{"id":290374,"date":"2025-10-09T22:39:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T22:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/290374\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T22:39:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T22:39:13","slug":"cooks-wages-jump-about-28-while-chef-employment-nearly-doubles-since-2020-oysterlink-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/290374\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooks’ Wages Jump About 28% While Chef Employment Nearly Doubles Since 2020, OysterLink Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

OysterLink analysis of BLS data shows cooks earning $683 more per month since 2020, while chef employment has surged nearly 80% in four years.<\/p>\n

Miami, Florida–(Newsfile Corp. – October 9, 2025) – Wages for U.S. cooks have increased by 27.8% since 2020<\/b>, rising from $29,530 to $37,730<\/b>, according to new analysis from OysterLink<\/b><\/a> of Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data. Chef wages also grew to $64,720 in 2024<\/b>, while employment for chefs nearly doubled over the four-year period, climbing 79.6%<\/b> to 182,320 workers<\/b>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

Culinary workforce booms since 2020 as chef roles nearly double and cook wages rise 28%<\/b><\/p>\n

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:
https:\/\/images.newsfilecorp.com\/files\/10722\/269917_3610a240a4e86a53_001full.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n

“Since 2020, cooks are earning over $8,000 more per year and chef employment has nearly doubled,” said Milos Eric<\/b>, Co-Founder and General Manager of OysterLink. “No other hospitality roles show this level of combined wage and job growth, which highlights how critical culinary professionals are to the industry.”<\/p>\n

Table 1. Culinary Wage and Employment Growth<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n

Job Title<\/b><\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n

2020\u00a0
Avg. Salary<\/b><\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n

2024\u00a0
Avg. Salary<\/b><\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n

Wage\u00a0
Growth<\/b><\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n

Employment\u00a0
2020<\/b><\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n

Employment\u00a0
2024<\/b><\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n

Employment Growth<\/b><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\n

Cook<\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n

$29,530<\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n

$37,730<\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n

+27.8%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n

1,109,650<\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n

1,452,130<\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n

+30.9%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n\n

Chef<\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n

$58,740<\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n

$64,720<\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n

+10.2%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n

101,490<\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n

182,320<\/p>\n<\/td>\n\n

+79.6%<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

How Cooks & Chefs Compare to Other Hospitality Roles<\/b><\/p>\n

While bartenders saw the highest wage growth<\/b> at nearly 38%<\/b>, and waiters followed closely with 39.6%<\/b>, few roles experienced the same combination of wage gains and massive employment growth<\/b> as cooks and chefs. By contrast, cashiers’ wages rose only 23.8%<\/b>, while employment declined 5.3%<\/b>.<\/p>\n

This makes the culinary field one of the most resilient and rapidly expanding segments<\/b> of the hospitality industry \u2013 providing both higher pay and more job opportunities compared to other frontline roles.<\/p>\n

About OysterLink <\/b><\/p>\n

OysterLink is a job platform for restaurant and hospitality professionals with over 400,000 monthly visitors. <\/b>OysterLink connects talent with opportunities across the U.S., including the top-paying part-time bartender jobs in Miami<\/a> and part-time baker jobs in Miami<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The platform also offers trend reports, expert insights, and interviews with leaders in hospitality. To explore more data-driven insights or post a job that works for today’s talent, visit www.oysterlink.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Media Contact<\/b><\/p>\n

Ana Demidova
ana@oysterlink.com<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https:\/\/www.newsfilecorp.com\/release\/269917<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OysterLink analysis of BLS data shows cooks earning $683 more per month since 2020, while chef employment has…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":290375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[13635,64,2181,420,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-290374","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-bureau-of-labor-statistics","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-employment-growth","11":"tag-jobs","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115346615095273794","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}