Cooks, Restaurant · SOC 35-2014

Highest-Paying Metro Areas for Cooks, Restaurants

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

Metro areas ranked by published median annual wage for cooks, restaurant. 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 391 metro areas

Cooks, Restaurant: metro areas with the highest published median annual wages, May 2025
#	Metro area	Median annual	Employment	Per 1,000 jobs
1	Kahului-Wailuku, HI	$49,560	1,770	24.0
2	Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA	$47,730	20,850	10.0
3	Napa, CA	$47,320	1,270	16.3
4	San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA	$47,170	8,900	7.8
5	Barnstable Town, MA	$46,930	1,760	18.7
6	Portland-South Portland, ME	$46,560	2,730	9.5
7	Bremerton-Silverdale-Port Orchard, WA	$46,460	1,090	11.6
8	Mount Vernon-Anacortes, WA	$46,450	590	11.1
9	San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA	$46,440	15,670	10.2
10	San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA	$46,030	20,540	8.7
11	Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH	$45,830	22,900	8.5
12	Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA	$45,720	2,340	11.4
13	Burlington-South Burlington, VT	$45,390	950	7.9
14	Bellingham, WA	$45,370	1,090	11.9
15	Kennewick-Richland, WA	$45,280	1,150	8.9
16	Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA	$45,200	13,020	10.8
17	Longview-Kelso, WA	$44,980	310	7.4
18	Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater, WA	$44,960	1,090	8.4
19	Salinas, CA	$44,930	1,910	10.3
20	Amherst Town-Northampton, MA	$44,680	540	8.2
21	Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA	$44,560	1,020	10.4
22	Wenatchee-East Wenatchee, WA	$44,550	780	15.3
23	Bend, OR	$44,540	1,530	14.1
24	Lewiston-Auburn, ME	$44,510	250	5.3
25	Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA	$44,460	54,320	8.7

Full state and metro tables, the national distribution, and the pay map are on the Cooks, Restaurant 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.