Cooks, Restaurant Salary & Job Outlook

What Cooks, Restaurant earn nationally

The May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics estimate puts the median annual wage for cooks, restaurant at $37,390. The median is the midpoint: half of workers are estimated below it and half above it. The mean annual wage is $38,730. The mean sits above the median, which indicates that higher-paid jobs pull the average upward.

A single national number hides a wide range of pay. The lower quarter of the occupation is at or below $34,010, while the upper quarter starts around $44,620. The 10th and 90th percentiles stretch from $28,700 to $47,900. Those percentiles are more useful than an isolated average when you are trying to place an offer, a current salary or a possible move in context.

How wide the pay range is

The distance between the 10th and 90th percentiles is $19,200. That spread reflects many things the OEWS table does not attempt to separate on this page, including geography, industry, experience, responsibility and employer mix. It should not be read as an automatic career ladder from the 10th percentile to the 90th.

For benchmarking, start with the median and the middle 50% range. A wage below the 25th percentile is not automatically underpayment, and a wage above the 75th percentile is not automatically exceptional for a specific city or specialty. The national table is a reference point. Local and industry data are the next checks when the decision depends on a specific job.

Employment and outlook

BLS OEWS estimates about 1,409,890 people employed in this occupation. The separate BLS Employment Projections program estimates 1,460,200 jobs in 2024 and 1,677,200 in 2034. On that basis, employment is projected to grow 14.9% over the decade.

The projections table shows about 250,700 openings per year. Openings are not the same thing as net job growth. They can include positions created by growth as well as openings created when workers leave the occupation or exit the labor force. That distinction matters especially in large occupations where replacement needs can produce substantial annual openings even when total employment grows slowly or declines.

States reporting the highest median pay

State-level OEWS estimates let you compare the same occupation across labor markets. The entries below are the highest median annual wages available in the packaged May 2025 state data for this occupation. They are a pay ranking, not a cost-of-living ranking.

1. Washington: median wage $46,800
2. District of Columbia: median wage $46,130
3. Massachusetts: median wage $45,600
4. Hawaii: median wage $45,420
5. Vermont: median wage $45,390

Higher nominal pay does not by itself make one state the better financial choice. Housing, taxes, commuting costs, hours, industry mix and licensing rules can change the comparison. The state pages in this project will keep those local wage estimates separate from the national benchmark so the figures are not mixed.

Metropolitan areas reporting the highest median pay

Metro data can expose differences that state averages smooth over. The highest available median wages in the packaged May 2025 metro table are:

1. Kahului-Wailuku, HI: median wage $49,560
2. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA: median wage $47,730
3. Napa, CA: median wage $47,320
4. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA: median wage $47,170
5. Barnstable Town, MA: median wage $46,930

Some metropolitan estimates may be unavailable or suppressed, so this list ranks the observations actually present in the source data rather than claiming every metro has a publishable estimate. That same availability rule controls whether The Jobs Market creates a dedicated occupation-and-metro page.

How to use these numbers

If you are checking an offer, compare it first with the local occupation estimate rather than the national median. Then use the national percentiles to understand the broader wage spread. If you are deciding where to move, compare both pay and employment depth; a high wage estimate in a small market does not necessarily mean there are many openings.

If you are negotiating, use the data as market evidence rather than as a promise about what one employer must pay. OEWS is an employer survey designed to estimate occupational employment and wages across labor markets. It does not grade an individual’s performance, seniority or specialty. The useful question is how the job in front of you compares with the relevant labor market.

Sources and update period

Wage and employment estimates on this page come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program for May 2025. Outlook figures come from the BLS 2024–2034 Employment Projections. The packaged source records were checked in August 2026. We keep the survey periods visible because wage estimates and projections describe different measurement periods and should not be presented as if they were one dataset.