Salary Information for Individuals with a Culinary Arts Degree

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After a culinary program lasting two to four years, you are in a great position to apply for a better than average job in the culinary business. What is needed from a person so he or she begins on the right foot, and goes beyond the average kitchen assistant or kitchen cleaner, is either years of experience and recommendations or an educational culinary degree.

Both milestones can give you the chance to work as a chef of some sorts with a starting salary of about $35,000 dollars. This is the starting wage and from then on, you will have to develop your image and position in order to take your payment to much greater heights. A confirmation of the latest statistics regarding culinary degree salaries confirms that market and location, not to mention job position, means everything.

Culinary Career Salary

Another thing you can use to your advantage is to carefully choose your location and the type of restaurant or travel accommodation you work for. The general choice is usually a restaurant, but the truth is that chain restaurants offer the least well-paid salaries for culinary professions. Chefs of all kinds are better paid in hotels and resorts. While salaries at restaurants can reach as high as $50,000 dollars for sub-chefs and $85,000 dollars for executive ones, the culinary career salary at clubs and hotels can escalate beyond that. It is quite possible for you to excel and make better than average salary—all you need are a good work ethic in addition to smart decision-making.

The Jobs

Salaries from $20,000 to $25,000 dollars go to first timers who don’t have any sort of previous experience or education for that matter. Usually, this sort of job is given to students and people who are just trying to make a living by being a kitchen assistant and cleaning the kitchen. Those who are willing to rise through the ranks and continue working in a kitchen will eventually receive a raise in their culinary career salary and if their persistence remains, they might get a shot at becoming chefs. Chefs, whether they are sushi, sous or chef-de-cuisine or some other type, have a minimum salary of about $35,000 a year and through their career as a chef, they will raise it all the way to $50,000 dollars or more.

At some point, usually after a decade of practicing as a chef, they will become eligible in the eyes of employers to become executive chefs. Some chefs become executives after just a decade, others after two decades and some after three. Regardless of the chef’s actual skills, you can be sure that if he or she had practiced for just a decade, a chef with two decades on his or her resume will merit a much higher payment.

Why not start going back to school now, and finding entry-level jobs now, so that you will be ready to earn more upon graduation? You can contact the school of your choice and learn more about your options.