Cooks, Private Household
Cooks, Private Household (SOC 35-2013) earn a median $47,940 a year ($23.05 an hour) in the United States, with 1,100 employed as of May 2025; the highest-paying state is New York.
What cooks, private household do
Private household cooks, including personal chefs, prepare meals inside a client's home rather than a commercial kitchen. A cook may handle all meals for one family and possibly for other household staff, or may prepare food that is cooled, packaged, labeled, and frozen with reheating instructions for later meals. Planning is a big part of the job: the cook learns each household's tastes and any diet restrictions, writes menus, shops for groceries, and keeps the pantry stocked. The cook peels, trims, and cooks vegetables and meats, bakes breads and pastries, keeps records of menus and finances, and cleans and stocks the kitchen. In some households the cook directs the whole kitchen, including presentation and serving. The work follows the employer's own recipes and tastes, and the kitchen is a household rather than a commercial one.
Typical entry: O*NET respondents most often report a post-secondary certificate as the usual education level (about 38 percent).
Also called: Certified Personal Chef (CPC), Cook, Cooking Chef, Culinary Artist, Culinary Chef.
National wage percentiles, May 2025
| Area | Basis | Percentile wage | Mean | Employment | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th | ||||
| United States | Hourly | $17.35 | $19.54 | $23.05 | $26.66 | $43.81 | $25.81 | 1,100 |
| Annual | $36,090 | $40,630 | $47,940 | $55,450 | $91,130 | $53,680 | ||
Employment per 1,000 jobs and the location quotient are area measures; they appear in the state and metro tables below. To see what a wage in this range leaves after tax, use FastCalc's take-home pay calculator.
Where cooks, private household earn and work most
Five highest-paying states
| Area | Basis | Percentile wage | Mean | Employment | Jobs per 1,000 | Location quotient | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th | ||||||
| New York | Hourly | $17.46 | $17.85 | $18.00 | $20.12 | $20.61 | $20.53 | 140 | 0.02 | 2.12 |
| Annual | $36,310 | $37,120 | $37,440 | $41,860 | $42,860 | $42,690 | ||||
Five states with the most jobs
| Area | Basis | Percentile wage | Mean | Employment | Jobs per 1,000 | Location quotient | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th | ||||||
| New York | Hourly | $17.46 | $17.85 | $18.00 | $20.12 | $20.61 | $20.53 | 140 | 0.02 | 2.12 |
| Annual | $36,310 | $37,120 | $37,440 | $41,860 | $42,860 | $42,690 | ||||
| California | Hourly | * | * | * | * | * | * | 110 | 0.01 | 0.83 |
| Annual | * | * | * | * | * | * | ||||
Five highest-paying metropolitan areas
| Area | Basis | Percentile wage | Mean | Employment | Jobs per 1,000 | Location quotient | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th | ||||||
Five metropolitan areas with the most jobs
| Area | Basis | Percentile wage | Mean | Employment | Jobs per 1,000 | Location quotient | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th | ||||||
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | Hourly | * | * | * | * | * | * | 150 | 0.02 | 2.27 |
| Annual | * | * | * | * | * | * | ||||
Published medians, May 2021 to May 2025
BLS published a median annual wage of $42,920 for cooks, private household in May 2021 and $47,940 in May 2025, with employment of 440 and 1,100.
| Release | Median annual | Median hourly | Employment |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 2021 | $42,920 | $20.63 | 440 |
| May 2022 | $38,570 | $18.54 | 610 |
| May 2023 | $42,590 | $20.48 | 740 |
| May 2024 | $44,530 | $21.41 | 900 |
| May 2025 | $47,940 | $23.05 | 1,100 |
BLS does not design OEWS as a time series: each release pools three years of samples, and occupational classifications, area definitions and estimation methods change between releases, so a difference between two releases is not a measure of change over time. The figures are shown as published, side by side, and nothing is computed from them. See how often OEWS is updated.
Every state, by median wage
2 states and DC publish a row for this occupation. A linked state has its own page with the within-state metro table and comparison; the others appear here only.
Related occupations
Occupations in the same SOC broad group (35-2010), with their national median annual wage.
Part of Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations. Compare any area in the wage explorer.
Source and notes
Data: BLS OEWS May 2025, released 2026-05-15. Cross-industry estimates, all ownerships. BLS page: OEWS 35-2013 Cooks, Private Household.
*- Wage estimate not available.
- Annual wages assume 2,080 hours a year at the hourly rate; occupations BLS publishes on one basis only show an en dash (–) on the other.
- Employment is rounded to the nearest 10 by BLS. Where BLS withholds a cell, nothing is estimated in its place.
- Published medians: national_M2021_dl.xlsx to national_M2024_dl.xlsx in oesm21nat.zip to oesm24nat.zip (BLS OEWS May 2021 to May 2024, national, cross-industry, all ownerships) and the May 2025 spine. Each release is shown as published; nothing is computed between them.
Sources
- BLS Standard Occupational Classification 2018, definition of 35-2013, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (public domain).
- O*NET 30.1 Database, 35-2013.00, National Center for O*NET Development, USDOL/ETA (CC BY 4.0).
- OEWS May 2021 national estimates (oesm21nat.zip), US Bureau of Labor Statistics (public domain).
- OEWS May 2022 national estimates (oesm22nat.zip), US Bureau of Labor Statistics (public domain).
- OEWS May 2023 national estimates (oesm23nat.zip), US Bureau of Labor Statistics (public domain).
- OEWS May 2024 national estimates (oesm24nat.zip), US Bureau of Labor Statistics (public domain).
- OEWS May 2025 national estimates (oesm25nat.zip), the site's data spine, US Bureau of Labor Statistics (public domain).
Includes information from O*NET 30.1 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, used under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Description written 2026-10-17 in our own words from the sources above.