Chefs and Head Cooks salary in Salinas, CA
SOC 35-1011 · BLS OEWS May 2025
How local pay compares
State-level comparison: California ($64,500). Metro estimates cover the whole labor market, including portions that cross state lines.
After local prices: the $72,440 median has purchasing power comparable to about $66,433 nationally. Salinas, CA's BEA regional price parity is 109.0 (2024).
What the local range looks like
The wash spans the 10th to 90th percentile, the darker section is the middle half, and the tick is the median for Salinas, CA.
Getting in
- Typical education to enter
- High school diploma or equivalent
- Related work experience
- 5 years or more
- On-the-job training
- None
Compare other metro areas
Every linked area below has a published estimate for chefs and head cooks. Missing areas were withheld by BLS rather than measured at zero.
The median wage as published, before local prices are taken into account.
| # | Metro area | Median | Cost of living | Employed | Concentrationvs. national |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | $79,020 | 110.4 | 1,280 | 0.87× |
| 2 | Napa, CA | $78,960 | 112.6 | 300 | 3.01× |
| 3 | Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA | $73,570 | 107.8 | 460 | 1.76× |
| 4 | Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | $69,990 | 113.6 | 11,430 | 1.42× |
| 5 | San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | $68,970 | 115.6 | 5,340 | 1.75× |
| 6 | Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA | $65,060 | 108.8 | 520 | 2.00× |
| 7 | Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA | $64,480 | 106.4 | 2,770 | 1.25× |
| 8 | Vallejo, CA | $63,230 | 108.5 | 170 | 0.94× |
| 9 | Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA | $62,620 | 110.5 | 480 | 1.16× |
| 10 | Fresno, CA | $61,870 | 102.2 | 490 | 0.80× |
| 11 | Modesto, CA | $61,330 | 104.1 | 170 | 0.68× |
| 12 | San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA | $60,600 | 111.9 | 3,890 | 1.97× |
Cost of living is the BEA regional price parity for all items, where 100 is the national average. Concentration is the BLS location quotient: how much more of the local workforce does this job than the national average, so 2.00× means twice the national share. It is often the reason wages differ — a place that concentrates an occupation has the employers and the competition for it. Metro areas where chefs and head cooks wages are suppressed by BLS for confidentiality are omitted.
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