Median pay · the United States
$37,390A year, or $18 an hour.| Percentile | Annual | Hourly |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile1 in 10 earn less | $28,700 | $14 |
| 25th percentile | $34,010 | $16 |
| MedianHalf earn more, half less | $37,390 | $18 |
| 75th percentile | $44,620 | $21 |
| 90th percentile1 in 10 earn more | $47,900 | $23 |
| MeanAll pay divided by all jobs | $38,730 | $19 |
Wage survey · BLS May 2025
How we got this
- Median wage in the United StatesBLS OEWS May 2025. Half of the people in this job were paid more than this, half less.$37,390
- Median hourly wagePublished separately by BLS, not divided out of the annual figure.$17.98
- Jobs countedWage and salary jobs; the self-employed are not surveyed.1,409,890
What we assumed
- Wages are BLS OEWS survey estimates for May 2025, not job postings or offers.
- OEWS surveys wage and salary workers. The self-employed and business owners are outside it.
Technical details
Method occupation-wage-v1Data bls-oews-2025-05-v1
Run the numbers on your own pay
Same U.S. tax tables as the rest of the site. Change the salary, state, or filing status.
Which state pays restaurant cooks the most?
Washington pays a median of $46,800, Louisiana $29,050. That is a gap of $17,750 before either state's taxes or prices are counted.
- Washington. See take-home and local prices in Washington →
- The nominal figure is not the comparison. A higher salary in an expensive state can leave less than a lower one somewhere cheap. Each state page adjusts for tax and price level.
Common questions
Restaurant Cook pay in the United States, answered
How much does a restaurant cook make?
The median wage for restaurant cooks in the United States is $37,390 a year, or $17.98 an hour.
Half earn more than that and half earn less. The figure comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage survey for May 2025.
What is the average restaurant cook salary?
BLS’s mean (average) wage for restaurant cooks in the United States is $38,730 a year. The median is $37,390.
The mean sits higher when a smaller group of high earners pulls the average up. For a typical paycheck, the median is the better middle.
What is the hourly pay for a restaurant cook?
The median hourly wage is $17.98. At a full-time year that lines up with about $37,390 a year.
BLS May 2025; hourly and annual figures come from the same survey.
What is the starting salary for a restaurant cook?
BLS does not publish starting pay. The closest figure it does publish is the low end of the range: in the United States, the lowest-paid 10% of restaurant cooks earn under $28,700 a year and a quarter earn under $34,010 ($13.80 and $16.35 an hour).
New hires often start somewhere in that band, but the May 2025 survey does not record experience, so read it as a floor to compare an offer against rather than a typical first salary.
What is the salary range for a restaurant cook?
The overall salary range for restaurant cooks in the United States spans from $28,700 for the bottom 10% to $47,900 for top earners.
The middle 50% earn between $34,010 and $44,620 a year, with the overall median at $37,390.
What do the highest-paid restaurant cooks earn?
The top tenth earn $47,900 a year or more. The 10th-percentile wage is $28,700.
Experience, specialty, employer and the part of the United States someone works in all move a wage inside that range; the survey reports the spread, not the reason for it.
How many restaurant cooks are there in the United States?
The survey counted 1,409,890 of these jobs in the United States for May 2025.
It counts wage and salary jobs, so the self-employed are outside it.