Executive Chef Salary in the United States

How Much Is the Average Executive Chef Salary?

Executive Chefs earn $6,670 a month. Since this is a leadership position that mostly performs administrative, operational and managerial tasks such as recording inventory, ensuring the quality of the dishes served and coaching Chefs, Station Cooks and Prep Cooks.

However, they’re often offered either a profit-sharing plan or an annual bonus that can significantly increase their take-home pay.

What Is the Hourly Wage for Executive Chefs?

Executive Chefs earn $38.48 per hour.

What Is the Weekly Wage for Executive Chefs?

Executive Chefs make $1,539.23 a week.

How Do the Salaries of Executive Chefs Vary?

Factors that affect an Executive Chef’s salary are experience level, type of establishment and location.

Experience level

Executive Chefs with 10 years of experience in this role and more can earn as much as $86,386 per year. This is 30% higher than the wage entry-level professionals in this role receive, which is $66,365 annually.

This graph is interactive. Hover your mouse over different parts of the graph to see detailed data. 

Experienced Executive Chefs tend to be offered higher salaries for their perceived ability to improve operational efficiency and boost the establishment’s profitability.

Type of establishment

Five-star hotels, luxury golf clubs and renowned corporations like Walt Disney and Four Seasons tend to offer Executive Chefs higher wages.

The salary they offer ranges between $110,000 and $181,000. Guests and customers frequenting these kinds of establishments have high expectations in terms of service. This requires employers to give higher wages to attract customer service-oriented Executive Chefs with the best culinary skills.

Location

Executive Chefs working in a tourist destination tend to get higher salaries.

For example, in Nevada, they earn $97,600 per year. Las Vegas, Nevada is known for its nightlife, endless entertainment options and good restaurants.

That said, the number of tourists flocking to the state contributes to a high demand for talented Executive Chefs, which results in competitive salaries.

On the other hand, West Virginia, a mostly rural area, only offers an average of $68,369 per year.

Check out the map below to see how Executive Chef salaries differ across the country.

This map is interactive. Hover your mouse over different parts of the map to see detailed data. 

What’s Your Take-Home Pay as an Executive Chef?

Given that wages can differ significantly per state, we’ve created a PayCheck Calculator to help you identify how much you’re taking home after taxes and insurance premiums.

To use it, simply type in your salary, pay frequency and the state you’re working in.

Which States and Districts Offer the Highest Pay for Executive Chefs?

Nevada, California, New York, the District of Columbia and Massachusetts provide Executive Chefs with generous pay. Explore how much Executive Chefs make per state using our table below.

Which Cities Offer the Highest Pay for Executive Chefs?

New York City and Los Angeles rank highest in terms of annual salaries offered to Executive Chefs.

How To Ask for a Higher Pay as an Executive Chef?

Here are some tips to help you negotiate better pay before accepting a job offer for this role.

• Use numbers: Compute the cost of goods and labor that you were able to keep down in your previous work. Showing your potential employer that you have a proven track record of your ability to bring money to the organization helps build a case toward getting a higher pay.
• Gather positive reviews: Compile positive reviews you’ve received in your past work. During the meeting, you can also share anecdotes of when customers went out of their way to compliment your work.
• Do your research: Use the figures from this salary guide as a baseline of how much you should receive depending on where you plan to work. To improve your benchmarks, you can research the salaries offered by establishments that share the same cuisine, concept and target audience as your potential employer.

What Are the Benefits Executive Chefs Get?

Below are some of the most commonly provided employee benefits and perks for Executive Chefs.

• Paid time off: The national average for both sick and vacation days in private industries is 18 days after a year of service. Provided this standard, make sure to ask your potential employer for additional days to give yourself enough time to recharge.
• Health insurance: This covers all expenses incurred if you get sick or hospitalized. You also get free vaccines, checkups and medical tests which is important to help you keep up with the physical demands of the Executive Chef role.
• Tuition reimbursement: Use this benefit to take certification programs offered by the American Culinary Federation or enroll in management courses to improve your communication, leadership and problem-solving skills.
• 401(k): Studies show that only 14% of small businesses which include restaurants offer this retirement plan as a benefit. Requesting for a 401(k) is important to decrease your taxes, helping you take home more money.
• Meal discounts: Having benefits that you can consume right away such as a meal discount helps make your day-to-day a lot easier. It’s one less thing you’ll have to worry about especially if you pull a 14-hour shift every day.
• Profit-sharing plan: Depending on the total amount of sales reached by the establishment you’re working, you’ll receive a share of the profit made. This type of plan can be given in the form of cash, stocks or bonds of the company.
• Bonus: This is a cash incentive given to employees based on their performance. Bonuses can be provided as a lump sum payment or as a percentage of their base salary.

Executive Chef Salary Data

Our salary data is calculated using estimates from different job posting sites.

To learn more about how we compute salaries per state, city and experience level, visit our salary methodology page.