How Much to Pay a Sushi Chef in London (2026) and Who You Can Hire

Budget £17 to £19 an hour for a sushi chef in London, which is roughly £40,000 to £45,000 a year on a 45 hour week. That is the range London sushi restaurants were advertising in September 2026, well above the £12.71 legal minimum and the £14.80 London Living Wage. You cannot sponsor a new chef from Japan, so you are hiring people who already have the right to work in the UK, above all Youth Mobility Scheme holders.

1. What London pays a sushi chef

No official source publishes a London sushi chef salary. ONS counts all chefs together, from hospital kitchens to omakase counters. So the ladder below mixes two kinds of figure, and labels each one.

The job ad figures are a snapshot, not a survey. Most London sushi ads we checked did not state pay at all, which is itself useful: if you publish a number, you stand out.

Watch the hours. The ASHE median of £34,120 works out at £14.58 an hour on a 45 hour week, below the London Living Wage. A candidate will do that sum. At £17 an hour and 45 hours, the year is £39,780; at £19.21 it is £44,951.

How to set your number:

1. Start at £17 an hour for a chef who can break down fish and run a station alone.
2. Go toward £19 or above for someone who will serve at the counter, order fish and train juniors.
3. Say whether the rate includes tronc. Tips and service charge cannot be used to reach the legal minimum, and since 1 October 2024 all tips must go to workers under a statutory code. See service charge and tips rules.
4. Put the weekly hours and days off in the ad. A 45 hour week with two days off together is a different offer from 55 hours with split shifts.

2. Where London's candidates are

Japan's foreign ministry counted 30,515 Japanese nationals in Greater London on 1 October 2025, down 3.5% on the year. The UK total was 62,270, and 48% of them (29,955) were permanent residents. That settled half of the community can work for anyone, with no visa limit.

In practice your applicants come from four groups:

• Settled residents. Usually already employed. They move for a counter they can run, better hours or a clear path to head chef, not for 50p an hour.
• Youth Mobility Scheme holders. Japan has 6,000 places a year and no ballot. Many plan from Japan months ahead, so a Japanese language ad reaches them before they land.
• Chefs on transitional Skilled Worker permission who were first sponsored before 22 July 2025 and want to change employer.
• Partners and graduates whose own visa gives them work rights.

Your real competition is the other Japanese restaurants in London fishing in the same small pool. The ads we checked were from central London (SW1, W1, Canary Wharf) and outer London chain sites. For where Japanese cooks search, see where Japanese chefs look for jobs abroad.

3. Who you can legally hire, in short

Since 22 July 2025 chefs (SOC 5434) are a medium skilled occupation on neither shortage list, so you cannot sponsor a new chef from abroad. You can hire anyone who already holds the right to work, and you must check it before the first shift. Everything else, including what happens when a sponsored chef's visa comes up for renewal, is on the UK page. For the checks themselves, see right to work checks without sponsorship.

4. What one hire costs you

Two worked examples, using official figures as the salary so you can see the method. Employer National Insurance is 15% above £5,000 a year (2026/27). Minimum employer pension is 3% of earnings between £6,240 and £50,270.

Add your own figures for the ad, a paid trial shift, and any arrival help for a YMS hire (a first month's room or a deposit loan). Employment Allowance can cut your business's NI bill by up to £10,500 a year if you qualify, but it applies to the whole payroll, not one hire. The YMS candidate pays the £340 visa fee, the £776 a year health surcharge and must show £2,530 in savings.

5. Week by week to a 1 February 2027 start

This assumes a YMS candidate still in Japan. A candidate already in London cuts it to about six weeks plus their notice period.

6. Job ad to copy, in English and Japanese

For a full role description, see the sushi chef job description template.

7. What to do this week

• Pick an hourly rate of at least £17 and write it in the ad.
• Decide and write down how tronc is shared with the kitchen.
• Post the ad in Japanese as well as English.
• If you employ a chef on transitional Skilled Worker permission, diarise their visa expiry and keep their permission continuous.

General information checked against official sources on 27 September 2026, not legal, tax or immigration advice. Job ad figures are observed postings, not official statistics. Check the linked pages before making an offer.