Cook-Line cook pay per hrs/salary

[CutFingers]

Salary is a scam. If the salary does in fact pay you more, think about the hours you work.

Making more money...can essentially be bad...more taxes, less free time.

Sell your labor short and the house will cheat you...it's their money...When you can be hourly and have a steady schedule you are lucky in this business.

Work more for more money...salary is a great way to take somebody with skill and have them average hourly for a song.

Don't be a stooge.

 

[CulinaryCellist]

In your experience, What do line/prep cooks typically start out at with little to no training in your regions?

Just want a comparison to what I make hourly

 

[Milkman420]

I make 17.50 hr plus tips which is an extra 100 minimum ot at 1.5, 60 hrs double time I only work 50-54 a week tho. I get medical n 1 week paid now but next month go to 2nweeks. I’m in Pittsburgh area

 

[CulinaryCellist]

I make 17.50 hr plus tips which is an extra 100 minimum ot at 1.5, 60 hrs double time I only work 50-54 a week tho. I get medical n 1 week paid now but next month go to 2nweeks. I’m in Pittsburgh area

How long have you been in the industry?

I'm only part time while I go to culinary school, I'm hitting around 36-40 hours per paycheck

 

[labor of love]

Salary is a scam. If the salary does in fact pay you more, think about the hours you work.

Making more money...can essentially be bad...more taxes, less free time.

Sell your labor short and the house will cheat you...it's their money...When you can be hourly and have a steady schedule you are lucky in this business.

Work more for more money...salary is a great way to take somebody with skill and have them average hourly for a song.

Don't be a stooge.

I started a new gig that’s salary. For the past 2 monthes I’ve been getting away with working just 45 hours or so per week. Just waiting on the other shoe to drop.

 

[Keith Sinclair]

@quantumcloud509 Had a similar situation happen to me. I was working for a small kitchen in Edinburgh as sous chef. Chef was out long-term with a lung problem and some staff thievery/drug abuse led to just me and one other guy working the kitchen. During August there's a big festival, the population of the city practically doubles, and bars and restaurants go into overdrive mode. Well, me and this other fellow worked double shifts, 7-days a week, for a month, although neither of us were getting compensated for it. At the end of the month, my boss, who I liked and was a good guy put into a bad situation, comes up to me and is like 'Man, I'm surprised you didn't quit. I'm giving you a raise.' Of course, I tell him I didn't quit because I would have screwed over everybody else in the joint, but that I sure as hell was quitting now. I convinced him to back-pay me and the other fellow our raises for the month we had just worked and then I went on my merry way. Last time in a professional kitchen for me, thanks very much!

Know that feeling hang on because you don't want to screw up everybody else. At least you hung in there when it counted.
Unlike other hotels I worked at Kahala was like family you get in the weeds say the word & you get help.

We just had a Kahala Hilton reunion party. Some of those people had not seen in years. Danny Kaleikini sang the national anthem. There were people who had started at the Hotel when it opened in 1963. The oldest guy there was 94. Chef Martin Weiss hired me because they needed a Ice carver at the hotel, I retired from Kahala after more than 25 years the longest by far at one job.

They are talking about raising the min. wage to 15.00 in Hawaii. Many people here work two jobs it is almost the norm. Then you have the homeless many who don't work at all. Some are mentally ill, but others are just meth addicts and alcoholics. Hawaii is a pretty liberal & do not seem to have the political will to address the homeless situation that is worse per capa in the nation.

 

[Tim Rowland]

Salary is a scam. If the salary does in fact pay you more, think about the hours you work.
Making more money...can essentially be bad...more taxes, less free time.
Sell your labor short and the house will cheat you...it's their money...When you can be hourly and have a steady schedule you are lucky in this business.
Work more for more money...salary is a great way to take somebody with skill and have them average hourly for a song.
Don't be a stooge.

Sorry to say but you may be trying to work in the wrong kitchens. Have you thought about high end hotels or resorts?
I avg. 50 to 55 hours a week and make a very comfortable living. Salary in the right setting can be great but remember it's up to the chef to hire/train/lead a great team to where they don't have to work 14 hours a day.

 

[WildBoar]

They are talking about raising the min. wage to 15.00 in Hawaii. Many people here work two jobs it is almost the norm. Then you have the homeless many who don't work at all. Some are mentally ill, but others are just meth addicts and alcoholics. Hawaii is a pretty liberal & do not seem to have the political will to address the homeless situation that is worse per capa in the nation.

Hey now, it's hard to feel bad for someone who gets to live in Hawaii, even if they are homeless

 

[podzap]

I don't know how you guys do it. I used to live in the USA in the midwest. I had a job doing catering and got paid 12 dollars an hour. I thought that was ****** pay, so I switched to painting steel at oil refineries and that was 20 an hour plus time and a half working 14-16 hour days (pulling in around 2000 bucks a week after taxes). That was in 1987.

 

[Chef Doom]

Those were different times. The age of union work and an anti-monopoly agenda has left politics. For a good portion of the 1900s America hated monopolies. 20% of the market share of any industry was asking to get broken up. Major companies were more invested in worker pay, compensation and training as a means of avoiding taxes.

 

[dwalker]

I'm in a great kitchen, I feel like I can learn a lot from my chef and he's mentioned training me for Bocuse D'or

If you are learning every day in your great kitchen, then think of it as being paid $9/hour to go to school that you would normally pay $$$ to be at. When you have experience and have nothing left to learn, flip that into something better, and so on and so forth. You are an apprentice. It used to be apprentices didn't get paid at all. You are getting an education. Make yourself so valuable that the owner / manager can't imagine working without you. Then roll that into more $$$ there or somewhere else that you are appreciated for what you bring to the environment. Just my .02 as a business owner.

 

[CulinaryCellist]

If you are learning every day in your great kitchen, then think of it as being paid $9/hour to go to school that you would normally pay $$$ to be at. When you have experience and have nothing left to learn, flip that into something better, and so on and so forth. You are an apprentice. It used to be apprentices didn't get paid at all. You are getting an education. Make yourself so valuable that the owner / manager can't imagine working without you. Then roll that into more $$$ there or somewhere else that you are appreciated for what you bring to the environment. Just my .02 as a business owner.

I understand that 100%, I feel I'm getting adequate pay for my experience and on the upside I recently got a raise

 

[dwalker]

Congratulations.

 

[SilverSwarfer]

Sorry to say but you may be trying to work in the wrong kitchens. Have you thought about high end hotels or resorts?
I avg. 50 to 55 hours a week and make a very comfortable living. Salary in the right setting can be great but remember it's up to the chef to hire/train/lead a great team to where they don't have to work 14 hours a day.

This.

Take control of your career and make good decisions. I spent many embittered years proving myself. But I learned so many valuable lessons; I now confidentially command my career. I still have a lot of stress and struggles- part of the job that’s much easier to abide when I’m not struggling with pecuniary wage woes.