How Much Do Chefs Actually Earn in NZ?

 

Every few months someone messages me the same question. Usually it's a young cook, sometimes it's a parent worried about their kid's career choice. "How much do chefs actually make?"

Google will give you a number. It's not wrong, exactly. It's just not the whole story.

The numbers you'll find

Search it yourself and you'll land somewhere around these figures:

Commis chef / entry level: close to minimum wage ($23.95 an hour as it stands), maybe a dollar or two above it

Chef de partie: roughly $25–$29 an hour on average, based on current job listings and payroll data

Sous chef: roughly $29–$34 an hour on average

Head chef: roughly $35 up to $49+ an hour, depending on the venue and city — a head chef salary of $85,000–$100,000 a year works out to around $42–$48 an hour on a standard 40-hour week

Average chef salary nationally: sits somewhere in the mid-$70,000s to low $80,000s a year

Those numbers are real. They come from job listings and payroll surveys. But if you've never worked a kitchen, they can be misleading — not because the figures are fake, but because of what they don't show you.

What the number doesn't tell you

The hours behind it. A head chef "salary" often gets calculated against a 40-hour week. Ask any head chef how many hours they actually worked last week. It's rarely 40. Once you divide an annual salary by real hours worked, the hourly rate quietly drops.

The unpaid extras. Ordering, rostering, prepping menus, answering messages from home at 11pm because a supplier cancelled — none of that shows up as a line item, but it's part of the job.

The gap between titles. The jump from chef de partie to sous chef looks small on paper. The jump in responsibility is not small at all. You're now accountable for other people's sections, not just your own.

Location and venue type matter more than people expect. A head chef role in a high-volume city restaurant and a head chef role in a quiet regional cafe can carry the same title and a very different pay packet.

So is it worth it?

I'm not going to tell you not to become a chef. I did it, and I'd probably do it again. But I'd rather you go in with real numbers than the shiny version.

If you're chasing this job for the money, there are easier ways to earn $75,000 a year with fewer burns on your forearms. If you're chasing it because you can't picture doing anything else — that's a different conversation, and it's the one worth having with yourself before you commit.

The pay will come, eventually, if you're good and you stay in it. Just don't expect it to come fast, and don't let a salary chart do your thinking for you.

— The Chef