Hiring a Japanese Chef in New Jersey: Wages and Pay Transparency

New Jersey is one of the most expensive states in the country to employ a chef, and since June 2025 it is one of the states where a job ad must say what the job pays. For a Japanese restaurant in Bergen County or anywhere else in the state, the two facts go together: you have to publish a number, and the number has to be competitive with New York across the river. This guide covers the rules and the pay data as of September 2026.

1. New Jersey's minimum wage in 2026

The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development set these rates from 1 January 2026:

The lower rate for seasonal and small employers is temporary. The department says it will rise gradually until 2028, after which those employers move to the standard rate and all rates adjust each year with the consumer price index. A five-person sushi bar should budget on reaching the full rate within two years.

If you use the tip credit for servers, the employer carries the risk: tips must bring each tipped worker up to the full minimum. Sushi chefs behind the counter are usually paid as kitchen staff; if you share tips with them, get advice on how federal and state tip rules treat it.

2. Pay transparency: what goes in the ad

New Jersey's pay transparency law (P.L. 2024, c.91, codified at N.J.S.A. 34:6B-23) took effect on 1 June 2025. It covers employers with 10 or more employees over any 20 calendar weeks that do business, hire or take job applications in New Jersey.

Every posting for a new job or transfer must include:

• the hourly wage or salary, or a range, and
• a general description of benefits and other compensation programs.

The department says this applies to postings in any format, including websites, print ads, email and social media. Employers must also make reasonable efforts to tell current employees in the affected department about promotion opportunities.

For wording, see our sushi chef job description template.

3. What chefs and cooks earn, north and south

New Jersey does not sit in one labor market. North Jersey counties such as Bergen, Hudson and Essex belong to the New York metro; Camden, Burlington and Gloucester counties belong to the Philadelphia metro. BLS wage data for May 2025, via O*NET:

New Jersey's statewide chef median of $74,280 is among the highest of any state, and its 10th percentile ($49,200) is well above the national one. Two readings for a Japanese restaurant:

• In Bergen or Hudson County, you are hiring in the New York market. The metro cook median is $21.03 an hour, and the 90th percentile chef earns $120,370. A Fort Lee or Edgewater restaurant competes for the same people as Manhattan. Our New York sushi chef guide covers that market in detail.
• In South Jersey, the Philadelphia numbers apply. Cook pay is lower, around $18.40 at the median, but chef pay is still above the national median.

4. Prevailing wages by area

For PERM (the green card route) and H-2B, the Department of Labor sets a prevailing wage by area. OFLC data for July 2026 to June 2027, hourly, for chefs and head cooks:

For restaurant cooks, the H-2B mean is $20.77 in the New York-Newark-Jersey City area and $20.53 in Atlantic City. See US prevailing wage for chefs for how levels are assigned.

5. Fort Lee, Edgewater and the Japanese community

Fort Lee and Edgewater, on the Hudson opposite Manhattan, have a reputation as a base for Japanese families and businesses. We tried to confirm that with official data and could not find a published count of Japanese residents for either town.

Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs counts Japanese nationals by city, but it reports the New York area as one metro: 38,251 Japanese nationals as of 1 October 2025, up 2.4%, the third largest city figure in its worldwide ranking. The ministry does not break that figure down by New Jersey town in its published ranking.

What you can take from this is practical rather than statistical: a North Jersey restaurant draws on the same Japanese-speaking talent as New York, and should advertise across the whole metro, in English and Japanese. See where Japanese chefs look for jobs abroad for channels.

6. If you need to sponsor

There is no chef-specific US visa. The main routes are E-2 (restaurants at least 50% owned by Japanese nationals, for Japanese staff in supervisory or specialized roles; see E-2 visas for Japanese restaurant staff), O-1B for distinguished chefs, and EB-3 through PERM at the prevailing wages above. H-2B fits only seasonal or other temporary need, such as a Shore restaurant that opens for the summer.

7. A hiring checklist for New Jersey

1. Check which rate applies: $15.92, or $15.23 if you are seasonal or have fewer than six employees.
2. If you have 10 or more employees, put a pay range and a benefits description in every ad, in every language.
3. Work out which metro your site is in, and set pay against that metro's data, not the state average.
4. In North Jersey, benchmark against New York offers.
5. Tell current staff about promotion opportunities before you fill them.
6. If sponsoring, get the prevailing wage for your county's area first.

General information gathered from official sources in September 2026, not legal or immigration advice. New Jersey rates change every 1 January. Check the linked pages before acting.