Chef Salary in North East
Official ONS earnings for North East.
Median salary — North East
£27,236
gross, per year, all employees
Mean
£25,614
What a typical chef takes home
On the median of £27,236, 2026/27 tax year, England, Wales and Northern Ireland rates, no pension or student loan.
Take-home a month
£1,927
Take-home a year
£23,130
Income Tax
£2,933
National Insurance
£1,173
What most chefs actually earn
Half of chefs across the UK earn between £17,587 and £33,245. Earning above £33,245 puts you in the top quarter of the profession.
This range is UK-wide — ONS publishes no regional breakdown of the spread for this occupation.
The full pay range
Each bar is the salary at that percentile — the 25th means a quarter of chefs earn less than this.
Where this figure comes from
- ONS occupation group
- Chefs
- SOC 2020 code
- 5434
- Measure
- Gross annual pay, all employees
- Edition
- ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 2025 provisional
ONS publishes a sampling error of 17.4% for this figure and asks that anything above 10% is treated as imprecise — too few people in this region answered the survey for this occupation. The figure is shown because it is the one ONS published, but it is not firm enough to rank North East against anywhere else, so this page doesn't.
Source: Office for National Statistics, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Figures are estimates from a survey of PAYE jobs and are not financial advice.
Chef salary FAQs
What is the average Chef salary in North East?
The median is £27,236 a year and the mean is £25,614, according to the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. Those cover all employees; ASHE publishes no full-time split at regional level.
How much does a chef earn per hour?
Across the UK the median hourly rate is £14.00 excluding overtime, or £14.67 for full-time employees. ASHE publishes hourly pay by occupation nationally only, so there is no separate rate for North East.
What is a good Chef salary?
Half of chefs earn between £17,587 and £33,245. Anything above £33,245 is in the top quarter for the role.
What is the starting salary for a chef?
ASHE does not record experience, so there is no official starting salary. What it does show is that the lowest-paid 10% of chefs earn under £11,698 and the lowest quarter under £17,587 — the range a new entrant is most likely to be offered.
How much do the highest-paid chefs earn?
The top 10% of chefs earn more than £40,597 a year, and the top quarter more than £33,245. ASHE does not publish figures above the 90th percentile.
Do chefs in North East earn more than the UK average?
The median in North East is £27,236 against £26,531 across the UK, 2.7% higher. ONS marks the North East figure as imprecise, so treat the gap as indicative.
Is this figure official?
Yes. It comes from the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, an accredited official statistic based on employer PAYE records.
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