# Salary for line Cook



## thvdxxo (Jan 5, 2022)

I love cooking and i want to start a career out of it but im concerned that that pay is too little for example as a line Cook, they earn about 25000 a year and While working all week i think but when i calculate it, it gives a more better pay and i am confused as to why google make the pay lower or maybe its not everyday cooks work!?
I have a second job to do on the side when not cooking but im just curious as to how much i could make working about 60-70 hours a week


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## kuan (Jun 11, 2001)

Depending on where you live, it can be $20/hr. In Anaheim, CA for example, it's $18/hr up to over $20/hr.


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## chefross (May 5, 2010)

thvdxxo said:


> I love cooking and i want to start a career out of it but im concerned that that pay is too little for example as a line Cook, they earn about 25000 a year and While working all week i think but when i calculate it, it gives a more better pay and i am confused as to why google make the pay lower or maybe its not everyday cooks work!?
> I have a second job to do on the side when not cooking but im just curious as to how much i could make working about 60-70 hours a week


Welcome to cheftalk and the real world my friend.


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## youngchefkarl (Dec 12, 2013)

thvdxxo said:


> I love cooking and i want to start a career out of it but im concerned that that pay is too little for example as a line Cook, they earn about 25000 a year and While working all week i think but when i calculate it, it gives a more better pay and i am confused as to why google make the pay lower or maybe its not everyday cooks work!?
> I have a second job to do on the side when not cooking but im just curious as to how much i could make working about 60-70 hours a week


You should be making 35k minimum as a line cook in 2022. Avoid places that don't pay properly.


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## Mischief (Dec 13, 2018)

Definitely depends on location. I pay my sous chefs $18/hr in Wyoming...which is what I paid my dishwashers in the Bay Area California.


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## mannlicher (Jan 8, 2006)

here in North Florida, we pay $18/hr, On top of that, the kitchen crew gets tip share of around $8/hr. Toss in some over time, and we have a prep cook/line cook that made over $60K last year.


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## mannlicher (Jan 8, 2006)

Tip share


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## mannlicher (Jan 8, 2006)

Ok


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## Mischief (Dec 13, 2018)

I've worked a couple places that tipped out the kitchen but only 2 where the kitchen was tipped well. One was a pizza joint where it was split equally per person/hr. The other was at a University bar where they essentially ran the bar and restaurant businesses separately, the kitchen had it's own window to order from..


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## L'uovo vulcanico (Nov 9, 2020)

Most everywhere I've worked they pay back of house a living wage dependent on position and experience and ability to perform, Front of house relied on their tips to make up for getting paid depressingly low wages... IIRC line was getting 1.5x what the dishwashers were getting as a base rate, but nowdays, all bets are apparently off... 

I looked at a local restaurant/deli to pick up some extra money, and their best offer was $4 BELOW "small staff" minimum (and saying they were exempt from ANY minimum wage because their business had less than 24 employees and required 54 hour weeks without OT... I kindly decided to neither waste their time nor mine when, discussing with the person running the place found out she was gettting $2 less than said minimum...


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## chefross (May 5, 2010)

As for tipping, the time will soon be here that places that pay their wait staff poorly will come to an end. Tipping will eventually come to mean the owner is too cheap to pay the staff a living wage. And with that your burger and fries will be over $20.00.


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## cheflayne (Aug 21, 2004)

FoodFighter said:


> it does ensure promptness.


This might sound snarky, but it is not meant to be. I am guessing you have never waited tables.

In my experience of working for tips and with tipped employees for a few decades now, there are two personality types of tipped employees.
1.) the ones that do their best irregardless of the tip.
2.)the ones that know irregardless of the service, they will still get a tip.


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## elisardopassenger (5 mo ago)

Well, it is much more important to do the work with pleasure. Yes, the salary at the beginning will be lower, but your experience will increase and so will the salary. You will have the chance to work in the most famous restaurants as a line cook, and your salary will be high. The important thing is to like what you do. I have been working as a truck driver for more than 10 years. I started working in a small company in my town with a very low salary. But now I start working as a truck driver at Walmart, and according to the information on https://www.truckdriverssalary.com/walmart-trucking-payscale/, I will have more than $100k per year. So everything is great now.


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