wage.
Key numbers
Who employs them
Compass Group
UK-headquartered, the world's largest contract catering company — runs kitchens inside offices, hospitals, schools and stadiums across more than 30 countries.
Sodexo
French multinational running institutional food service at a similarly vast scale — hospitals, universities, corporate campuses — a major global employer of trained cooks outside restaurants entirely.
Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts
A byword for luxury hotel kitchens worldwide, and a common training ground for chefs before they open their own restaurants.
Nobu Restaurants
The global Japanese-Peruvian fusion group founded by chef Nobu Matsuhisa, now operating dozens of restaurants and hotels across five continents.
Royal Caribbean International
Cruise lines run some of the largest single kitchens afloat, feeding thousands of passengers a day and employing chefs from dozens of countries at once.
Independent Michelin-starred restaurants
The other end of the scale from institutional catering: small, owner-operated kitchens where the chef's name and cooking are the entire business.
Where the demand is going
Nearly four in five full-service restaurants in recent US surveys report difficulty hiring chefs and cooks, a shortage echoed in hospitality industries across the UK, Australia and much of Europe.
Employment for chefs and head cooks in the US is projected to grow faster than the average occupation through the mid-2030s, even as the broader restaurant workforce churns through close to 80 percent annual turnover.
Demand is least cyclical at the very top, where skilled chef-owners and executive chefs are hard to replace, and most cyclical at the bottom, where entry-level cooking staff are usually the first cut in a downturn — very different job security at each end of the same trade.