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When considering a job in the restaurant industry, either as a chef or even a simple line cook, you want to be paid the best possible amount for the respective position. With that in mind, you want to ensure you are living in the city that provides the best pay for that particular position within the restaurant industry.

As you come into the industry, these figures can be difficult to find, but thanks to a recent survey from StarChefs.com, you can find the place that will work best for you and your needs, wants and desires.

Various Positions
On average, the typical exectuive chef stands to make on average $77,611 in various locations across the United States. However, when you live in one of the big three centers of cuisine — Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco — you stand to make as much as $120,000 on average. Obviously, being an exectuive chef there will entail better pay for you, and not just a little bit, but more than $40,000 more. Of course, if you can’t get a job in one of those three cities, you can get by in Chicago where exectuive chefs have an average salary of $100,000, or in Miami, Atlanta or Washington, D.C., in which all average a salary of $80,000.

Obviously, exectuive chefs make the most in the industry. However, exectuive sous chefs make $55,679 on average in the United States, while the typical pastry chef pulls in $53,017, which is more than a sous chef at $42,104. The highest paid of all chefs in the United States is the corporate chef, who makes upward of $86,932. The low one on the totem pole of course is the line cook, who pulls in about $13.07 an hour.
For exectuive sous chefs, the two best states in which to work are New York and Florida, where one can pull in $59,000 and $64,000 on average, while a sous chef will make $46,950 and $43,700 in those two states, respectively. The same is true for pastry chefs, who make $72,000 and $66,286 in New York in Florida.

Reputation Matters
Now, what many hopeful chefs may not realize is that the type of restaurant in which you work also influences the position of your salary. For example, the exectuive chef, exectuive sous chef and pastry chef all make more in a fine-dining restaurant than they would in an upscale-casual restaurant. The position to which this does not apply is the line cook. Surprisingly, they make double in the upscale-casual restaurant ($42,429) than they do in a fine-dining restaurant ($29,429).

If you are an exectuive chef, it is best if you work at a private establishment or country club, where you can earn $87,000 on average. For exectuive sous chefs and pastry chefs, working in fine dining is by far the best ($60,118 and $64,975).

Understanding Your Options
As you can see from these figures, it is better to be an exectuive chef for a country club in New York than a line eook at a fine-dining restaurant nearly anywhere in the United States. Understanding what works best for you and where you want to live will go a long way in determining how much you get paid.

Orrick Nepomuceno, CPC is a managing partner of KAON Consulting, an exectuive recruitment firm, and author of “Hitchhiker In the Corner Office: Avoiding The Top-10 Potholes So Your Employees Don’t Hit The Road.” With nearly 20 years of experience in the restaurant, foodservice and hopitality industries, Orrick consults exectuives and companies in recruiting, hiring and retaining human capital for their organizations. Visit the Restaurant And Foodservice Blog to read more of Orrick’s blog relating to the restaurant industry.

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