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Pay · 35-2012

Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria earn $37,450 a year at the midpoint

Most cooks, institution and cafeteria are paid close to one another — the middle is $37,450, and even the ends, $28,480 and $49,670, are not far off.

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$37,450median a year · United States
$18.01an hour $38,810average 441,050people
Nine in ten people in this work earn between the two ends. The shaded part is the middle half — where most people are.
$32,44025th $37,450median $44,80075th
$28,48010th percentile $49,67090th percentile
$32,440a year at the 25th percentile, nearer a first job
$49,670best-paying state · Washington
$25,490lowest-paying state · Louisiana
+33%top state against the national median
  • Read the spread, not the middle. The median is the midpoint across everyone in the occupation, most of them years into the work. A beginner starts nearer the 10th to 25th percentile, which is why the spread is published alongside it.
  • What the figure counts. The figure counts base pay plus tips, commissions and production bonuses. It leaves out the self-employed, unpaid family workers, private household workers, and the value of benefits or profit sharing.
  • The annual figure is arithmetic. For hourly occupations the annual figure is the hourly rate times 2080 hours. It is a calculation, not observed earnings: part time is the norm in retail and food service.
  • Where you live moves it more than your resume does. National figures. A state or metro area can sit far from the national number, and that gap is usually larger than any difference a resume makes.
  • Not in these numbers. Growth and annual openings are not in this dataset. They come from the separate Employment Projections tables, where an opening is a modelled ten year average and not a posted vacancy.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Retrieved through the BLS Public Data API on 2026-08-13. bls.gov/oes “BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.”

State matters a lotThe same job pays $49,670 in Washington and $25,490 in Louisiana — a gap of $24,180 a year.

Institution and cafeteria cook earnings, from starting pay up to the top 10%

Pick the job, where you work and how long you have done it. The range comes from the published wage percentiles for that job.

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An estimate from survey percentiles, not an offer. Employer, industry, shift and credentials move pay within and beyond this range. Full wage page for this job →

Examples

Resumes written for this kind of work.

Real sheets, filled in end to end — for this job and the ones beside it.

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Institution and cafeteria cook pay rate, hourly to yearly

Starts at this job’s median. Change the rate or the hours; a full-time year is 40 hours for 52 weeks.

$37,461a year

Adjacent work, and what it pays

Occupations in the same group of the federal classification — the usual next steps, or the ones beside this one.

Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria$37,450
Cooks, restaurant$37,390−$60 Cooks, Short Order$35,880−$1,570 Cooks, Fast Food$30,890−$6,560

A resume for cooks, institution and cafeteria

Name the job in the builder and the duties, skills and credentials it is screened on are written in for you.

Microsoft ExcelGNOME GnutritionMicrosoft WordMeals PlusPCS Revenue Control Systems FASTRAK School Meal SoftwareIBM Lotus 1-2-3
  • Monitored and recorded food temperatures to ensure food safety.
  • Cooked foodstuffs according to menus, special dietary or nutritional restrictions, or numbers of portions to be served.
  • Rotated and stored food supplies.

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This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The owner of tiersi.com has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

No. 731 of 788 by median pay

Better paid than 7% of the occupations in the survey.

  1. 729 Dietetic Technicians $37,640
  2. 730 Gambling Cage Workers $37,580
  3. 731 Cooks, Institution and Cafeteria $37,450
  4. 732 Cooks, restaurant $37,390
  5. 733 Floral Designers $37,360

Institution and cafeteria cook wages by state

The 49 states where the most people do this work, of 51 with a published figure: their medians range by 1.95 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.

State Median a year Where most start 10th to 90th Employed
Washington $49,670 $39,820 $39,820 — $62,840 9,780
Alaska $48,580 $37,990 $37,990 — $58,710 1,430
Massachusetts $47,790 $39,250 $39,250 — $58,090 7,430
Hawaii $47,770 $38,250 $38,250 — $65,020 1,570
California $46,390 $37,570 $37,570 — $59,630 31,660
Connecticut $46,120 $38,380 $38,380 — $56,570 4,500
New York $45,880 $36,280 $36,280 — $59,620 17,670
District of Columbia $45,450 $38,740 $38,740 — $55,680 1,500
New Hampshire $45,370 $35,790 $35,790 — $56,470 1,720
New Jersey $44,520 $35,500 $35,500 — $53,060 7,490
Oregon $44,520 $36,690 $36,690 — $57,790 7,150
Delaware $44,080 $35,870 $35,870 — $47,560 2,680
Maine $43,490 $36,060 $36,060 — $50,700 1,790
Minnesota $43,460 $35,520 $35,520 — $52,140 7,890
Colorado $42,500 $36,290 $36,290 — $50,990 9,440
Maryland $41,380 $35,520 $35,520 — $49,750 3,370
Arizona $39,660 $34,490 $34,490 — $48,370 7,170
North Dakota $39,490 $31,300 $31,300 — $48,670 1,820
Nevada $39,430 $32,020 $32,020 — $53,520 1,650
Wisconsin $38,650 $32,110 $32,110 — $47,380 9,890
Utah $38,200 $28,870 $28,870 — $48,600 5,610
Virginia $37,890 $30,000 $30,000 — $47,940 11,170
Illinois $37,440 $31,200 $31,200 — $48,130 22,840
Montana $37,150 $30,500 $30,500 — $50,600 2,290
Wyoming $36,940 $29,130 $29,130 — $47,830 1,570
Michigan $36,870 $29,800 $29,800 — $45,540 13,500
South Dakota $36,730 $30,140 $30,140 — $45,650 2,120
Ohio $36,720 $29,530 $29,530 — $46,010 23,440
Pennsylvania $36,540 $28,390 $28,390 — $46,380 24,490
New Mexico $36,470 $28,920 $28,920 — $45,330 3,160
Nebraska $36,390 $29,890 $29,890 — $45,380 4,410
Florida $36,250 $31,650 $31,650 — $46,520 25,100
North Carolina $36,140 $28,050 $28,050 — $45,130 11,170
Indiana $35,980 $29,280 $29,280 — $44,760 11,130
Iowa $35,810 $28,030 $28,030 — $44,150 8,860
Idaho $35,600 $28,330 $28,330 — $45,550 3,650
Tennessee $35,570 $27,830 $27,830 — $45,430 10,680
Texas $35,360 $24,770 $24,770 — $44,840 24,740
Georgia $35,090 $28,220 $28,220 — $44,540 8,220
South Carolina $34,960 $21,890 $21,890 — $42,680 7,850
Missouri $34,900 $28,600 $28,600 — $43,700 13,130
Kansas $31,950 $25,440 $25,440 — $42,000 7,570
Kentucky $31,550 $25,580 $25,580 — $45,720 11,540
Arkansas $30,240 $25,810 $25,810 — $39,720 6,530
West Virginia $29,740 $23,820 $23,820 — $38,470 4,420
Oklahoma $29,270 $21,620 $21,620 — $38,670 10,790
Mississippi $27,390 $20,760 $20,760 — $36,620 6,420
Alabama $27,120 $20,040 $20,040 — $37,960 8,780
Louisiana $25,490 $19,250 $19,250 — $36,200 5,740

Questions people ask most

What is an institution and cafeteria cook’s yearly income?

An institution and cafeteria cook makes a median of $37,450 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $32,440 and $44,800.

What is an institution and cafeteria cook’s hourly pay rate?

The median pay rate is $18.01 an hour; the average is $38,810 a year.

What is the starting pay for an institution and cafeteria cook?

Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $32,440 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $28,480.

Which state pays cooks, institution and cafeteria the most?

Washington, with a median of $49,670 a year.

How many people work as cooks, institution and cafeteria?

About 441,050 in the United States — number 731 of 788 occupations by median pay.

Jobs that pay about the same

Median pay within $120 of what cooks, institution and cafeteria earn — $37,450 a year — but not always the same spread.

See all 788 occupations