Starting Pay for Chefs

[Suzanne]

Paul: Please don't tell me that you give lots of hands-on training. But DO tell me that you train, mentor, and give your hires a range of experience that allows them to move up in the kitchen. That's what it should all be about.

As for me, in New York City: My first job as a pantry cook after I finished culinary school in 1996 paid $7.50 an hour, extra for more than 40 hours and you can be sure I had to fight to get that extra. Next, as a catering manager, I was on salary at $28,000/year, which worked out to $13.46/hour for 40 hours (which I rarely worked; usually more, of course). Back to a restaurant: started at garde manger at $475/week (always more than 40 hours), ended as grillman at $525; then I got the title of Pastry Chef, making $600/week (whereas my predecessor had made $750, but he had much more experience and training in pastry than I; but still . . . ). Next couple of restaurants paid $575/week for line cook/tournant. To work on opening a resto with a chef I very much admired, I took a cut and received $100 per shift, which was more than anyone else received (except for the sous chefs). Took another cut to work with another very good chef, to $480/week. As Kitchen Manager for a manufacturer, supervising a staff of 2 to 5, I started at $32,500/yr (would have equalled $15.62 if I'd only worked 40 hours instead of the close-to 80 since I also had to do R&D) and ended at $35,000 (a theoretical 16.82). In my last line jobs in late 2001 and early 2002, I was back to the equivalent of $13.00/hour. NO BENEFITS IN ANY OF THESE JOBS, EVER. NO OVERTIME (except the very first). And at one job, the owner stiffed the entire staff -- including the chef and sous -- out of several weeks' pay. Such is life on the line.

Now I use all that training and experience (plus everything else I've learned in every other job) doing editorial work on cookbooks and other writing, for $20 to $28/hour, and I get paid for every hour I work in the comfort of my office or at the publisher's office. Do I miss working the line? Every day, and never.

[topchef]

Originally Posted by paul

Pete and MikeB sound like they are in the right range.
I'm a bit more generous, at times, though: I've been known to offer $10 more than the average to an inexperienced chef because her breasts were bigger than my pair of woks imported from China

Paul is obviously a neanderthal who forgot to make the jump into the 21st century.

topchef

[Jim]

Let us all keep in mind the educational forum in which we participate. Some insight may vary from our own, however the spirit of which should be grounded in common sense and respect for all of our community members.

[Pete]

Kuan, you're my hero!!!!!!

[danimalarkey]

Originally Posted by Pete

Many states nowadays have laws regulating who can be paid a "salary". This is to keep unscrupulous operators from paying low salaries and working employees 60-80 hours a week. In most states now, to be paid a salary you must supervise people and/or spend a certain portion of your day doing administrative duties.

Ahh, thanks for the clarificaiton. This is what I was trying to ask about before. But apparently, my brain went on hiatus. I would say it's back now except that I'm considering auditioning for FOX's new season of ****'s Kitchen.

kidding!


-dan