Cook salary
What a cook actually earns, from 473 live job postings blended with the official US OEWS (Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics) wage anchor. Pick a market for its median and range, then read the seniority split, the trend, and the country comparison below. Updated 2026-07-23.
Switch the market above to see cook pay in the 4 countries our sources cover, each with its own cost of living. The trend, seniority, and state detail below are United States data, where the official record runs deepest.
What the number means
A cook earns a blended US median near 42,000 dollars, with the typical middle running from 37,685 dollars to 43,612 dollars. The official trend has moved up about 33 percent since 2019. The nearest adjacent move on our skill graph is chef, at 69 percent coverage; the instrument maps the rest.
By country
- United States$37,685 – $43,612 · median $42,000
- United Kingdom$34,196 – $41,518 · median $39,024
- Canada$26,371 – $41,770 · median $29,820
- Australia$55,099 – $56,842 · median $55,796
Is your offer fair?
Run a specific number through FairElephant, which weighs it against this data, your location, and remote market rates.
Related salaries
- Chef salary$50,417 median
- Hotel Manager salary$66,368 median
- Sommelier salary$48,934 median
Quick answers
How much does a cook make?
The blended US median is about 42,000 dollars, with a typical range from 37,685 dollars to 43,612 dollars.
What can a cook move into?
The nearest adjacent role on our skill graph is chef, at 69 percent skill coverage. Run the instrument for the full set of reachable moves.
Method: bands are the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of live US postings with stated pay, shrunk toward the official OEWS anchor by sample size (the “blended” figure). Trend is the OEWS annual median for SOC (Standard Occupational Classification) code 35-2014. Live corpus 473 observations, 2026-07-23. Definitions in the glossary.