Sushi Chef Salary in Hawaii: Pay by Island and PHCA Cost

Hawaii pays chefs more than almost any US state: BLS puts the state median for chefs and head cooks at $77,360, and Maui's $84,990 median is higher than Seattle's or San Jose's. Honolulu sushi postings in September 2026 ran $16 to $30 an hour. The state minimum wage is $16.00, rising to $18.00 in 2028, and the Prepaid Health Care Act forces you to cover most of a full-time cook's health premium, typically $8,000 to $8,700 a year on a national average premium, from their fifth week of work.

1. Chef pay by island, and what Honolulu restaurants advertise

BLS wage data for May 2025 shows Hawaii's chef pay is high everywhere, and highest away from Honolulu:

Maui's $84,990 median is higher than the median in any large mainland metro we track, including Seattle ($80,330) and San Jose ($79,020). Honolulu, despite holding most of the state's restaurant jobs, pays the least of the four areas above. For restaurant cooks the state median is $45,420, against $37,390 nationally, and again Maui ($49,560) and Hawaii/Kauai ($47,060) sit above Urban Honolulu ($42,450).

We read sushi and izakaya postings on Hawaii's Japanese-language job board on 27 September 2026 (a sample, not a survey):

How to set your number:

• Sushi cook, Honolulu: $18 to $25 an hour, matching the observed Ala Moana range.
• Sushi cook, Maui, Kauai or the Big Island: price above the Honolulu range; the BLS cook medians there run 11 to 17% higher, and the local pool is smaller.
• Head chef anywhere in the state: the island median to 90th percentile in the table above; never the Honolulu figure for a Maui or Kauai role.
• Relocation: a one-off, not part of the wage. See relocation packages for chefs.

One easily missed point: the BLS figures above date from May 2025, when the state minimum wage was lower than it is now. At the current $16.00 floor, a full-time year (2,080 hours) is $33,280, already above the Urban Honolulu cook 10th percentile of $30,270 recorded in that survey. At $18.00 from 2028 it will be $37,440. If your cook pay was set against older market data, check it against the new floor before recruiting.

2. The wage floor: $16.00 now, $18.00 from 2028

Hawaii's minimum wage is $16.00 an hour from 1 January 2026, rising to $18.00 on 1 January 2028. Build the 2028 step into any multi-year plan, especially for a sponsored chef on a long contract. Hawaii's unemployment rate ran at 2.7% in July 2026 (BLS, preliminary), and leisure and hospitality employed 122,400 people statewide, almost one job in five, so local candidates are choosing between you and every hotel, resort and restaurant on the island.

3. The Prepaid Health Care Act, in dollars

This is the Hawaii rule with the biggest cost impact for a restaurant, and the one most often budgeted with no number attached. The requirements:

• Cover any employee who works 20 hours a week or more and earns at least 86.67 times the state minimum wage a month (about $1,387 a month at $16.00).
• Coverage starts after four consecutive weeks of employment, or the earliest date after that the plan allows.
• The employee's share of the premium cannot exceed the lesser of 50% of the premium or 1.5% of their monthly gross wages. The employer pays the rest.

Here is what that means in dollars. KFF's 2025 national employer health benefits survey puts the average annual premium for single coverage at $9,325 (we could not confirm a Hawaii-specific average premium; use this as a planning figure and get quotes from a Hawaii carrier such as HMSA before budgeting). The 1.5%-of-wages cap almost always binds before the 50% cap does, because 1.5% of even a good chef's salary is far below half the premium:

For a full-time cook or chef, plan on the employer carrying roughly $8,000 to $8,700 a year of the premium, not "half, and often more" as a vague line. Put it in the cost model from the start (section 7).

4. Pay transparency at 50 or more employees

Since 1 January 2024, Hawaii employers with 50 or more employees must include in job listings the hourly rate or salary range that reasonably reflects the actual expected compensation for the position. Internal transfers and promotions are excluded. Smaller restaurants are not required to, but a posted range helps in a market where, as section 1 shows, candidates already have several islands' worth of options.

5. The Honolulu Japanese community, and the recruiting pitch

MOFA counted 23,254 Japanese nationals in Honolulu as of 1 October 2025, ninth among cities worldwide and ahead of San Francisco (20,621), up 0.2% on the year. That figure counts Japanese nationals only; Hawaii's long history of Japanese immigration means many residents of Japanese descent are US citizens and do not appear in it at all, so the real pool of Japanese speakers and Japanese-trained cooks with the right to work is larger than the MOFA number alone suggests.

This is also your strongest recruiting argument, and it belongs in the job ad itself, not just in this guide. A chef moving from Japan to Hawaii finds Japanese ingredients, grocery stores, community organisations and a Japanese-speaking congregation close at hand in a way no mainland city can match; Honolulu's cost of living and pay, discussed below, are the trade-off to be upfront about. Channels that reach this pool:

• Post in Japanese as well as English, including on Hawaii's Japanese-language job boards.
• Name the Japanese cultural and community organisations, language schools and grocery stores near your restaurant in the ad; a candidate weighing Hawaii against a mainland offer is asking exactly this question.
• Guests include Japanese visitors and residents who know the cuisine well, which is a selling point to an ambitious chef, not just a higher bar for the kitchen.

6. Housing: the real counterweight to high pay

High wages do not mean cheap living. Average one-bedroom rent was $2,403 a month in Honolulu (RentCafe, 31 August 2026) and $2,000 a month in Kahului, Maui (Zumper, 29 August 2026). Against the Honolulu cook median of $42,450 a year ($3,538 a month before tax), a $2,403 rent alone takes close to 70% of gross pay; a chef weighing Hawaii against a mainland city is doing this arithmetic even if they never say so.

A workable relocation package for an out-of-state or Japan-based hire should therefore treat housing as a named line, not an afterthought: a signing contribution toward a deposit, a fixed monthly housing stipend for a set period, or help finding a shared unit near the restaurant. See relocation packages for chefs for what the law requires versus what is your choice to offer.

7. What one hire costs in the first year

The PHCA line assumes the KFF national average premium; a Hawaii carrier quote will move it up or down. Not included: overtime, paid leave beyond what the law requires, and advertising.

8. Week by week, from ad to first shift

This week: get a real HMSA or Hawaii carrier quote for a single-coverage plan, run it through the 1.5%-of-wages cap in section 3, and use that number rather than the KFF planning figure once you have it.

9. Bringing a chef from Japan

Federal immigration rules are the same in Hawaii as on the mainland. For which US visa fits a chef from Japan, see US visa options for restaurants; for the ownership and essential-skills test behind an E-2, see the E-2 essential employee test. A resort with a genuinely seasonal peak it can document may also have an H-2B option; a restaurant busy all year does not. Hawaii's wage floor, PHCA duty and pay transparency rule all apply the same way to a sponsored hire as to a local one.

General information gathered from official sources in September 2026, not legal, tax or immigration advice. The Prepaid Health Care Act cost estimate uses a national average premium, not a Hawaii-specific figure; get a quote from a Hawaii carrier before budgeting. Confirm current requirements with the Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations before acting.