---
title: "Chef"
description: "Direct and may participate in the preparation, seasoning, and cooking of salads, soups, fish, meats, vegetables, desserts, or other foods. May plan and…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/chef"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Chef

**Category:** Food Preparation and Serving Related · **SOC code:** 35-1011 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 35-1011.00

Direct and may participate in the preparation, seasoning, and cooking of salads, soups, fish, meats, vegetables, desserts, or other foods. May plan and price menu items, order supplies, and keep records and accounts.

Also advertised as: Banquet Chef; Chef; Cook; Executive Chef (Ex Chef); Executive Pastry Chef; Executive Sous Chef; Food and Beverage Director; Head Cook.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $62,470 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $30.03/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $37,900 to $98,560, with the middle half between $48,440 and $78,750
- **Total US employment:** 200,040
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +7.1% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 24,400 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 60/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 200,040 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $37,900 |
| 25th | $48,440 |
| 50th (median) | $62,470 |
| 75th | $78,750 |
| 90th | $98,560 |
| Mean (average) | $66,700 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| RI | $79,930 | $78,148 | 740 |
| HI | $77,360 | $70,359 | 1,240 |
| DC | $76,420 | $69,535 | 2,020 |
| WA | $76,010 | $71,029 | 5,320 |
| ND | $74,740 | $84,016 | 100 |
| NJ | $74,280 | $68,269 | 9,100 |
| WY | $73,170 | $78,940 | 240 |
| SC | $71,860 | $76,651 | 2,650 |
| NY | $70,670 | $65,483 | 17,430 |
| TN | $69,810 | $75,988 | 3,820 |
| MA | $69,540 | $65,755 | 6,000 |
| GA | $66,230 | $68,780 | 3,680 |
| VT | $65,440 | $66,804 | 610 |
| CO | $65,400 | $63,463 | 3,970 |
| CA | $64,500 | $58,255 | 31,670 |

38 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 53 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/chef/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/chef.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 197,300 in the 2024–2034 base year to 211,300 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 14,000 jobs, or +7.1%. Much faster than average: 7.1% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 24,400 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** 5 years or more.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 54.2% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 16.7% |
| High School Diploma | 12.5% |
| Some College Courses | 8.3% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 8.3% |

## What the work involves

- Monitor sanitation practices to ensure that employees follow standards and regulations.
- Instruct cooks or other workers in the preparation, cooking, garnishing, or presentation of food.
- Supervise or coordinate activities of cooks or workers engaged in food preparation.
- Order or requisition food or other supplies needed to ensure efficient operation.
- Inspect supplies, equipment, or work areas to ensure conformance to established standards.
- Check the quantity and quality of received products.
- Check the quality of raw or cooked food products to ensure that standards are met.
- Estimate amounts and costs of required supplies, such as food and ingredients.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Monitoring — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Coordination — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Management of Personnel Resources — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Food Production — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Personnel and Human Resources — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Expression — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Information Ordering — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Enterprising (E), Realistic (R), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| E — Enterprising | 5.13 |
| R — Realistic | 4.84 |
| C — Conventional | 4.35 |
| S — Social | 2.95 |
| A — Artistic | 2.72 |
| I — Investigative | 1.68 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESTJ | 82.7 |
| ESFJ | 74.2 |
| ISTJ | 69.2 |
| ESTP | 66.5 |
| ISFJ | 64.4 |

Best-fitting types: ESTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Baker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/baker) — median $37,160
- [Cook, Restaurant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cook-restaurant) — median $37,390
- [Cook, Private Household](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cook-private-household) — median $47,940
- [Cook, Institution and Cafeteria](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cook-institution-and-cafeteria) — median $37,450
- [Food Service Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/food-service-manager) — median $69,390
- [Cook, Short Order](https://nuecareer.com/careers/cook-short-order) — median $35,880
- [First-Line Supervisor of Food Preparation and Serving Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-food-preparation-and-serving-workers) — median $44,080
- [Food Batchmaker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/food-batchmaker) — median $42,290
- [Server](https://nuecareer.com/careers/server) — median $35,230
- [Dietetic Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/dietetic-technician) — median $37,640

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/chef