Cook Salary in Wales
Official ONS earnings for Wales.
Median salary — Wales
£17,717
gross, per year, all employees
Mean
£18,343
What most cooks actually earn
Half of cooks in Wales earn between £16,279 and £30,042. Earning above £30,042 puts you in the top quarter of the profession.
ONS suppresses the detailed spread for this occupation at regional level, so this range describes the wider “Food Preparation and Hospitality Trades” group in Wales.
The full pay range
Each bar is the salary at that percentile — the 25th means a quarter of cooks earn less than this.
Where this figure comes from
- ONS occupation group
- Cooks
- SOC 2020 code
- 5435
- Measure
- Gross annual pay, all employees
- Edition
- ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 2025 provisional
ONS publishes a sampling error of 15.3% 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 Wales 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.
Cook salary FAQs
What is the average Cook salary in Wales?
The median is £17,717 a year and the mean is £18,343, according to the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. Those cover all employees; ASHE publishes no full-time split at regional level.
What is a good Cook salary?
Half of cooks earn between £16,279 and £30,042. Anything above £30,042 is in the top quarter for the role.
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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