Cooks, All Other · SOC 35-2019

Highest-Paying Metro Areas for Cooks, All Others

Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025U.S. metropolitan areas

Metro areas ranked by published median annual wage for cooks, all other. Areas where BLS suppressed the median are not ranked. Higher medians often track higher living costs — this is a pay comparison, not a ranking of where the job is “best”.

Top 25 of 63 metro areas

Cooks, All Other: metro areas with the highest published median annual wages, May 2025
#	Metro area	Median annual	Employment	Per 1,000 jobs
1	Burlington-South Burlington, VT	$57,320	80	0.7
2	Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA	$53,910	80	0.0
3	Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas, NV	$51,220	290	0.3
4	Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO	$49,780	40	0.0
5	Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA	$47,840	180	0.9
6	Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ	$46,960	400	0.2
7	Syracuse, NY	$45,970	30	0.1
8	San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA	$44,740	Not published	Not published
9	Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA	$44,340	300	0.2
10	San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA	$43,680	50	0.4
11	Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA	$42,960	Not published	Not published
12	Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL	$42,890	300	0.1
13	San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA	$42,860	1,120	0.5
14	New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ	$42,630	830	0.1
15	Jacksonville, FL	$41,820	40	0.0
16	Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL	$40,270	80	0.1
17	Midland, TX	$40,040	100	0.8
18	Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD	$39,960	100	0.1
19	Urban Honolulu, HI	$39,870	70	0.2
20	New Haven, CT	$39,670	50	0.2
21	Salinas, CA	$39,640	70	0.4
22	Ann Arbor, MI	$39,540	40	0.2
23	Eugene-Springfield, OR	$39,290	30	0.2
24	Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA	$38,980	190	0.2
25	Memphis, TN-MS-AR	$38,950	Not published	Not published

Full state and metro tables, the national distribution, and the pay map are on the Cooks, All Other overview.

About this data. Estimates are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program, May 2025 release, retrieved from bls.gov/oes/tables.htm on July 24, 2026. OEWS estimates describe metropolitan/nonmetropolitan areas and states — not city limits — and are not designed for year-over-year comparisons. See BLS methodology, our plain-English methodology, and sources. CitySalaryData is independent and not affiliated with BLS.